What a US TikTok Ban Means for Marketers and Their Agencies

The TikTok ban passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Biden could lead to a major shake-up in the world of digital marketing. Kicking millions of viewers off of the short-form video service would mean brands would have to rethink how, or even if, they will continue to use the platform.

Bans are nothing new for the company. Currently, there is some form of ban on TikTok use for some segments of the population (often government employees and defense departments, but sometimes the entire general public) in the following countries:

• Afghanistan
• Australia
• Belgium
• Canada
• China (Yes, China, the home of ByteDance. Instead, ByteDance offers an alternative service for their home market that complies with Chinese censorship laws)
• Denmark
• The EU
• France
• India
• Indonesia
• Latvia
• Netherlands
• Nepal
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Pakistan
• Somalia
• Taiwan
• The UK

Of course, a sudden shutdown of the US market seems unlikely. For one, the US government has cleared a path for TikTok, as a platform, to continue business as usual. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, could simply sell the company. But for ByteDance, giving away all future earnings in exchange for a short-term payout may not be what they had in mind. They’ve already made clear what they have in mind: TikTok will fight the ban.

This fight will take time and give marketers and their agencies time to adjust their plans. But before we look at how things will change with a potential ban, it makes sense to take a look at how marketers and agencies use TikTok already.

Marketing with TikTok Today

Here are some examples of TikTok projects that agencies might undertake for their clients:

1. Content Strategy and Creation: Agencies develop comprehensive content strategies tailored to clients’ goals and target audiences. They create engaging TikTok content, including videos, challenges, and trends, aligned with the brand’s identity. For example, an agency might create a series of how-to videos for a beauty brand, showcasing different makeup techniques using the client’s products.
2. Influencer Campaigns: Agencies identify and collaborate with TikTok influencers to promote their clients’ products or services. They negotiate partnerships, manage influencer relationships, and oversee content creation. For instance, an agency might partner with a food influencer to create recipe videos featuring a client’s ingredients.
3. Branded Hashtag Challenges: Agencies conceptualize and execute branded hashtag challenges to increase brand awareness and user engagement. They design creative challenges that encourage user participation and user-generated content. For example, an agency might create a dance challenge for a fashion brand, where users show off their favorite outfits to a specific song.
4. Advertising Campaigns: Agencies develop and execute TikTok advertising campaigns on behalf of their clients. They create targeted ads, such as in-feed ads or branded effects, and optimize them for maximum reach and engagement. For instance, an agency might create a series of short, catchy ads for a mobile game, targeting users interested in gaming.
5. Analytics and Reporting: Agencies track and analyze performance metrics to measure the success of TikTok campaigns. They provide clients with detailed reports and insights, highlighting key trends and opportunities for optimization. For instance, an agency might analyze engagement data to determine which types of content resonate most with the client’s target audience.
6. Event Promotion: Agencies use TikTok to promote clients’ events and activations, generating excitement and driving attendance. They create teaser videos, event highlights, and behind-the-scenes content to engage followers and attract new attendees. For example, an agency might create a series of countdown videos leading up to a product launch event for a tech company.
7. Brand Partnerships: Agencies facilitate partnerships between their clients and other TikTok creators or brands. They identify opportunities for collaboration and negotiate mutually beneficial partnerships. For example, an agency might broker a co-branded campaign between a beverage brand and a popular TikTok creator, where the creator features the brand’s product in their videos.

These examples illustrate the diverse range of TikTok projects that agencies undertake to help their clients succeed on the platform. Each project is tailored to the client’s specific goals, target audience, and brand identity.

Marketing After TikTok is Banned in the United States

There are some signs that TikTok may not have the vice grip we think it does on marketers. Even before the ban, surveys suggested that many marketers preferred Instagram as their platform for video-based user acquisition over TikTok. Perhaps that’s the biggest takeaway: being platform-agnostic may be the smartest bet.

Below is the same list of ways marketers use TikTok that we listed above, adjusted for how to achieve the same objectives without TikTok.

1. Content Strategy and Creation: The same principles of video content strategy and creation that brands use to reach target audiences on TikTok can be applied to making videos for YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, X, and a host of other platforms that include video. That said, TikTok users may not be watching the same content creators on other platforms. Good content is the key. Audiences will follow quality content from TikTok to other platforms, but a change in platform might also trigger some followers to “clean house” and stop following brands that they’re less interested in. When it comes to strategy and content creation, brands have to, in the words of Steve Martin, “be so good they can’t ignore you.”
2. Influencer Campaigns: A shakeup in TikTok could lead to big changes in the influencer world. This shakeup might actually help brands and agencies evaluate influencers. A TikTok ban might expose weaker influencers and help winners stand out. If an influencer measures their influence in TikTok followers, they might see a big dropoff, but a sign of true influence is someone who can get an audience to follow them from one platform to another. A consumer TikTok ban could put influencers to the test, challenging them to bring their audiences with them to a new platform. In that case, it will become easier than ever to see who’s got pull vs. who’s just got a big, padded number of followers.
3. Branded Hashtag Challenges: Hashtags are, by nature, platform agnostic. A TikTok ban would probably affect marketers using these challenges the least since they can execute these campaigns on other platforms relatively easily. That said, these campaigns might see fewer participants if TikTok users are taken out of the equation.
4. Advertising Campaigns: This one’s kind of a no-brainer. Much like pizza chains seem to never run out of places to put cheese (stuffed crust anyone?) marketers seem to never run out of places to put advertisements. TikTok being banned might remove one platform from the list of places to put advertisements geared towards American consumers, but that’s one thing there’s no shortage of.
5. Analytics and Reporting: Truly useful analysis requires data. A TikTok ban would mean brands and agencies would no longer be able to track and analyze metrics about the American market from the platform. All would not be lost, though. An agency might still analyze engagement data to determine which types of content resonate most with the client’s target audience outside of the United States.
6. Event Promotion: Of course, if TikTok is banned in America there are plenty of other places for marketers to promote events. Still, TikTok’s unique connection to music makes it a particularly valuable tool for promoting musical acts, venues, and shows. Time will tell where music fans will migrate, but smart marketers and creators in the music business have already begun to diversify the places where they engage audiences and should be able to weather any storm a TikTok ban may create.
7. Brand Partnerships: As with influencer marketing, a TikTok ban might separate the best from the rest when it comes to potential brand partners. Brands that have a core audience of true believers who are passionate about them will have no problem moving from one platform to another. Those are the ones to target when creating brand partnerships.

Social Seas and the TikTok Tide

Everyone who has worked with social media for any time knows that the social media landscape is like a sandy beach, things are always changing as the tides ebb and flow. A potential ban on consumers using TikTok in the United States will definitely mean change, but should not inspire panic.

Smart brands don’t build the foundation of their house in the sand. They don’t risk their entire marketing future by building on one social media platform that they can’t control. If you’ve built your entire marketing house in the sand that is TikTok, there’s still time to pick up and move to solid ground before a TikTok ban. Now is the time to start building your email list and incentivize your TikTok fans to sign up so that you can reach your audience/consumers regardless of what happens.

Agencies, in this analogy, are like boat captains, helping their clients navigate the seas of social media. Smart ones stay afloat by not just riding one wave, like TikTok, and then running aground if something like a TikTok ban comes up. Instead, they diversify their expertise and show that they can master the high seas of all social media and respond to sudden changes. If that’s the case for your agency, the potential TikTok ban might just be your opportunity to prove it.