Sure, everyone is focused on TikTok.

The company’s growth is impressive, as are the results we’re seeing for a broad range of clients across the US, Europe, South & Central America, and Asia.

And while TikTok is generating strong performance, it’s not the only social platform delivering results.

That’s why it’s important to look beyond the obvious and engage with all of the social platforms that can enable achieving your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the countries you’re targeting.

Historically, marketers have chased scale, which led to the astronomic growth of Google and later Facebook over the last 10-20 years.  But by relying on two platforms, marketers created the duopoly that ultimately made their work more challenging.

And what will marketers do if TikTok gets banned in the US?

If that happens, here are some platforms that could enable achieving your KPIs:

Give KWAI a try 

One of the apps that we’ve succeeded with for user acquisition is KWAI. This social short-form video app, from Chinese app developer Kuaishou Technology, has more than 1 billion users globally. Twitter and Pinterest combined don’t have 1 billion global users. KWAI isn’t popular in North America or Europe, but it’s been very successful in South and Central America and Southeast Asia, especially in Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

In Brazil, KWAI was the 3rd most downloaded app in 2021, reaching 45 million monthly users. Many Brazilian social media influencers, who originally posted videos on TikTok, have moved to KWAI, where they report more video views, often with the first video posted on KWAI.

We’ve seen strong performance metrics on branding campaigns via KWAI in Latin America in the consumer electronics market segment.

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Jason Grunberg, Chief Marketing Officer at Bluecore

Go big with Bigo Live

While live stream shopping hasn’t yet taken off in Europe and North America, that doesn’t mean it isn’t succeeding in other markets. Live streaming platform Bigo Live was founded in 2014 and has more than 400 million users in over 150 countries. The company was acquired by JOYY Inc., a NASDAQ-traded company, in March 2019. Bigo Live was ranked 2nd among App Annie’s Top Breakout Social Apps by consumer spending in 2021, so it’s definitely an app that marketers will want to be acquainted with.

Bigo Live is another consumer video app that has delivered strong performance on video branding campaigns.

Make a connection with Grindr and Tinder 

In the last few years, dating apps have become the way that many start dating, including. And dating apps are also privacy-friendly to reach users via data-rich campaign targeting. With the well-documented challenges marketers are experiencing on social media, now is the time to check out the leading dating sites for relevant marketers.

On dating apps Tinder and Grindr, we’ve seen strong performance for a range of products and services, most notably financial products. In our work with Tinder, we’ve seen lower Costs Per Acquisition on iOS vs. Android, with the standard ticket ad creative the best-performing ad unit.

Revisit Snap 

With the rise of TikTok, many have forgotten about Snap. Not that long ago, Snap was the platform for reaching younger users, with Snap’s products, like Stories, regularly copied by Facebook and others.

In the last year, Snap has increased its monthly users from 600 to 750 million, announced by the company at its 2023 Investor Day in February.

Snapchat is adding new functionality, making its app more effective for users, marketers, and creators. First, the company is pushing AI, adding new My AI features which enable all users to personalize My AI avatar.

Snapchat now offers a new form of AR Lenses that incorporate generative AI. These new lenses will be able to change based on user inputs. The company is also adding new AR functionality for video calls, enabling participants to engage with games and other experiences during the video chat.

To more effectively support creators, Snapchat is expanding the company’s Stories revenue share program to provide creators with more monetization opportunities. And if creators have more monetization opportunities, marketers are more likely to invest in creators running on Snap.

We’ve run lots of campaigns on Snapchat, both branding and performance-focused. For the right campaigns targeting demos active on Snapchat in the right countries, the app can outperform much larger platforms. Therefore, if you’re targeting a young audience active in a country where Snapchat is strong, expect high engagement rates and solid performance.

Whether it means returning to an old favorite like Snap, checking out dating apps as marketing platforms, discovering global video and social apps like KWAI and Bigo Live, or even revisiting Meta and Google, now is the time to re-discover opportunities to achieve your marketing KPIs.

Marketing Technology News: Millennials at Work: The Counterintuitive Guide to Keeping Them Happy and Engaged

Missed The Latest Episode of The SalesStar Podcast? Have a quick listen here!

Episode 170: Creating Connected Brand Experiences: with Jamie Adams, Chief Growth Officer at Scorpion

Episode 169: B2B Sales, Process Enhancements and Tips: with Sean Flynn, SVP of Global Sales at Avalara

Episode 168: AI and its Impact on Marketing and Sales with Marco Lagi, Vice President, Artificial Intelligence at Intentsify