If you follow me on TikTok, you might have seen I’ve done a collaboration this week with Wild Refills (If not, you can check it out here). In the past, I’ve been quite hesitant about doing collabs because it can feel quite scary and I was not really sure how to go about it and I was always scared of doing it wrong. After getting a job in marketing, I feel a lot more confident in making ads and doing collabs as I’ve learnt those skills and I know how to push a product but also how to make it fun and to make people stop on their FYP and watch the ad.

I’m going to go into a bit of detail about how I make my ads, what products I advertise and more about gaining the confidence to do collabs.

What Products Will I Advertise?

The first question to ask yourself is ‘What products am I willing to advertise?’ Whether you reach out to the brand or they reach out to you, you need to know what kind of products you’re willing to advertise and whether or not your audience will like the products. Personally, I only advertise products I would actually use in my day-to-day life so my ads can be genuine and I actually feel confident advertising a product I can vouch for. My audience on TikTok is mainly younger women, like myself, and for that reason, any ‘Skinny Teas’ or ridiculous weight loss products are a HUGE NO. I would personally never use these products and they are completely against all my values as a mental health advocate.

How I Make My Ads

Normally, I treat my ads like i’d treat my normal videos so they blend in and to encourage my followers to stop and watch it like it’s my regular content. I like to film them in a bright location, ideally on a sunny date but in the UK, that’s not always possible so a ring light is a great investment if you’re looking to do collabs or improve your videos. I like to make sure the product is mentioned or at least seen within the first 3 seconds so even if people quickly scroll, they’ll still at least see the product and it also makes people curious about what the product is and what is does. I like to start my videos with some kind of statement which makes people stop and think for a second, an example of this is my most recent collab where I start with ‘I think I may be the sweatiest person in the world’ and this leads people to either think ‘why on earth is she telling me this?’ or ‘wait, i’m also really sweaty and this is relatable’ and then continue to watch. However, it depends on the product you’re promoting as when I advertised the Cricut Joy, it was more like a How-To video because that’s the type of video the target audience may be more interested in. Not every ad is the same and it’s important to tailor your ads to whatever the product is and whatever their target audience is.

USPs – This is something you really wanna mention in your ads and it’s the unique selling points of this particular product. You want people to know why they should choose this product over a competitor. If someone’s stopped scrolling to watch the ad then they’re interested in the product and you want to reel them in and let them know all the best features about this product to get them over the fence of whether or not they should buy it or even just look into it.

Gaining The Confidence To Do Collabs

If you’re a micro-influencer or just starting out doing ads, it can be SCARY. I was always scared because my ads were never going to my up to the standard you see on TV, but that’s the point! These brands want collabs with all types of influencers because it feels more real and genuine to have someone in their target audience showing everyday people how they use their product. Ads don’t have to be perfect, they just need to get that brand in people’s faces and make people want to look into and buy the product. I don’t know about you but I’m far more likely to buy a product when I see reviews from actual people because you can picture how this product would fit into your life instead of this perfect ad you see on TV.

Have FUN With It!

Have fun with ads, make something you’d want to watch and that you would enjoy! Make sure you follow the guidelines the brand lays out and most importantly, make sure you learn how to pronounce the brand’s name!

Rachel