Digital Marketing on TikTok for Restaurants: A Comprehensive Guide to TikTok for Business - Part 1

Unless you've been buried in kitchen tickets and late-night inventory counts, you've definitely heard of TikTok.

With over 1.5 billion users, it’s not just where the next food trend is born—it’s where your next customer is waiting.

TikTok for businesses can generate a lot of traffic to your restaurant, build brand loyalty, and cause a buzz that goes into the dining room. In short, TikTok for business should mean more sales at your restaurant.

Some 62% of TikTok users in the U.S say they have gone to or ordered from a restaurant after seeing it on that app.

Whether you own a restaurant, food truck, or ghost kitchen, not yet taking advantage of TikTok digital marketing means that you have lagged behind in the digital marketing space.

But not to worry. We will direct you on the tools, tactics, and actual steps on how to do digital marketing on TikTok.

By the end of this article, you will have a well-rounded view of TikTok digital marketing and be able to take the first steps toward getting real results even when you’re brand new to social media marketing.

Let’s begin by covering some basics on how to do digital marketing on TikTok.

What is Digital Marketing on TikTok? (top)

Digital marketing on TikTok is about creating the right strategy to use the platform's short-form video format to get the word out about a restaurant, brand, or service.

It is not just the act of uploading short video clips.

Now, don’t misunderstand us: yes, uploading video clips is an action item, but TikTok for businesses means having an actual game plan.

In the marketing world, that “game plan” is a “marketing campaign.” TikTok digital marketing, then, means establishing what that campaign will be where TikTok is either the central social medium platform that you’ll be using or part of a larger marketing campaign where you also involve Facebook, Instagram, X, and so on.

Digital marketing should be an integral part of your overall marketing strategy.

For the purposes of this article on how to do digital marketing on TikTok, we’ll keep the topic limited to just TikTok.

Back to marketing campaigns: now you know what a “marketing campaign” is. If you see us saying “campaign” or “campaigns,” just know that we’re saying that as a shortened way of saying “marketing campaign.” They all mean the same thing.

The next concern would be what we need to do as digital marketers so that our marketing campaign brings customers into our restaurant. For that, we need to agree on what is considered a successful campaign.

Successful campaigns are not only a mix of storytelling, visual appeal, influencer partnerships, and paid advertising tools, but are also those that have the best user engagement level and bring the most real-world results.

When it comes times to measure whether your digital marketing TikTok has been successful or not, you have the high level points to check for:

• 1. User engagement levels are up

  

• 2. More customers are coming to your restaurant from having seen one of your TikTok videos.

Those are still very high level goals, but they’re a start.

Let’s now look at some of the core concepts of how to do digital marketing on TikTok.

Core Concepts of TikTok Digital Marketing (top)

• 1. Short-Form Video Content

  The major part of TikTok's watch time comes from the content that is quick, grabby, and visually pleasant. The restaurant industry, for instance, could go that route and demonstrate the cooking of a dish, share customer reactions, or give a few minutes behind-the-scenes—all of that in just 60 seconds.

• 2. Audience Engagement

  Emotional, curious, or conversational content usually resonates the most with the public. The platforms rather reward creators who genuinely reach the hearts of users, allowing the community to give rise to comments, shares, and duets that will make the video more visible.

• 3. Trend Integration

  Things go viral on TikTok really quickly. Restaurant marketing that proves to be a success lies in being updated all the time—be on the latest buzzy sounds, formats, and hashtags so you get more views and be a part of the mass culture. Be it your wish to make your brand more recognizable, advertise menu items, or guide the way to your place of business, on TikTok, you can find a highly effective, creative, and quite unique digital marketing platform.

What Makes TikTok Unique? (top)

TikTok is all about short-form video content. That’s appeal #1. Users will more likely stay and watch a 30-60 second clip in its entirety than something that spans for many minutes.

Take that and combine it with TikTok’s own algorithm that can effortlessly match a user’s preferences to videos that TikTok knows the user will want to watch, and now you’ve got the formula for the type of success that social media platforms are famous for.

Just like that, your hard-working, but unknown establishment suddenly is known to new potential customers and existing customers are reminded again to pay your restaurant another visit soon.

To be doubly clear on this: if a restaurant has the content that matches a user’s preferences, then that restaurant’s content on TikTok is shown to the user.

That means that a restaurant’s account on TikTok, even with zero followers, has the potential to reach thousands, or millions, of viewers.

This is a game-changer for restaurants that are newly venturing into TikTok.

This change in perspective on the side of TikTok is what gives restaurants the ideal conditions to demonstrate their menu, staff, or behind-the-scenes preparations, in ways that will not appear forced to the viewers, but will still keep them engaged.

Let’s say you get the customers in the doors of your restaurant through TikTok. The benefits of TikTok don’t stop there.

TikTok has an impressive culture of user-generated content (UGC). If your customer enjoys their meal, your restaurant can benefit again if the customer uses their own TikTok to talk about it.

Your own customers can turn out to be your best advertisers.

But wait, there’s more! Having customers post to TikTok about their meals at your restaurant is a form of social proof. Favorable social proof makes your restaurant more trustworthy.

Briefly stated, TikTok is a place where your creativity is rewarded as opposed to your popularity, which is why it is a powerful tool in the digital marketing world, especially for any restaurant with some great stories and great flavors to tell.

Tools and Services on TikTok for Restaurants (top)

Being a restaurant owner is a full-time job int its own right.

The prospect of mastering TikTok tools, developing a content strategy, and running another tool can be overwhelming.

Here is the thing, though: you do not need to be tech-savvy and have hours at your disposal.

The set of free and easy-to-use tools provided by TikTok for Business is developed with a focus on the needs of small business owners.

Here is how you can think about it: you have a straightforward toolkit that could potentially allow you to attract new customers, increase your local presence, and build buzz online, and all of this, in a couple of hours a week.

Would you find it worth trying? Silly question, we know.

So, what are the tools that are most important? We just happen to have a list — imagine that!

TikTok Business Account (top)

If you want your restaurant to succeed using TikTok for business, first, you need to switch to a Business account.

A TikTok business account is free and gives you important tools to turn seemingly normal posts into real marketing.

When you have a Business account, you can see how many people watch your videos and when they are most active. This insight can in turn help guide you in the making more of the type of content that they actually love.

You can also add a website link so that they can check out the menu or order online.

What else, you say? With a TikTok Business account, you have access to a music library of royalty-free tunes for business, thus making your content so exciting while staying compliant.

How to Create a TikTok Business Account (Quick Guide) (top)

It is easy to set up a Business account. The following are the steps:

• 1️⃣ Install the TikTok App: Create a basic account.

• 2️⃣ Profile Settings: Go to profile, select settings.

• 3️⃣ Business Account: Press manage account and change the basic account to business.

• 4️⃣ Category: Choose a restaurant or food and beverage.

• 5️⃣ Include your website URL and email in your profile. This makes it easy for viewers to click on them.

Once you’re using a TikTok business account, you’ll have access to analytics, commercial music, and other tools to grow.

And this is how it begins. This is how you will make your restaurant even more popular on TikTok.

TikTok Ads Manager (top)

You can reach some audiences on TikTok using TikTok Ads Manager.

You are able to create ads in various forms. They include:

• ✅ In-Feed Ads: They appear in a For You feed of any user, like any other video.

• ✅ Branded Hashtag Challenges: You can also or additionally use branded hashtag challenges, where you can invite the users to share their own video with your dish or with your hashtag.

• ✅ TopView Ads: This is the first ad the users see as they open the app; they are powerful as far as the launch and big promos are concerned.

The ads placed on TikTok allow the brands to obtain more clicks, which are three times higher than in other advertising tools.

How Do TikTok Ads Work? (Cost, Visibility, Results) (top)

TikTok advertisements connect with individuals according to age, preferences, geography, and activities. This is ideal for reaching the desired demographics to visit your restaurant.

When setting up the ad through TikTok Ads Manager, you choose:

• ✅ Your target (e.g., people aged 18 to 35 who live near your restaurant)

• ✅ Your goal (directing traffic, getting customers, gaining views, etc.)

• ✅ Your budget (it can be a daily or total spend)

You can begin spending only $20 to $50 daily, though busier locations may necessitate increased ad spend for wider exposure.

TikTok uses bidding, so getting to your desired audience might cost more the type of audience that you’re seeking is already popular with other TikTok business accounts.

TikTok Business Center (top)

In case you have several sites or groups to oversee, TikTok Business Center streamlines everything for executing campaigns collectively.

The dashboard allows managing accounts, assigning roles, tracking performance, organizing creators, and campaigns.

This is helpful for franchises or restaurants expanding where consistent branding is required across new regions.

Creator Marketplace (top)

The TikTok Creator Marketplace is TikTok’s official platform that connects your restaurant with content creators to collaborate on creating content.

If the term “content creator” seems a bit formal, you can substitute it with the word “influencer,” which is much more colloquial.

With that clarified, now do you see the value of the TikTok Creator Marketplace? Your restaurant plus influencers to market your restaurant.

To be clear, your restaurant would be paying the content creator (influencer) to then create content on your restaurant’s behalf and have his / her content reach his presumably large audience of followers on TikTok.

You can categorize content creators (influencers) by follower count, area, and interest. The platform handles everything from messaging to contracts. Influencer marketing works well on TikTok because content seems native and authentic.

TikTok Analytics (top)

TikTok Analytics tells you which videos are popular. It shows how many views your video content received, as well the number of shares, comments, and who watched it.

You can see info about your viewer, such as their age and where they are generally located. This helps restaurants know who to reach. If most viewers are college kids at 10:00 PM, then push late-night deals in videos around that time.

Learning from these stats helps your TikTok content get more people in. By recognizing trends over time, you can make videos more suited to the type of audience that is viewing and/or attract new ones.

The end goal with digital marketing on TikTok for restaurants, of course, is not to simply have more views or share, though. It is to convert those viewers into customers at your restaurant.

Key Takeaways (top)

This article gave you a lot to consider, but that’s a good problem to have. Knowledge is power!

We covered the concepts of what is a marketing campaign and more specifically, we looked at what is digital marketing on TikTok.

TikTok Ads Manager, TikTok Creator Marketplace, and TikTok Analytics — take the time to familiarize yourself with these tools. We’ve provided you an overview, but take some time to explore more on YouTube if you wish to see these tools at a more hands-on level.

Our Digital Marketing on TikTok for Restaurants series continues in part 2. We’ll take what we’ve learned and tie it altogether into a digital marketing strategy.

We’ll see you there!

Digital marketing on TikTok for restaurants should be part of your overall marketing strategy.