A central element of the TikTok narrative over the past several years has been the app’s SMB empowerment. As a discovery engine that lets creators get found based on their content alone – not weighted by follower counts or celebrity status – an SMB democratization play is inherent.
TikTok has leaned into this opportunity in public-facing ways. Among other things, the SMB democratization angle underpinned its PR campaign when facing a potential U.S. ban. Beyond that, we’ve tracked SMB marketing on TikTok in our TikTok Showdown series. The traction is real.
However, that traction is greater anecdotally than it is statistically. In other words, after all the talk of SMB marketing on TikTok, the actual adoption within the expansive SMB universe is <5 percent, according to Localogy estimates. The good news for TikTok is that this offers a massive amount of headroom.
So if we combine the untapped addressable market with the SMB product-market fit – for all the above reasons – TikTok faces a massive opportunity. And it’s increasingly evident that it knows this. TikTok’s collaborations and channel partnerships with companies throughout the localogyverse is accelerating.
Tiger Pistol Folds TikTok into its Creative Automation Studio
Examining the Evidence
How do we know this? Because we’ve been tracking such deals for a while and have observed a recent uptick. For example, Leadzai told us that it has added TikTok to its SMB marketing dashboard, including generative AI tools to ease the production process for time-starved and tech-challenged SMBs.
We also recently saw Vendasta do something similar. It earned a Marketing Technology badge in TikTok’s Channel Sales Partner Program. This brings the ability to launch, create and manage TikTok native campaigns within Vendasta’s platform. Among other things, this brings a one-stop-shop advantages.
And prior to that, Scorpion likewise achieved official and badged TikTok Marketing Technology Partner status. This expands Scorpion’s already robust capabilities in SMB video marketing. And like the above players, the official badge unlocks deeper capabilities and analytics than simply applying TikTok’s API.
More recently, Tiger Pistol added TikTok to its Creative Automation Studio. Like Leadzai’s integration, this lowers barriers for TikTok campaign creation and distribution. It also extends the opportunity from SMBs to Tiger Pistol’s bread & butter: multi-location brands and franchises that compete in local markets.
“TikTok’s interest in local marketing isn’t new. It’s just becoming more visible,” Tiger Pistol CEO Paul Elliott told Localogy Insider. “What’s changed is TikTok actively investing in the partners who can bring that opportunity to scale for local and multi-location brands through the TikTok Channel Sales Partner Program. Being named a badged TikTok Channel Sales Partner is a meaningful recognition that this channel is a real priority.”
Tough Nut to Crack
Evidence of TikTok’s eagerness comes from not just all these channel deals and their accelerated rate, but its engagement. According to Leadzai CPTO Pedro Cerdeira, TikTok is more accessible and active in the partnership than any other platform that Leadzai works with, including Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
“The TikTok partnership offers more than just availability, which is hard to secure with other networks these days,” Cerdeira told us. “TikTok promotes meetings for product discussions with its internal teams worldwide to provide feedback and brainstorm possible solutions, such as Advertising, Billing and even Symphony—its creative studio.”
But stepping back, when we say channel deals, what are we talking about? As noted, this isn’t just ad managers and ad-tech dashboards that ingest TikTok’s API so they can offer TikTok ad campaigns. Rather, TikTok actively partners with these platforms and local agencies to gain deeper SMB channels.
To that end, TikTok recognizes the need for domain-competent partners. As those in the Localogyverse know, this market is a tough nut to crack, given its fragmentation, resource constraints, and ad-budget limitations. Going it alone is often futile, which drives TikTok into the arms of SMB SaaS players.
The examples above are just a few examples to triangulate a trend. Expect more to follow as TikTok exercises its realization of the SMB market opportunity – and the need to partner to reach it. That’s good news for SMB SaaS companies out there. If they haven’t already, TikTok may come knocking soon.
Header image credit: Rubaitul Azad on Unsplash
