Linktree has become an integral part of the creator economy, enabling upstart and established creators alike to better connect their audiences with all of their content and pages in one place. Similar to TikTok, Linktree is used to discover people, brands, and businesses. While existing as two very different platforms (TikTok is an app, Linktree is a tool), they share a purpose of highlighting creators. Linktree allows you to create a personalized and easily-customizable page that houses all the important links you want to share with your audience. It is used on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, or you can use it to aid discovery of your work, brand, or business. Even TikTok has a Linktree!
As of July, 2021, many people were familiar with Linktree but didn’t know much about what the product truly offered. As two companies that share a mission to help creators build sustainable and successful careers, it was only fitting that Collab and Linktree would combine forces to educate people on the value that Linktree could offer in a big way.
The #LinkupWithLinktree campaign aimed to utilize TikTok to build overall awareness of Linktree and drive conversions by encouraging aspiring creators to sign up for their own Linktree accounts. As a company deeply invested in the success of the creator economy, Linktree put an emphasis on uplifting the TikTok community by spotlighting rising creators, establishing and reinforcing the sense of community that is central to the brand.
Linktree and Collab looked to make Linktree ubiquitous on TikTok, enlisting the help of 8 big-name creators with a combined following of 325M+ on the platform to generate awareness and drive downloads. Collab recommended leveraging a mix of mega stars like Charli D’Amelio, Bella Poarch, KallmeKris, Josh Richards, Benji Krol and Noah Beck in order to drive massive clout and awareness, as well as up-and-coming stars with high engagement rates like Flossybaby and Canon Ryder to drive conversions. These well known faces of TikTok were given a unique opportunity to pay it forward and foster a sense of community on the platform by promoting their favorite rising creators on their own Linktree accounts.
Over the span of a month (7/18-8/16), the 8 creators produced 11 original videos featuring a custom Linktree music track, with VO that highlighted Linktree’s functionality as well as their favorite rising creators they were featuring on their profile. The creators also left two spots on their Linktrees empty, encouraging fans and fellow creators to comment with their or their favorite creator’s Linktree URL. Select creators then announced the lucky winners by spotlighting them in one of their TikTok videos. Some spotlighted creators even posted TikToks sharing their excitement of being featured by one of their favorite creators, adding additional cost-free awareness of the campaign. In addition to community building and developing positive brand association on TikTok, the campaign strategy made it necessary to download and create a Linktree account to be able to participate.
Paid media added additional support to a campaign already loaded with organic reach to make it feel like Linktree was truly taking over TikTok. This campaign ran globally across 4 countries: US, Canada, UK and Australia. Display ads were also run on Gen-Z favorite famousbirthdays.com, to provide an even broader reach to Gen Z audiences.
#LinkUpWithLinktree campaign was incredibly unique in its authenticity to the TikTok platform and its embrace of community. This resonated with fans and led to huge engagement. Overall (organic + paid), the campaign generated 9.1M+ engagements, 1.3M+ clicks and nearly 130M views. The 2.1% CTR was the highest Collab has ever seen on any of its campaigns, a testament to the selection of talent and their ability to influence their audiences.
Creator videos generated an engagement rate of nearly 9% and accounted for nearly 60% of the total campaign views. The day Charli went live with her video was the single highest day of sign ups for Linktree. Posting 2 videos for the campaign, Charli’s videos were viewed 63.5M times, and drove over 5M total user actions. A longtime Linktree user and fan, Bella Poarch switched up her content style to actually speak directly to her fans. Her video racked up 36.2M views and nearly 2.5M engagements.
Through TikTok, Collab conducted a brand lift study on paid media to gauge audience receptivity to Linktree. Over the course of the campaign, Collab saw the following results:
Ad Recall: +8.1%
Awareness: +3.3%
Recommendation: +3.1%
The #LinkupWithLinktree campaign succeeded both in generating mass awareness on TikTok and in driving signups. Equally important, spotlighted creators experienced an average follower growth of over 5%, led by one creator in particular who grew a whopping 83%!
