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EFFICACY OF TIKTOK AS AN ADVERTISING TOOL/APPLICATION

DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

A research study
presented to
The Faculty of San Agustin Diocesan Academy

In partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the course
Practical Research I

VALERIE CRISTINE Y. RAMOS

ANGELICA EUNICE Y. MONTIFOLKA
LORYCEL C. PELACIO
KYLA MAE S. DE LEON
MARY JOYCE Y. TAGALAG
ANGELO MICO D. PUZON
JAMES EDWARD E. LOPEZ
MARIELLE D. ALEJO
SOPHIA ERIE T. SERRANO
TRACY DR. PANGAN
ANGELINE S. MARCELO

APRIL 2021
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CHAPTER I

The Research Project/Background of the Problem

Introduction

In December of 2019, the first human cases of COVID-19, which is a

disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV 2)

were first reported having its origin in the province of Wuhan in China.

Cases of COVID-19 increased tremendously in 2 months with more than 85,000

COVID-19 infection cases worldwide reported within the end of February 2020. 64.5

millions of people are infected around the world are reported on the first day of

December.

With a big leap of numbers shown every day, people can't help but to panic

especially with the appalling increase in death rate reported every day. Schools,

businesses, administrations, factories, and other essential and non-essential

infrastructures had to shut down due to the scare of infecting more and more people

leading to the increase of unemployment rate around the world, income, education, and

even the economy have been placed in a shut-down.

The coronavirus affects all aspects of our lives including the consumers buying

behaviors. The people learned how to compromise, and being the creative Filipino,
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people think of a way to earn with accordance to protocols. As online shopping became

trend, many people grab the chance to start and open their own business, small or big.

A study conducted in India in October of 2020 states that as brands became

pissed off because of excessive costs, they are increasingly turning Tiktok as part of

marketing. And the fact that Filipinos are creative, they use Tiktok as well to boost their

businesses and to advertise it freely.

In the field of business, here in the Philippines, when the schools,

establishments, businesses, and companies are forcefully closed due to the alarming

virus, thousands of workers lose their job and are forced to think of a new way to earn

and to fulfill their needs. Many, open businesses where they will earn while following

the safety protocols. Living in an unprecedented situation leaves us with struggles in

every aspect of life. This study will aim to determine the effectiveness of Tiktok as an

advertising tool for businesses during this time of pandemic.

Statement of the Problem:

This study aims to determine how effective Tiktok, an online platform, as an

advertising tool during Covid-19 pandemic. This research seeks to find the answers to

the following questions:

1. How does Tiktok advertising help business owners in promoting products?

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2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Tiktok as an advertising tool

during pandemic?

3. How does Tiktok advertising affect the sales of the business during pandemic?

4. What are the practices that the business owners acquired while using Tiktok as an

advertising tool?

5. What is the overall impact of Tiktok to the business during pandemic?

Significance of the Study

Since Tiktok became trend these days and numerous people are spending most

of their free time with it, it is clear that anyone of us, with business or not, can use it as

a tool to earn because it is its purpose and it is free. Scrolling through your phone whole

day, you might notice that most of the videos you've watched include flexing of

products or services. Because people found out that uploading videos so other people

can have engagements with it are important and can be the key for them to sell what

they sell. This study is all about the effectiveness of Tiktok as an advertising tool for

business owners. This study will know how much increase Tiktok gives to those

business sales. So, here are the potential beneficiaries of this study:

Business owners. Business owners will have an idea if they can use Tiktok to advertise

their products. They will know if it can really help them to increase their sales and if it
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will give positive or negative effects on their sales. This study can also give them

information that they can use to have higher sale. It can also help them to have a new

strategy to promote their products or services.

Buyers. This study will help buyers to know what to look for when they use Tiktok to

find what to buy and to know how they can help small business owners to boost their

business in every single way.

Tiktok users. This study will help Tiktok users to find products which they can

possibly like and buy. This will also help to find or buy products without them leaving

the house so that they can be safe.

Aspiring business owners. This study will be a help to aspiring business owners to

inspire them to open a business and to help and guide them think of a way to advertise

their products without spending big amounts but also earning engagements. This study

will benefit them by getting more ideas how and what to prepare for their businesses.

This study will benefit them by preparing them on what are the things they can do in

building up the business.

Researchers. This study will make benefits us, researchers as we will know whether

the sales increases or decreases using Tiktok as a tool or application to advertise the

business during Covid-19 pandemic. This study will make us know the effectiveness of

using the social media platform of Tiktok. This study will make us researchers benefit

for knowing the use of Tiktok, its effectiveness, and the effect it gives to the sales of
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business owners and lastly, this benefit us, researchers to know the impact of Tiktok

users to business owners that are using Tiktok to advertise their businesses.

Scope and Delimitation/ Limitation of the Study

This study will be conducted to find out the effectiveness of Tiktok advertising

during Covid-19 Pandemic. The other focus of the study is more of how it affects the

sales of the business. What is the overall impact of Tiktok advertising to the business is

another focal point of this study. This study will be focus to the business owners who

are using Tiktok as an advertising tool during pandemic. The cooperation of the

participants is strongly needed to make the study successful. The researcher will

conduct an interview to gather data and they only have February 2021– April 2021 to

finish the study.

Definition of Terms

For more understanding of the study, here are the definition of terms.

Tiktok - known in China as Douyin, is a video-sharing social networking service.

Salability - the quality of being salable or marketable.

Quality - an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone;

Advertisement - a notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product,

service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy.

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Obtain - get, acquire, or secure (something)

Promotion - the publicization of a product, organization, or venture so as to increase

sales or public awareness.

Befriended - act as a friend to (someone) by offering help or support.

Social media - interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.

User-generated content - such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos, and

data generated through all online interactions

Respondent - a person who replies to something, especially one supplying information

for a survey or questionnaire or responding to an advertisement.

Utilize - make practical and effective use of.

Credibility - the quality of being trusted and believed in.

Entrepreneurs - a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking

on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Emerge - move out of or away from something and come into view.

Stratification - is defined as the act of sorting data, people, and objects into distinct

groups or layers.

SARS-COV 2 - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, is the strain of

coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Advertising Tools - are product development and promotional strategies and actions

that a company uses to develop and promote its products or services.

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Social Media Marketing - refers to the use of social media and social networks to

market a company's products and services.

Influencer - people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge

or social influence in their field.

Digital Marketing - is the component of marketing that utilizes internet and online

based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital

media and platforms to promote products and services.

Pseudonyms – pen name

Chapter II

Review of Related Literature and Studies

This chapter presents the related literature and studies after the thorough and

in-depth search done by the researchers.

Extant Foreign Literature

According to Zarrella (2010) and his “the social media marketing book”,

whether you are part of a small, medium, or giant business, or an individual

entrepreneur, your customers are using social media and there’s no reason you
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shouldn’t be, too. It costs almost nothing, it’s easy to get started, and it can have an

enormous financial impact on your business.

As studied by Singh and Diamond (2012) on their “Social Media Marketing for

Dummies”, with more than 260 million people using the web on a regular basis in the

United States alone, using the internet has become a mainstream social activity.

Consumers approach purchasing online differently, too, and as a result, you need to

approach your marketing online differently as well. Your approach must incorporate

influence and the different roles that people play in the realm of social media.

Zang (2015) observed that companies use social media to communicate with

consumers, and the content of social media affects consumer's decision making in

modern business.

According to In (2013) and his Integrating Social Media into Business practice,

applications, management, and models. Social networking services have already had

great impacts on the ways that people interact and businesses operate.

Pangburn, Lane, Harazim, and Genevieve (2020) stated in the article entitled

“How to Micro-Influence: An Exploration of Marketing Strategy” that the rise in social

media usage has sparked a new marketing strategy for brands and entrepreneurs known

as influencing. Influencers use marketing tactics to persuade their social media

followers to purchase a certain brand. The social media app TikTok, which we believe

will be heavily used by influencers and micro-influencers in the future.

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Wayne (2020) study shows that the Tiktok platform has seen explosive growth

over the last two years. It has now 500 million users that are desperate for fun and

exciting content and this is a massive opportunity for you to promote your business.

Bogliari (2020) confirmed in his study entitled “How to promote your Business

on Tiktok”, every marketer wants a special channel to promote brands to target

audiences. This is exactly one of the benefits Tiktok brings. Through Tiktok, brands can

easily market products and services to target audiences by creating unique marketing

videos to convey their message to potential customers.

Haenlein et. al (2020) stated in the article entitled “Navigating the new Era of

influencer Marketing: How to be successful on Instagram, Tiktok&Co.”, that there are

few firms in the fashion, beauty, travel, food, or beverage industries are running

marketing campaigns these days that do not include, at least to some share, a

collaboration with popular users on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. However,

many marketing managers still have a less than adequate understanding of those

platforms compared with their knowledge of more traditional media channels and often

find it hard to make the right decision in this fast-moving environment. Outdoor

advertising such as billboards and mobile advertising, specifically on social media

platforms such as Instagram or TikTok. On Instagram, 60% of users in the United States

are younger than 34, and on TikTok, nearly 40% of users are teenagers between 10 and

19 years. This shift toward Instagram and TikTok, as well as sites such as Snapchat or
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Twitch, has, in recent years, given rise to an entire industry of social media influencers

and influencer marketing agencies.

Su, Baker, Doyle, and Yan (2020) stated in the article entitled “Fan Engagement

in 15 seconds: Athletes relationship marketing during a pandemic via Tiktok” that in

light of the increasing popularity TikTok has gained amid COVID-19, the present

commentary explores athletes’ use of TikTok as a communication platform during this

pandemic with the intention of reflecting the changing nature of sport communication

and branding in this challenging time. Although not widely adopted in sport, TikTok

had already demonstrated its utility as a social media platform pre-pandemic. Together

with its Chinese Version, Douyin, this short video-sharing app has been downloaded

more than 2 billion times globally (Leskin, 2020). Such popularity has caught the

attention of sport marketers, tapping into the app’s Generation Z and female user bases

in particular (Moran, 2019). Prior to the lockdown, the major American sport leagues

started cultivating their presence on TikTok. Notable examples include hashtag

challenges using #TouchdownCelebration during the run-up to the 2020 Super Bowl

and performances by TikTok influencers at the National Basketball Association All-Star

Game. Moreover, while TikTok is still testing in-app e-commerce functions in the

United States, Douyin has proven a powerful marketing medium in China with sport

entities and athletes selling sponsored products and promoting branded content.

Mou (2015) indicated that TikTok has created an ecosystem that allows

marketers to get help with integrated marketing, lifecycle marketing, and value
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marketing on both the B2B and B2C fronts. Furthermore, TikTok is working with

Taobao to allow traffic to be directed to an e-Commerce platform in order to improve

conversions.

Extant Local Literature

Minakshi (2019) stated in his article entitled “Advantages and Disadvantages of

Advertising” that Advertising is defined as the paid, non-personal form of

communication about products or ideas by an identified sponsor through the mass

media so as to inform, persuade or influence the behavior of the target audience. The

advantages of advertising are Promotion of Sales, Expansion of Production, Enhances

Goodwill, and Large Turnover and Huge Profits. And its disadvantages are it adds to

the Cost of Production and Product, Leads to Price War, Deceptive Advertising, and

Leads to Unequal Competition.

According to the Mangalmay Group of Institutions (2018), every business must

attract customers to be effective. It identifies marketing as the actions taken by

companies to attract and retain consumers, including the production of ads that enhance

consumer perception of goods and services. Advertising aids in - current consumer

satisfaction, replacing missing customers, and enticing existing clients to purchase more

of a company's goods and services.

Maquinto (2020) stated in his article that TikTok for Business is a modern way

for companies to communicate with potential customers in a more innovative and

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engaging way. Brands have played an important role in TikTok, as they have helped to

launch trends, societies, and increase public awareness for public service initiatives.

Brands can communicate with people in a variety of ways with TikTok for company,

including: Scale and creativity: TikTok is a growing platform based around creativity,

giving brands various tools to tell their stories. Sight, motion, and sound: With TikTok,

brands have several opportunities to tell their stories with sound, including music, sound

effects, voice-overs, reactions, and more. Inclusive & participatory community: Being a

community-based platform, marketers can create campaigns that engage fans, impacting

them, and creating their own versions. The place where culture is made: Being an open

platform, anyone and any brand can be discovered. Culture is created, shared, and

experienced on TikTok every day. Seamless and simple solutions: TikTok is capable of

delivering rich and immersive storytelling to its users. All marketing campaigns are

seamless, full-screen video, and appear natively with the user experience. TikTok is

also building a suite of measurement solutions, and other new features such as their AR

Branded Effect called Brand Scan. “TikTok for Business opens an entirely new window

of opportunity to create content that speaks to people and invites the community to join

in the conversation,” said John Castro, Community Operations Manager, TikTok

Philippines. “Brands have the opportunity to turn traditional marketing on its head and

truly engage with today’s users by encouraging them to make TikToks, instead of

simply viewing ads.” Being an open and global platform, content made from the

Philippines has the potential to go viral across the globe, reaching diverse audiences.
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Brands may be able to create partnerships with TikTok’s creators to develop authentic

and creative content through collaborations.

Businesstips Philippines (2021) stated on their article, “How TikTok is Shaping

Social Media Marketing in the Philippines” that TikTok is not just for teenage girls.

This social media giant is the rising star of the marketing world, with companies the

world over now using the platform for targeted ads, affiliate marketing, and exclusive

promotional material.

Manila Standard (2020) stated in their article that TikTok for Business

introduces new tools to help small businesses. TikTok, the short-form video app with a

mission to inspire creativity and bring joy, today launched new advertising solutions to

empower small and mid-size businesses in the Philippines to tap into the power of

TikTok for Business to grow their brand. The global availability of TikTok's self-serve

advertising solutions gives marketers the tools to tap into the creativity of the TikTok

community, reach new audiences, and optimize their marketing campaigns with an

easy-to-use platform. TikTok, a platform that celebrates creativity and storytelling from

its users, aims to give marketers innovative tools with which to create authentic,

creative content unique to the app. More and more brands are realizing TikTok's unique

ability to reach and engage with a broader audience, and today's launch of new

advertising solutions for SMBs makes it seamless, easy, and efficient for all brands to
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now meaningfully connect with the TikTok community. “TikTok's immersive, short-

form videos give businesses a platform to participate and engage with a community

known for its creativity, ingenuity, and joy," said John Castro, Community Operations

Manager, TikTok Philippines. “As our marketing solutions scale and evolve, we're

continuously building for the future and aiming to meet the growing needs of our

partners. We're excited to continue supporting our community by providing the tools

and resources for SMB owners to navigate these challenging times."

Hall (2020) indicated in his article entitled “TikTok Advantages That Can Help

Boost Your Business” that TikTok is also entering the scene with promising potential.

Businesses have yet to saturate this platform, providing you now good opportunity to be

free of competitors. TikTok provides a huge audience and TikTok is one of the most

popular social media platforms, with 800 million active users.

International Labour Organization (ILO) (2020) explained the consequences of

the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak are unprecedented and felt around the

world. The world of work is being profoundly affected by the pandemic. In addition to

the threat to public health, the economic and social disruption threatens the long-term

livelihoods and wellbeing of millions. The pandemic is heavily affecting labor markets,

economies and enterprises, including global supply chains, leading to widespread

business disruptions.
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Barretto (2020) discussed in the article entitled "The Impact of the Coronavirus

(COVID-19) On Businesses in the Philippines," that the effects of COVID-19 on

businesses in the Philippines are drastically being felt. With several establishments

forced to close down, the Philippine economy could be on its way to the verge of

collapse if the pandemic isn’t contained. In addition to that, she discussed that several

business industries have taken a much slower pace due to the global pandemic affecting

the flow of supply and demand in the country.

Alexander et al. (2020) mentioned that COVID-19 disruptions do not affect all

businesses equally. Some are deemed essential and remained open, while others were

required to close. Some businesses could shift employees to remote work, while others

were ill equipped for the transition.

Extant Foreign Study

According to the study of Suryawanshi (2019) entitled “the social media; A

powerful tool for advertisement and branding” that Social media marketing increases

your brand’s awareness. 78 % of small businesses use social media to attract new

customers. Furthermore 33% of customers have identified social media as how they

identify new brands products and services. Social media marketing helps to validate

your brand. A company’ social media presence, when done correctly, tells consumers
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that their brand is active and focused on thriving communication with consumers. 63%

of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to use ones with an

informative social media presence. Social media marketing has the power to increase

customer loyalty.71% of consumers who received a quick response on social media

would recommend the brand to others. Social media marketing is an evolutionary

process as marketers seek to optimize their marketing budget on social platforms.

Customers are more aware and educated about the product, service and brand these days

due to the social media. Therefore, companies need to design their marketing

strategies so efficiently so that they could anticipate the future need, generate lead and

make sales which then eventually results into higher performance and growth rate.

Ancillai, Terho, Cardinali, and Pascucci (2019) conducted a study on Advancing

social media driven sales research: Establishing conceptual foundations for B-to-B

social selling. This study adopt a discovery-oriented research approach and

conceptualize social selling and its key facets based on a systematic literature review

and a field study involving thought leading social selling professionals. Business

markets are facing major changes due to an increasing digitalization trend and

consequent changes in buying behaviors. Practitioners and academics alike have started

to emphasize social selling as a novel way to tackle these emerging opportunities and

challenges at the sales force level.

Dwivedi, Kapoor, and Chen (2015) explained in the study entitled "Social media

marketing and advertising." Social media has recently gained tremendous fame as a
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highly impactful channel of communication in these modern times of digitized living. It

has been put on a pedestal across varied streams for facilitating participatory interaction

amongst businesses, groups, societies, organizations, consumers, communities, forums,

and the like. This subject has received increased attention in the literature with many of

its practical applications including social media marketing (SMM) being elaborated,

analyzed, and recorded by many studies.

Naumenko and Gavrilovets (2020) discussed in the study entitled "Advertising

in modern business" that the representation of advertising is more relevant for users.

Tiktok bloggers make advertising integrations that match their usual content in style,

which helps to attract the viewer and reduce the likelihood of scrolling through. On

average, most users and bloggers in Tiktok are within the same age category, which

allows bloggers to have a powerful influence on teenagers who want to be as

“awesome” as influencers on their favorite social media. To sum up, despite the fact

that we have touched upon only a sliver of the full scope of the Tiktok its pretty well

established from the information above that it is a rapidly developing platform that may

help not only market giants but start-ups to boost sales and raise brand awareness.

According to the study of Tran (2020) entitled "The Influence of Digital

Marketing on Consumer Purchase Decisions toward Fast Fashion Products." The

findings of the study revealed that there is indeed a relationship between the chosen

digital marketing channels and the decisions to buy fast fashion products of the

consumers. Hypothesis testing indicated that blogs/websites, branded mobile

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applications, and email marketing have positive impacts on consumer purchase

decisions, whereas contrary to the expectations, the effect of social media marketing on

purchase decisions is negative. The results of this study contribute to the existing

literature related to digital marketing and consumer behaviors in the fast fashion

industry. Businesses are recommended to adopt suitable marketing strategies to increase

sales and remain competitive in today’s business environment.

Si (2020) stated in his article entitled “Social Media Marketing Philippines” that

Social media is used as another method of digital marketing wherein you try to build

your brand, increase sales, and drive site traffic by connecting with your audience on

social media. Social Media Advertising can be used whether you are planning to

promote your product or service or simply trying to update people on what your

organization or company is up to all these things. 

Meleshko and Konoplyanik (2020) conducted a study on Communicative

Strategies for Brand Promotion in Social Media on the example of Tiktok Platform.

Social media is a great way for marketers to reach out to consumers in an informal and

spontaneous way. Nowadays it is dramatically variable with the development of

different social media platforms that allow more and more ways to host sales

promotions. Recently a new platform called Tiktok has seemingly exploded from

nowhere to become one of the most downloaded apps in the world. It began life in 2018

as a moderately successful video-sharing app and nowadays has become #1 app among
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generation Z and millennials. Major corporations like Coca-Cola, Nike and Google saw

the potential of the platform and started to run advertising campaigns on Tiktok.

Baquita, Putra, Farres, Adha, and Herlambang (2021) concludes in the study

entitled “ The Implications of Tiktok as a Social Media on Customer Attraction” that

making use of the TikTok algorithm, businesses can create advertisements in

hopes of promoting their brands or products for free, with high chance of exposure.

That said, the video itself needs to be entertaining and create engagement with the users.

A survey type research was conducted to 118 respondents and asking for their responses

concerning Tiktok advertising, it is found that Tiktok application will be an effective

place as a promotional media and from the results of the Tiktok questionnaire a high

percentage and is interesting than other social media.

Mou (2020) conducted a study on social media marketing campaign strategy

Tiktok and Instagram. The purpose of this study was to provide recommendations on

deployment of different social media marketing campaign strategies. Compared to other

social media platforms, short video apps have become the most popular platforms in

2019. The number of daily active users (DAU) surged to 800 million, twice the average

DAU of other online video platforms. In addition to the increase in the number of users,

there are more and more investors and content creators starting to get involved in short

video apps marketing with the development of platforms. Taking Tiktok as an example,

Tiktok started to put together its advertising ecosystem in 2018 by launching an

"Advertising Platform" that focuses on feeds advertising. As such, Tiktok established an

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ecosystem providing opportunities for brands support on integrated marketing, lifecycle

marketing, performance marketing on both B2B and B2C fronts. In addition, Tiktok

marketing is becoming more and more targeted and diversified. The marketing

ecosystem support brands to reach its target users in a very fast and precise manner.

Choudhary, Gautam, and Arya (2020) conducted a study on Digital Marketing

Challenge and Opportunity with reference to Tiktok- a new Rising Social Media

Platform. The study stated that the advantages of Tiktok, a popular app that now has

more than 500 million month-to-month lively customers around the arena. It is a quick

video sharing social app that allows users to record and percentage as much as 60

seconds of movies. There are exclusive kinds of films that may be shared within the app

such as Montages, Comedic Shorts, Duets, etc. TikTok grow to be a sturdy virtual

advertising region to spend proper time proper money on a proper platform. Target

audience may be discovering on this platform for any branding groups.

Mhalla, Yun, and Nasiri( 2020) conducted a study entitled "Video-Sharing Apps

Business Models: TikTok Case Study." As the number of mobile and Internet users

increases around the world, the consumption of video content continues to grow

exponentially among people, as well as businesses. However, for these platforms to

offer their services at a low to no cost, they have to experiment with different business

models, looking for profitability and economic balance without charging their users.

Extant Local Study

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Chi (2011) defined social media marketing as a “connection between brands and

consumers, while offering a personal channel and currency for user centered networking

and social interaction.” The tools and approaches for communicating with customers

have changed greatly with the emergence of social media; therefore, businesses must

learn how to use social media in a way that is consistent with their business plan

(Mangold and Faulds 2009).Social media becomes a way to communicate with your

customers where you can promote or advertise your products. As an entrepreneur we

know how to use a social media so we know how to properly promote our product.

Shanker et al. (2011) discussed the marketers and retailers are utilizing these

sites as another way to reach consumers and provide a new way to shop. “Technology

related developments such as the rise of powerful search engines, advance mobile

devices and interfaces, peer-to-peer communication vehicles, and online social

networks have extended family marketers’ ability to reach shoppers through new touch

points”.

Markets and retailers use other sites to promote and advertise a product which

provides an innovative way on how to sell or advertise a product. There are many ways

to promote or sell a product that shoppers can easily reach the product you are selling

because of the powerful of online social networks.

According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media

marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased
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traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers

are currently participating in social media—but 85% of participants aren’t sure what

social media tools are the best to use.

As an entrepreneur social media marketing is important because this way is that they

promote their product and some are already working on various ways to increase their

website. Many marketer use social media to promote their products but also many

marketer does not know what is the most effective social media platform to promote

their products.

According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution Article II S. 24, the state shall

recognize the vital role of communication and information in nation-building.

Responsible use of social media marketing is important to relay to the people,

customers, and clients true and fair flow of information of the products and services of a

business. Social media platform is important for entrepreneurs so that they can present

their product and information regarding their product and service to people.

Calin (2013) conducted a study on Social Media and Personalized

advertisements. This study presents a series of aspects regarding social media and its

personalized ad-vertising capabilities. Due to marketing evolution as a discipline,

companies nowadays strive to shift the power from the firm to the consumers, organized

in communities, by empowering them to participate in promotion and product or service

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innovation activities created by themselves, or inspired by the firm. Web 1.0

technologies were considerated the first steps into user generated content, but the access

of the users and the capabilities of the systems were roughly permissible for value

adding. With the smooth technological shift to the web 2.0 technologies, two words

have emerged in the literature: user generated content and creative customer. These

words speak about marketing more than it first meets the eye, as they are the vanguard

of online en-gagement strategies and of the rate of return indicators. Marketing

practitioners often refer to social media as a user generated content or customer

generated media, and the media and customer discrimination should be made.

Manahan et al (2019) stated in the study entitled "Effectiveness of Social Media

Advertising" that Social media are websites and application that enable the users to

create and share content. Business advertisements are the ads that try to influence the

buying behavior of customers or clients with a persuasive selling message about the

products. The social media nowadays can affect the business advertisements by posting

it on online websites like Facebook, YouTube and other websites where the buyers or

customers will convince to buy the product. The examples of business advertisements

are the endorsement of products through internet, television and radio broadcast. When

watching video on Facebook, and also when you are watching videos, the ads will

appear while playing the video. This study used a stratified random sampling to gather

data. The result shows that social media is effective in advertising a business and

promotion.
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According to Ybañez, Guerra, Vista, Sto.Domingo, and Ladena (2019), social

media marketing including the use of Facebook, is becoming a prevalent part of the

promotional marketing mix used by many sellers and re-sellers. This study determine

the impact of Facebook advertisement to salability of cosmetic products of online

sellers in Taguig City. A survey was created containing questions on what is the impact

of Facebook advertisement to salability of a product. A forty respondents which

includes sellers and re-sellers who sells through the use of social media from Taguig

City area. Findings revealed that Facebook are being used to obtain sales information

and promotion. Additionally, this study found the higher the frequency of Facebook

advertisement the more likely the brands will be known and the customers are to shop at

the sellers they have befriended also the sales of the sellers will increase.

Salipsip, Lucero and Llanera (2020) indicated that social media plays an

important role nowadays in the lives of millions of people all over the world; thus, it

shifts many of the industries operations in order to cope up with the rise of

technological advancement that keeps on driving the consumers and the business

owners in dealing through different platforms. This study shows the respondents

behavior on how and why they use social media and how it affects their decision in

terms of purchasing. Significantly, it shows that they are greatly influenced by social

media in terms of buying products; however, more than half of the respondents don’t

give feedback online. There is also a High to Very High significance level of social

media influence across gender and age. It is also to note the most sought products online
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by the respondents, the top social media platforms that they are utilizing, and their

purpose of using it.

Kathiravan (2017) emphasized in his study the effectiveness of advertisements

in social media. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to 400. It is found that the

all age group of respondents having a moderate agree with the variables such as

informative, attention, credibility, entertainment and relevant news. Based on the

findings, it is concluded that entertainment and attention is less impact for the text

advertisement.

Cox (2012) conducted a study on Social Media Marketing in Small Business.

This study focus on understanding the different social media platforms such as

facebook, twitter, and the strategies behind using social media for growing their

business. Unfortunately, many small businesses do not have strategy when they begin

using social media. This study concluded that social media advertising help business

owners engage consumers.

Justification of the Study

This study is about the effectiveness of Tiktok as an advertising tool during the

time of Pandemic. We chose this topic because except from the fact that this topic is

relevant and timely, also because this pandemic affects all aspects of our lives including

their sources of income which is their business. This topic can help business owners

understand the advantages of using social media platforms as an advertising tool in their
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growing business particularly the Tiktok, an online platform. We conducted this study

because we want business owners to be knowledgeable how effective Tiktok, as an

advertising tool during this time of pandemic.

From Foreign Literatures, every business owner uses social media platform to

advertise and promote their products particularly on Tiktok. Through Tiktok, brands can

easily market products and services to target audiences by creating unique marketing

videos to convey their message to their potential customers.

From Local Literatures, through using Tiktok as an advertising tool, it increases

the loyalty of existing customers, replaces lost customers and encourages existing

customers to buy more of a company’s products or services. Also, due to being in

demand of Tiktok during this time, it also increases the sales of the business, big or

small.

From foreign studies, the readiness of the business owners particularly the way

they advertise their product is important. One of the best method to advertise is by using

tiktok videos. Also, the customer's feedbacks are important in the field of business. By

using tiktok app they are able to share their ideas and experiences that help business

grow and give them an excellent service that they deserve.

From local studies, the influence of social media affects customer's decision in

terms of buying or purchasing product. In addition, social media platform is one of the

best way to give awareness and information about the product you are trying to sell.
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These related studies and literatures were supportive in the present study which

is Efficacy of Tiktok as an advertising tool/application during COVID-19 pandemic.

The literatures and studies presented above helped the researchers to gather initial

information about the Tiktok advertising. This serves as a basis for the researchers to

determine how effective Tiktok, an online platform, as an advertising tool during this

time of pandemic in terms of increasing sales of the business and its overall impact to

the business.

CHAPTER III

Research Methodology

This chapter includes the research methodology of the study. In this part, the

researchers describes the various stages of the research, which includes the research

design, research locale, the selection of participants, the data collection process and the

process of data analysis utilized in the study.

Research Design

The study “Efficacy of Tiktok as an Advertising Tool/Application during the

COVID-19 Pandemic” used Phenomenological method; it is an approach to qualitative

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research that focuses on the commonality of a lived experience within a certain group.

The main goal of the approach is to describe how any one participant experiences a

specific event. Interviews are conducted with participants who have knowledge of the

event, situation or experience. The data is then read and analyzed and then reduced to

phrases and themes that are then grouped to form clusters of meaning (Creswell, 2013).

By using this process, the researcher may construct the universal meaning of the event,

situation or experience and arrive at an understanding of the phenomenon. This design

is fitted to the study since the focus is knowing the effectiveness of Tiktok as an

advertising tool during this time of pandemic.

Research Locale

San Leonardo is a municipality in the province of Nueva Ecija. It has fifteen

barangays and one of which is Mallorca.

The study will be conducted at Mallorca, San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija.

Mallorca is a barangay in the municipality of San Leonardo, in the province of Nueva

Ecija. It is situated at approximately 15.3742, 120.9725, in the island of Luzon.

Elevation at these coordinates is estimated at 28.0 meters or 91.9 feet above mean sea

level. Its population as determined by the 2015 Census was 9,159. This represented

14.03% of the total population of San Leonardo.

The Participants
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The participants of the study were the owners of selected business in Mallorca,

San Leonardo who marketed their goods or services on Tiktok, an online platform. The

researchers chose them because they are the ones who know, see and experience the

said problem. Due to this, they are the only ones that provide the necessary data. The

participants for the study were chosen using purposive sampling. According to Arikunto

(2010), purposive sampling is the process of selecting sample by taking subject based

on the specific purpose. This means the researchers select participants because they can

provide relevant data in the study. According to Statistics Solution (2019), “A

qualitative researcher must ensure they can access their participants and that the

participants have experience with the phenomenon under study.” This criterion ensured

that all participants had the necessary experience to provide a valid account of Tiktok’s

efficacy as an advertising tool when they used it in their business.

Data Gathering Procedures and Tools

In this study, structured interview were designed and used in gathering concrete

data needed for the research. According to Vaid (2018), a structured interview is a

method where the interviewer asks each participant the same set of questions in order to

gather consistent and comparable data about the topic. Due to the pandemic, the

researcher cannot conduct face-to-face interview that’s why they will use messenger, a

social media platform in conducting an interview to gather data that is needed in the

study. The researchers adopted related questions from other studies to ensure its
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validity. It is composed of questions that focuses on determining how effective Tiktok,

an online platform, as an advertising tool during Covid-19 pandemic.

Data Collection

In the research conducted, the researchers followed steps to gather information

about the chosen topic. First, the researchers collected related files from the website to

have an idea in doing the questions for the interview. The researchers proceed in

providing series of questions which covered all the variables included in their statement

of the problem. After completing the questions the researchers showed it to their

research adviser and wait for the possible corrections and go signal.

After the approval, the researchers then administered the prepared questions to

their participants which were the selected business owners in Mallorca, San Leonardo.

The participants were interviewed individually through a messenger app and were given

enough time to answer the questions.

After that, Researchers retrieved all the questions answered by the selected

business owners by screen capturing it. Lastly, the researchers presented, analyzed and

interpreted the gathered data and information.

Verification/ Establishing Trustworthiness of Data

Ethical Considerations
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Given the importance of ethics in conducting research and the challenges around

conducting research, universities go to great lengths to protect the dignity and safety of

research participants (Silverman, 2009).

It was further explained to the participants that their information would

remain confidential and that the specific content of individual interviews would only be

discussed with the supervisor (at that stage the late Prof J.B. Schoeman). The

researchers and respondents were unknown to each other. At the end of the study, all of

the information about the participants were removed and pseudonyms were used for the

participants.

Transferability is established by providing readers with evidence that the

research study’s findings could be applicable to other contexts, situations, times, and

populations. (Tom, 2021). To comply with ethical considerations in conducting

research, researchers provide evidences that this research findings could be applicable

to other contexts, situations, and times.

In this study, all necessary conversation were kept throughout the study to

assure credibility, since respondents’ thoughts, experiences, and opinions would

contribute to the outcome of the study. The researchers also documented all research

process to give enough evidences to the readers who are interested to know how the

researchers came up with the conclusions.

All conversations were kept by the researchers to assure the dependability of the

study. To make this research trustworthy, the researchers examined all gathered
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information to give enough evidences to the readers who are interested to know how the

researchers came up with the conclusions. The researchers document in detail their

methodology and methods of data collection, and establish data and report findings.

This audit trail allows researchers to examine the adequacy of the research process

(Liamputtong, 1999). The researchers also addressed the neutrality and objectivity of

data (i.e. conformability).

Data Management and Analysis

The researchers used a qualitative type of research specifically

phenomenological approach. Wherein, the information needed for the research to carry

on are based on the personal experiences of the participants. In order to get the most

accurate information stated by the participants, the researchers used messenger, an app

in interviewing the participants. After the interview, the researchers take a screenshot of

the participants’ answers. The screenshot has allowed the researchers to write all the

information stated by their participants fully and accurately. In this way, the researchers

avoided wasting of time and making the participants repeat what they answered which

have the possibility to ruin their focus. It also allow the researchers to interpret the

gathered data and information correctly.