How Brands Can Succeed on TikTok in 2025: 5 Expert Tips
By Danté Piras
TikTok in 2025 is like Soho on a Friday night, crowded, noisy, and full of people desperate to be noticed. Posts can still explode overnight, but those moments are less predictable and fade faster than they used to. With a broader audience and a moodier algorithm, brands need more than a trending sound to stand out. It’s where they can build cultural capital, but only by reading the room, moving fast and staying authentic.
1. Meet Audiences Where They Are
UK users spend over two hours a day on TikTok, making it a key place to discover products and news. Content must feel native to the platform, not lazily lifted from Instagram. TikTok is looser, faster and more personality-driven, while Instagram favours curated aesthetics, yet many brands still recycle their Instagram videos, and it shows. On TikTok, quick cuts, authentic stories and trend-led ideas work best. Consistency matters more than volume (though 1–4 posts a day is often cited). The essentials remain the same: strong hooks, TikTok-first framing, tight editing, clear CTAs and native text.
2. Choose Chemistry Over Clout
When working with creators to promote your brand, choose creators who speak directly to your niche, not just those with the biggest follower counts. Smaller, engaged communities often convert better and give you more authentic content to repurpose. TikTok users quickly spot anything staged or overly branded, so relatable, surprising and slightly unpredictable works best. Tap into UGC as much as you can - it’s faster to produce, cheap, and it feels right for the platform. ASOS has made UGC a core part of its TikTok strategy, showing how creator-led content can fuel both authenticity and scale. UK brands are also increasingly integrating influencers into their teams, often as ambassadors or long-term collaborators, rather than just for one-off campaigns.
3. Keep Your Identity, Loosen Your Tone
Brands can embrace humour, spontaneity and trending formats without losing their core identity. Luxury label Loewe proves this, mixing playful behind-the-scenes moments and trending sounds with glimpses of its craftsmanship and heritage. The result feels accessible yet unmistakably on-brand. But selectivity is crucial: jumping on every trend risks looking forced if it doesn’t align with your voice. The smartest brands pause to ask if a trend fits their identity, adds something fresh and will genuinely resonate. If yes, lean in, if not, skip it.
4. Catch it while it’s hot
Relevance on TikTok is as much about timing as tone. Trends move fast and fade faster, with the sweet spot usually 24 - 48 hours after they surface. Post early and you boost your chances of hitting For You Pages while the algorithm is still pushing it, leave it a week or two and it risks feeling try-hard and cringey. Having a team scanning TikTok multiple times a day helps you react quickly, adapt the format to your voice, and keep it feeling fresh - just as Curry’s did with the Ibiza final boss trend. No time for 15 day long approval processes here.
5. Optimise for TikTok Search
TikTok has cemented its role as a search engine, with UK users turning to it for products, tutorials and recommendations. Treat captions, on-screen text and spoken words like SEO, using phrases your audience might actually search. TikTok’s AI tools, like Insight Spotlight, now provide real-time keyword and trend data to sharpen that strategy. If the algorithm can match your video to a query, it can drive views for weeks. Hashtags can help, but precise, search-friendly language wins. Byoma skincare shows this with clear titles like “hydrating milky toner hack,” keeping content discoverable and on repeat.
Honourable mention: TikTok has rolled out AI-generated influencer content, offering brands scale and consistency but raising questions about authenticity. The real opportunity for human creators remains in what AI can’t replicate, lived experience, spontaneity and genuine community connection.
TikTok in 2025 rewards brands that blend speed, creativity and authenticity. The ones winning aren’t just chasing views, they’re building lasting relevance by (and I can’t stress this enough) knowing their audience, adapting fast and staying true to their identity, no matter how the platform evolves.
Want help building a TikTok strategy that actually drives results? Drop us a message at lara.leventhal@visiblepr.co.uk