Are you diving into TikTok Marketing but not getting the results you expect? 901 out of 1000 SMEs in Vietnam fail when implementing TikTok because they make basic mistakes they don't realize. Identifying these common mistakes early is the key to increasing your success rate, optimizing your budget, and making breakthroughs on the fastest-growing short video platform today.
Mistake #1: Chasing trends without understanding customer insights. TikTok is a “goldmine of trends”, but if you only use trends as the foundation for content development and forget to define your core message and target customer profile, your brand will become bland and easily drowned out in the “sea” of content.Campaigns DPS.MEDIA implemented show that organic reach increases by up to 150% when the right customer profile and behavior are identified from the start.
Mistake #2: Overt, emotionless advertising content. TikTok users are “allergic” to traditional ads; they prefer authentic, relatable videos. If you only focus on selling, you’re missing the chance to build long-term relationships with customers. In reality, videos sharing experiences, inspiration, or subtle entertainment content always achieve 3–4 times higher engagement rates compared to “hard sell” content.
Mistake #3: Lack of strategy, only posting based on inspiration. This is a mistake that many small and medium businesses encounter when first entering the TikTok “game”. Not scheduling regular posts, not conducting A/B testing, not analyzing campaign effectiveness leads to wasted budget and missed opportunities to reach potential customers.
Mistake #4: Not optimizing the channel and video format. Many businesses overlook optimizing profiles, hashtags, music, or use inconsistent vertical and horizontal videos, disrupting or negatively impacting the viewer experience. According to statistics from DPS.MEDIA, fully optimized channels achieve a follow rate 180% higher than non-optimized channels.
Advice from DPS.MEDIA: Always start by researching customers, building creative content based on insights, planning specific strategies, and continuously measuring performance metrics. By avoiding these common mistakes, you will not only “survive” but also achieve sustainable growth on TikTok – the fertile ground for modern businesses.
Choosing the wrong target audience and the consequences for campaign effectiveness
Incorrectly identifying customer groups: Budget-draining loophole
We once met a young fashion business – a startup using TikTok ads targeting the 30-45 age group just because “this group shops a lot”. However, according to research by Nielsen (2023), over 65% of active TikTok users in Vietnam are aged 18-29. The result? A large ad budget but almost no conversions. This clearly demonstrates the lesson: Choosing the wrong target audience not only wastes resources, but also affects brand recognition as irrelevant content is “ignored” or annoys recipients.
DPS.MEDIA emphasizes that even when using TikTok's advanced Targeting feature, small businesses are still prone to mistakes such as:
- Choosing the wrong behaviors or interests based on personal feelings.
- Not re-surveying actual customer needs before the campaign.
- Setting too many or too few targeting criteria, leading to a narrowed or diluted audience.
| Case Study Example | Correct Targeting | Incorrect Targeting | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milk tea startup | Female 16-24 Likes snacking, trending reviews |
Female 30-40 Only selects by geographic location |
4 times more effective Cost/customer decreased by 60% |
According to DPS.MEDIA summary: The Double-Check method of audience verification through short quantitative surveys and AB Testing is a lifesaver for all SMEs when implementing TikTok Marketing. Real cases show that only after adjusting to the right potential segment, sales steadily increased without raising costs.
Content lacks creativity and does not keep up with TikTok trends
3 reasons why uncreative content reduces campaign effectiveness
Recent studies published on Think with Google show that over 70% of TikTok users in Vietnam tend to skip repetitive or uncreative ads. DPS.MEDIA has encountered SME brands that simply reposted content from Facebook to TikTok and “burned their budget” on videos that didn't leverage trends, resulting in poor views and low retention rates.
| Cause | Practical evidence |
|---|---|
| Content copy-pasted from another channel | Case T. – SME in cosmetics: A few thousand views/clip despite heavy ads |
| Does not use memes, storytelling, or trending effects | Comparison with competitors: Competitor's clip using viral AR filter reached 800k views |
| No variety in experimentation | Travel product: Repeating one formula, engagement drops by 40% after 2 weeks |
- No research on reversed insights: TikTok users like surprises. If your content is simply a “product review” or a call to visit the website, the reach and organic spread will noticeably decrease.
- Lack of creative application of the “dupe” trend: DPS.MEDIA once successfully exploited a version of “content series transformation” on TikTok using the “TikTok Made Me Buy It” trend, simplifying the approach but tripling the conversion rate for a fashion SME brand.
- Ignoring new formats: According to Harvard Business Review, Brands that leverage TikTok Effect House, duet, or interactive polls often receive 60% more high-interaction feedback compared to old-style clips.
Ignoring the power of Influencers and KOLs in reaching potential customers
Lack of strategy to leverage KOL/Influencer credibility
Many SME businesses often miss out on the strong potential of KOLs and Influencers in TikTok Marketing campaigns. According to research published in Harvard Business Review, the conversion rate when combining with Influencers is up to 11 times higher than traditional advertising. Focusing only on brand-produced content and forgetting the micro-KOL network that creates the “word-of-mouth” effect will make the campaign lack natural authenticity and fail to truly reach the real potential customer group.
| Common mistakes | Consequence | DPS.MEDIA's recommended solution |
|---|---|---|
| Only choose famous KOLs, without analyzing follower audience | High cost, low efficiency due to wrong targeting | Leverage micro-KOLs suitable for the industry |
| Leaving content to KOLs without clear direction | Message is off-brand, brand is misunderstood | Build detailed scripts and strictly censor |
- Practical example: A cosmetics industry client that DPS.MEDIA worked with once thought that just booking KOLs from a list of influencers with many followers was enough. The result was a viral video, but the order rate only increased slightly. After switching to collaborate with well-known micro-influencers in the skincare community, the conversion rate increased by more than 2.4 times (DPS.MEDIA, 2023).
- Don’t limit your KOL choices to the top-chart; pay attention to smaller influencers who have a close connection with your niche market.
- According to the latest statistics from InfluencerMarketingHub, 82% of Gen Z users trust reviews from creators they feel close to rather than celebrities.
Unreasonable allocation of advertising budget, wasting resources
Mistake in TikTok budget allocation: Where is the line between “spending big” and “spending wisely”?
DPS.MEDIA has noticed that many Vietnamese SMEs often “throw money” at TikTok ads without data analysis or strategic targeting. Research from Academic research on Digital Strategy (2023) shows that: campaigns focusing only on large budgets are often ineffective if not aligned with customer insights and tested across multiple audience groups.. This leads to wasted resources and low conversion rates.
- Lack of A/B Testing budget planning: Investing everything into one customer group or one creative type without testing, resulting in low effectiveness.
- Spending on “trends” instead of core values: Heavy advertising on trending content but neglecting brand messaging, which can harm long-term brand recognition.
- not optimizing by timing: Ignoring periodic budget reviews every 7-14 days, causing budget leakage into low-quality impressions.
| Practical example | Problems encountered | Lessons learned |
|---|---|---|
| Young cosmetics start-up | Spent 80% of the budget on the “transformation” trend but forgot to focus on the product's USP | Conversion rate only reached 0.7%. After optimization, switched to optimizing creative + multi-channel, conversion rate increased 3.1% |
| F&B SME business | Made viral videos but ignored remarketing budget for audiences who already watched | Advertising costs increased, ROI dropped sharply; need to allocate 20-30% of the budget for remarketing |
DPS.MEDIA's perspective: To avoid wasting resources on TikTok, SMEs should invest in measuring, testing, and continuously analyzing budget data. Apply a flexible budget allocation method, regularly review to adjust and prioritize creative and audience groups for real effectiveness.
Lack of continuous measurement and optimization during implementation
Incorrect measurement or not optimizing each stage
Many SMEs often fall into the loop of “posting and leaving it there”, neglecting deep data analysis at each stage of the TikTok campaign. According to McKinsey research (2023), only 20% of small businesses continuously evaluate content effectiveness when implementing on this platform. The lack of suitable measurement tools or only relying on surface metrics like views, likes, without focusing on average watch time, conversion rate, next actions... will make the entire campaign easily “deviate” from the original business goal.
- No specific measurement goals set for each stage (Awareness – Engagement – Conversion).
- Lack of A/B testing for content types, posting times, CTA.
- No extraction of insights from audience to personalize content for the next round.
DPS.MEDIA found that one of the outstanding recent case studies is the campaign of a young fashion startup on TikTok: Initially, the team only focused on posting videos and expected short-term follower growth. However, after being advised to apply a visualized data measurement dashboard, the startup discovered that the outfit-matching tutorial video achieved video save rate doubled video about discounts. Thanks to that, they adjusted the posting rate, focusing on deeply exploiting this insight, helping to increase CTR by 231% in just 2 weeks.
| Measurement indicators | initially | After optimization |
|---|---|---|
| CTR | 7% | 23% |
| Video save rate | 15% | 32% |
| Conversion rate | 2,5% | 5,8% |
DPS.MEDIA always recommends SMEs to apply data analysis technology and internal dashboards right from the start. According to researcher Brittany Smith (Harvard Business Review, 2022), “Continuous optimization based on data is the key for SMEs to maximize the advantages of TikTok Marketing, maintain growth speed, and control advertising costs.”
Misjudging the role of the TikTok channel in the overall marketing strategy
Misunderstanding the position and objectives of TikTok in the channel mix
Many SMEs in Vietnam approach TikTok as a “savior” for going viral regardless of industry or objective. However, DPS.MEDIA finds the core point is:
- Not clearly distinguishing between the role of brand building and the role of driving conversions on TikTok.
- Misconception TikTok is suitable for every product – but in reality, B2B industries or high-value products mostly struggle to succeed if relying solely on this platform.
- Not clearly defining TikTok's position in each stage of the customer journey, leading to duplicated or missed messages when connecting channels.
| Content Type | Channel Role | Strategic Phase |
|---|---|---|
| Trend-based Video | Boost brand awareness | Upstream (awareness) |
| Share real-life experiences | Build trust, encourage trials | Consideration |
| In-depth product description | Support conversion | Close the deal (conversion) |
Real-life example: Failure when expecting TikTok to “handle everything alone”
DPS.MEDIA once worked with a client who was a local cosmetics brand. Initially, they invested almost their entire media budget in TikTok, expecting explosive sales thanks to going viral. The result? Brand awareness skyrocketed but orders remained sluggish due to a lack of connection activities via Facebook, website, email marketing… As quoted from the report by eMarketer (2023), users need an average of 3-5 multi-channel touchpoints to make a purchase decision.
- Solution: Investing in TikTok must be accompanied by other conversion-driving channels.
- Coordinating content across platforms creates a synergistic effect and retains customers longer.
Unable to build a brand channel, only focusing on short-term virality
Chasing short-term effects: More harm than good
DPS.MEDIA has noticed that many SMEs in Vietnam heavily invest in short-term viral TikTok campaigns, but forget to build a long-term brand foundation. According to research by Harvard Business Review, when a brand relies solely on viral achievements, viewers are easily swept up by instant content without retaining brand recognition or forming lasting emotional connections.
- A trend video can reach millions of views, but the conversion rate to brand loyalty is usually very low.
- Campaigns that fail to maintain a consistent message will make it difficult for customers to remember you in the “sea” of entertainment content.
- Businesses easily fall into short-term thinking: constantly chasing trends while forgetting to build a unique “voice” for the brand.
Case study: Brand A and long-term consequences
For example, Cosmetics Brand A once invested a large budget in viral TikTok “transformation” videos, which reached the top trending for a week.
However, two months after the campaign, a survey conducted by DPS.MEDIA with over 500 target customers showed: only 12% could remember the brand name, while up to 72% were only impressed by the video effects.
| Factors | After 1 week viral | After 2 months viral |
|---|---|---|
| Views | 1.500.000+ | 1.800.000+ |
| Brand recognition rate | 19% | 12% |
| Content recall rate | 72% | 27% |
“Root” strategy worth prioritizing
Based on campaign implementation experience and insights from the book “Building Strong Brands” by David Aaker, we recommend SMEs should:
- Invest in parallel: Still create trending content but always integrate brand philosophy and clear product benefits.
- Build a series of connected content to create a “signature” for the brand on TikTok.
- Proactively listen to feedback, continuously reposition to maintain the business’s personality in each video.
Key takeaways
TikTok Marketing is not just a game of creativity, but also requires a clear strategy and deep understanding of user behavior. Mistakes such as blindly following trends, ignoring data analysis or not personalizing content can absolutely be avoided if businesses know how to reflect and adjust in time..
At DPS.MEDIA, we believe that an effective TikTok strategy starts with listening to the audience and continuously optimizing based on reality. With experience working alongside many SME businesses in Vietnam, we clearly see the importance of combining data, content creativity, and long-term thinking.
Don’t be afraid to experiment — but experiment strategically. Start by reviewing what you’re doing, identifying weaknesses, and making changes from small steps. At the same time, don’t forget to broaden your perspective by updating new trends and referencing creative approaches from other markets.
If you’re interested, topics such as “Optimizing content according to the conversion funnel on TikTok” or “Applying behavioral data analysis of viewers in short videos” are also worth exploring further.
We look forward to receiving your sharing, feelings, and unique perspectives on the process of implementing TikTok Marketing. Please leave a comment below or join the discussion with the community to develop the most effective and suitable strategies for Vietnamese businesses together.
