The New Video King? TikTok Set to Earn $11.6 Billion in Ad Revenue

The short form video platform is poised to bring in close to $24 billion by 2024, crowning it the new king of social media marketing. 

TikTok gained a lot of momentum in 2021 growing 1 billion active users almost overnight. Now, their ad revenue is set to triple from $3.88 billion in 2021 to $11.64 billion in 2022. This figure means the platform will surpass both Twitter and Snapchat combined and is estimated to compete with YouTube by 2024. 

The Rise of Short Form Video

We need only cast our minds back to the launch of social media app, Vine, back in 2013 to know that short form video was the future of marketing. Though the app was short lived, taken down by Twitter in 2016, it highlighted the engagement of short form video, especially among the younger generation. 

Now, TikTok's rapid success is further proof of short form video's dominance. The platform specializes in snack-size content with videos that are 60 seconds or under. 

Other social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube have both noticed the rise of short form video and adjusted to compete with Reels and Shorts. 

And yet, neither competitor has seen the kind of growth that TikTok has capitalized on in the last year. To offer some perspective, search demand for TikTok grew by 173% in 2021. Meanwhile Instagram only enjoyed a growth rate of 33% in the same time. 

Can You Leverage the Success of Short Form Video For Your Business?

According to Hootsuite's social media trends survey, TikTok is set to be the most important social media network for marketing. 

They have the reach, the engagement, and are set to be the biggest ad earners by 2024. And yet, most businesses are continuing to pour their money into “reliable” social media like Instagram and Facebook. This leaves a lot of opportunity for small brands to compete on platforms like TikTok. 

Is Long Form Video a Bust?

Even though YouTube remains the video giant bringing in an estimated $23.65 billion in ad revenue for 2022, more and more businesses have indicated short form videos (see video marketing tools) are their most successful approach to social media marketing.

YouTube vs TikTok

For a long time YouTube has been the go-to video platform for both marketers and consumers. 

In this arena, educational long form videos such as product reviews or how to, YouTube beats TikTok. 

But all that is set to change when TikTok introduces their own long form content. While the platform has thrived as a short form content network, 60 seconds simply isn't long enough to cover more complex topics. 

Another big draw for YouTube creators has been their 50% share of ad revenue. However, TikTok is set to compete here too. Their new revenue share model will trial with a select number of creators and will likely expand. 

What Short Form Video Means For SEO

The good news is, the rise of short form video also introduces new ways to improve your SEO. 

By having short videos on your website you encourage the visitor to stay for longer. Google tracks how long users stay on your domain and ranks you higher accordingly. 

Plus, you can take advantage of using short form video in email and other marketing campaigns. 

However, it does also have an important implication in terms of how your content interacts with Google. With the rise of short form video, more and more searches are bringing up videos as their top results. This is because there is an increase in people looking to learn through video. For that reason, queries like “how to” are bringing back video results. 

How much of an impact this will make on written content isn't quite clear—but one thing is certain, short form video is king.