How to Use TikTok for Business: Basic Steps for Beginners [2025]

Want to know how to use TikTok for business​ in 2025? This guide walks you through everything: why TikTok matters for brands, how to set up a Business Account, create engaging content, tap into trends, run ads, and turn views into real results. Perfect for beginners and growing brands!

Quick Summary: Key Tactics to Grow Your Business on TikTok

• Set up a Business Account to unlock analytics, contact tools, and ad features
• Optimize your profile with a clear bio, a clickable link, and pinned videos
• Post authentic, engaging content aligned with TikTok trends and user behavior
• Collaborate with creators via the TikTok Creator Marketplace to reach niche audiences
• Use TikTok Ads, including Spark Ads and Smart Performance Campaigns, for targeted growth
• Track performance with TikTok Analytics and adjust based on real-time insights

Why Should Your Business Use TikTok?

Some might argue that TikTok is primarily for teens posting dance videos, but businesses that dismiss the platform overlook a powerful marketing opportunity.

With 1.04 billion monthly active users worldwide, TikTok’s audience has expanded well beyond Gen Z, reaching diverse age groups and demographics.

Brands from retail to tech are leveraging its algorithm, which boosts visibility and viral potential for even small accounts. In fact, research shows that 67% of TikTok users say the platform inspired them to make a purchase after seeing a product, even when they weren’t looking to do so, demonstrating its significant influence on consumer behavior and business growth.

Here are some specific benefits of using TikTok for businesses:

• Increase brand awareness: TikTok’s algorithm is designed to amplify content, making it easier for brands to go viral, even without a large following. By joining trending challenges or creating engaging, authentic videos, businesses can gain exposure to millions of users in a short time.
• Promote products: TikTok allows businesses to showcase their products in creative ways that feel less like traditional advertising. From demonstrating how products work to featuring customer reviews, the platform helps brands humanize their offerings and build trust with potential customers.
• Direct Access to Younger Generations: TikTok is where Gen Z and younger millennials hang out. If they’re your target market, this is where you need to be. But even B2B brands are starting to see traction by using creative storytelling that resonates.
• High-Intent Search Advertising: TikTok now functions like a search engine: 57% of users search within 30 seconds of opening the app. With Search Ads Campaigns, brands can target keywords and reach users at purchase-ready moments, leading to a 20% boost in conversions when paired with In‑Feed ads

How to use TikTok for business​: A step-by-step guide

In this section, we’ll guide you through nine key steps to help your business thrive on TikTok. We’ll begin by covering the platform’s fundamentals, then show you how to elevate your efforts with a solid strategy, compelling content creation, and effective ad campaigns.

There are seven basic steps for beginners to use TikTok for Businesses, which are:

1. Set Up a TikTok Business Account
2. Optimize your profile on TikTok for Business
3. Plan a suitable strategy for your business on TikTok
4. Create content attracting the targeted audience
5. Engage your audience and grow your following
6. Collaborate with TikTok Creators
7. Look into analytics
8. Optimize advertising options on TikTok

#1 Set Up a TikTok Business Account

How to set up a TikTok Business account? Let’s dig into the details!

Step 1: Join TikTok now!

• Download the TikTok app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
• Tap to open the app.
• Tap Me in the bottom menu bar
• Click Sign Up to sign up with your phone number, email address, or registered social media account.

Step 2: Start creating a Free Business TikTok account

• In the app, click “…” at the top right of the Me page
• Click Manage Accounts and select Switch to Business accounts (or Pro account).
• Choose the category that best suits your business to get customized content, events, and solutions.

Step 3: Create and be present in public

It’s done! Now you know how to create a TikTok account for business. You can start posting content using TikTok’s creative toolset and share information about your products and services.

#2 Optimize your profile on TikTok for Business

Once you’ve switched to a Business Account, your next priority should be optimizing your TikTok profile because this is your digital storefront. It’s often the first place people go after watching one of your videos, and in just a few seconds, they’ll decide whether to follow you, explore more content, or move on. Let’s break it down step by step:

Use a Clear, On-Brand Profile Photo

To start, your profile picture should instantly reflect your business. If you’re a company, your logo is usually the best choice, just make sure it’s easy to recognize even at a small size. TikTok displays profile photos in a circle, so ensure your image is well-centered and has enough contrast to stand out.

For personal brands, a high-quality headshot or an image of you in action (e.g., a chef in the kitchen or a designer at work) can feel more authentic while still professional.

Consistency matters too. You should use the same profile picture across all platforms to build brand recognition and help people instantly identify your business.

Write a Bio That Tells People What You Do and Why They Should Care

Next, focus on your bio. TikTok gives you just 80 characters, so you need to be concise, clear, and compelling. Your goal is to communicate what your brand does and who it’s for, all while inviting users to take action.

Here’s how to make it count:

• Highlight your value proposition. What makes your product or service unique?
• Include a simple call to action (CTA) like “Shop now,” “Watch more,” or “DM us for collabs.”
• Use line breaks or vertical formatting to make the text more scannable.

Example bios:

• “Vegan candles, hand-poured in California Free U.S. shipping ↓”
• “Helping women grow online businesses | Join our free course”

Even if you’re a service provider or content creator, you can position your expertise quickly:

• “Branding tips for small businesses | New videos weekly”

Add a Website Link That Drives Traffic to a Strategic Page

TikTok lets Business Accounts add one clickable link in the bio. Instead of defaulting to your homepage, think strategically. Where do you want users to go? The options will include:

• A product landing page (especially one that matches your TikTok content)
• A WhatsApp or Messenger funnel for lead capture
• A link-in-bio tool (like Linktree or Beacons) if you want to highlight multiple links

Tip: Add UTM tracking parameters so you can monitor clicks and understand which TikTok content is driving conversions. This insight helps you make better content and campaign decisions later.

Enable Contact Buttons for Direct Communication

Another often-overlooked feature: TikTok Business Accounts let you add email and phone contact buttons to your profile. This small step boosts credibility and makes it easier for potential clients, partners, or even influencers to reach you. To activate this, you need to:

• Go to “Edit Profile”
• Under “Contact,” add your business email and/or phone number
• Make sure the email is monitored and that it feels brand-appropriate (avoid personal addresses)

Pin Key Videos to Your Profile

Now that your profile is shaping up, let’s talk about video pins. TikTok allows you to pin up to three videos to the top of your feed. These should act like a mini-introduction to your brand. Consider pinning:

• A brand intro video: Tell viewers who you are and what you offer.
• A product showcase: Demonstrate a bestseller or new launch.
• A viral or testimonial video: Highlight social proof and engagement.

#3 Plan a suitable strategy for your business on TikTok

Before you dive into creating content or launching ads, it’s essential to build a TikTok strategy that aligns with your business goals, audience, and available resources. Here’s how to build a plan that works:

Start learning about TikTok’s features

First of all, to build a TikTok strategy, it is important to get familiar with the TikTok platform, both inside and outside. You should spend a few hours exploring all the features of the app, starting with the For You Page. Then, look over all the features such as effects, filters, and editing features.

Understand the algorithm on TikTok

Understanding how TikTok operates and distributes its content is crucial for TikTok businesses. The algorithm in this platform is evolving regularly; hence, you need to know what influences the algorithm to take advantage and improve your presence in front of the right audience. The best way to understand this is that you should research how TikTok distributes and ranks videos, including current top trends.

Another important factor affecting the success of your strategy is captions and hashtags on this platform. Appealing captions and prevailing hashtags will help your videos have a chance to reach more audiences than usual.

Therefore, nothing is more important than the content of the video. You will need to create content that your potential customers like to watch and interact with. The more interactions with videos you get, the more chances your content will appear on the For You section.

Know your targeted audiences

It’s important to identify your target audiences before starting your first video production on TikTok. Though this application is completely familiar to the young generation, a wide range of demographics also likes using TikTok. Thus, to build a good content strategy, you should ask yourself where your target market can overlap with TikTok users, or whether a new or unexpected audience will interact with your content.

When deeply understanding your audience, the message conveyed in your content can catch their attention.

Research your competitors

Find the presence of your competitors on TikTok, research all the activities about what they are doing or not doing, and evaluate if their content is effective or not. Do not forget to pay attention to which types of content attract followers. You can use influencers or content creators as creative inspiration.

Set goals and objectives

After finishing all research market steps, you need to set objectives for your campaign. As a result, you can establish TikTok strategies to achieve the set goals.

Before setting business goals, it is important to ask yourself how TikTok will accomplish them. You can use the SMART framework to make sure your objective achieves 5 criteria: Specific; Measurable: Attainable; Relevant; Time-bound.

Prepare a specific content plan

While you can come up with creative ideas for your content accidentally, planning your content in advance is a wise decision for managing content on social media platforms, especially on TikTok. From a social media content calendar, you can not only remember important posting dates but also have enough time to prepare your content. Besides, don’t miss the special occasions of the year to develop content based on those series or themes.

What’s more, your post can go viral if your target audience on TikTok is online and craves videos with creative content.

>>> Read More: TikTok eCommerce: How to Get Customers & Sell More on TikTok

#4 Create content attracting the targeted audience

First, you need to know that when you open the app and surf the news feed, you will get access to a multitude of content on the TikTok platform. Thus, your content needs to be different and unique, grabbing the attention of your audience from the very first seconds.

In fact, to create successful TikTok videos, there is no specific formula. However, you can refer to some of the following tips:

1. Blending in to stand out: TikTok is a platform for fun, lively, and amusing content; you should learn how to adapt to this ‘culture’ while maintaining your own brand voice and values.
2. TikTok is a social platform, not a working space: TikTok is a platform where people can relax through its content. So, don’t make some videos that are too formal or rehearsed. You don’t need an expensive video setup to record either. Starting simply by filming videos with your phone still helps your content go viral.
3. Use high-quality video and sound: Because these are factors that directly impact your user experience. That doesn’t mean you have to buy expensive equipment, but you should try to film in well-lit areas with good audio. If clean audio is not attainable, replacing the original sound with a trending track might be a good option to consider.
4. Use TikTok hashtags: It will help your content get discovered through search and assist the TikTok algorithm in determining what kind of themes you’re discussing. You should find out more about the best hashtags to use to increase the number of reach and views to your page.

#5 Engage your audience and grow your following

Though TikTok’s algorithm can make a video from a new TikTok account go viral in only one night, it is often not easy to achieve. To be more certain, you should try to increase your followers and interact with your videos. This method will help you build a scientific and effective strategy for developing your TikTok channel.

Furthermore, remember that it is an extremely bad idea to buy followers. The best way to get a huge number of followers is to create great content. For any social media platform, there are several rules you need to apply with the aim of keeping those followers who are interested and interact with your channel:

• Try out polls and questions.
• Interact with the content of other TikTok accounts (like and comment)
• Record interactive live streams
• Follow top trending topics in your TikTok community

#6 Collaborate with TikTok Creators

Once your organic content gains some traction, consider partnering with creators who already have your audience’s trust. TikTok is a creator-first platform, and influencer collaborations often outperform brand-led ads.

To do this effectively:

• Explore the TikTok Creator Marketplace to find niche creators with high engagement.
• Let creators tell your brand story in their own voice. Over-scripting can backfire.
• Use Spark Ads to boost top-performing creator posts from their own handle.

Micro-creators (10K–100K followers) often provide higher ROAS than celebrities, especially when targeting niche markets.

#7 Look into analytics

TikTok for Business was born to record and measure your channel performance. So, the function TikTok Analytics will help you know if your brand’s health is good or not. Then, you can answer these three questions by yourself through this feature:

• How much reach and engagement do you have?
• Are those types of videos really successful?
• Who is actually your audience (viewer who follows your content)?

Source: TikTok

Analytics – The analytics tool on TikTok’s platform can show you some really interesting metrics to help you get a more accurate assessment of your current performance and provide direction for effective improvement.

#8 Optimize advertising options on TikTok

TikTok helps small businesses compete with other big brands without spending a lot of money on advertising. Currently, TikTok provides users with diverse forms of advertising that are suitable for each purpose. Depending on your budget, advertising campaign, and audience, you can choose from 4 following advertising options to grow your company through TikTok for business marketing:

• Topview: As the first video users see when they open the app, this function is TikTok’s biggest billboard to promote at scale and close the sale.
• Branded effect: TikTok users will add branded effects to their videos, help create showcases, and sell multiple products at once.
• Branded hashtag challenge: These are the types of advertising that businesses use to inspire TikTokers to create content around an optional brand-related hashtag.  Businesses using this ad format will be allowed exclusive access to that hashtag, which is not possible on other platforms.
• In-feed ads: Easily build a visually stunning and lightweight web page on TikTok.
• Add-on features: Spark Ads, Display Card, Gift Code Sticker, and Super Like.

Ideal Businesses That Can Grow on TikTok

While almost any business can test the waters on TikTok, some industries naturally shine. If you fall into one of these categories, TikTok could be a game-changer:

Real Case Study: How Paola’s Pixels Scaled Digital Product Sales with TikTok

One standout example of using TikTok for business in 2024 is Paola’s Pixels, a Latina-owned digital download brand that sells planners, productivity templates, and digital stickers through Etsy. With nearly 29,000 TikTok followers and more than 460,000 likes, Paola turned short-form video content into a scalable marketing channel without needing a big production budget.

What She Did?

1. Switched to a Business Account:
Paola upgraded to a TikTok Business account to access analytics, add a clickable link in bio, and use commercial sounds legally. This also made her account eligible for Spark Ads, a tool she would later use to scale reach from her best-performing content.

2. Created Value-Driven, Relatable Content:
Her content strategy centered around digital organization, with videos like “Plan with me using my digital pink planner” or “How I organize my week to avoid Sunday anxiety.” These videos showed her products in action while building an emotional connection with viewers. One of her organic videos reached nearly one million views without any paid boost.

3. Optimized Her Profile for Sales:
She crafted a clear and targeted bio: “Digital planners for anxious girlies – Get yours below.” Then, she linked a Linktree directing users to her Etsy shop, email opt-in, and exclusive downloads. She also pinned high-performing videos to immediately catch the attention of new visitors.

4. Used Spark Ads to Boost Organic Success:
After identifying the top two performing posts, Paola promoted them using Spark Ads over a two-week period. She spent around $370 and reached roughly 480,000 users, generating over $5,300 in direct Etsy sales from these ads—a return of over 14x on her ad spend.

5. Maintained Consistent Engagement:
Paola posted three to four times per week, engaged with comments, and used TikTok-native features like duets and stitches. She stayed close to trending audio and themes relevant to productivity, planning, and digital design, building a strong, loyal following.

The Results (October to December 2024)

Why It Worked?

Paola’s success didn’t come from high-end visuals or big ad budgets; it came from knowing her niche, showing up consistently, and turning organic traction into paid amplification. They understood what resonated with her audience and leaned into it, using TikTok’s tools not just to entertain, but to convert.

FAQs about how to use TikTok for business​

>>> Read more: TikTok for Small Business: Strategies to Increase Sales

Wrap-up

In fact, the ultimate goal for using TikTok for business​ is to drive conversions, sales, or brand engagement, all closely tied to building credibility. Achieving this requires an effective marketing strategy that is continuously researched and optimized.