TikTok Business vs Personal Account; which one is right for you? In this guide, we’ll help you pick the best fit by showing you the key differences between these accounts. And if you already have a clear vision of what you aim to achieve on the platform, making a choice becomes much easier.
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TikTok Business Vs Personal Account at a Glance
Before we dive into a detailed breakdown of the differences between these accounts, let’s take a peek at their key features.
What is a TikTok Personal Account (aka Creator Account)?
A TikTok personal also known as a creator account, is the most widely used TikTok account. It is the default account you get when you first sign up for TikTok.
This account was designed for people who want to post fun content online and grow their following on the platform. This makes it the perfect choice for public figures, content creators and other regular TikTok users.
However, the TikTok personal account does not allow you to run paid Ads since TikTok Ad Manager is available only to business account users. In addition, as far as data analysis is concerned, this account type provides minimal information.
What is a TikTok Business Account?
As the name implies, a TikTok business account is designed to help brands and businesses sell their products and services on the platform. This type of account comes with marketing tools that allow businesses to create ads, run campaigns and track the performance of their promotional content in terms of reach, clicks, impressions, sales, revenue and more.
With a business account, you can access TikTok Ads Manager, which gives you a clear insight into the performance of your video content and ad campaigns. You can also A/B several versions of your promotional content to determine what resonates with your target audience.
Pros and Cons of TikTok Personal Account
Knowing the pros and cons of a TikTok personal account can help you decide if it is the best fit for your needs. Here are some key advantages and disadvantages worthy of note.
Advantages of TikTok Personal Account
1. Allows You to Use Trending Music and Sound
Although TikTok is known to be the home of viral content and songs, only personal account users can enjoy full access to these trending sounds. You can use any song or content of your choice from the TikTok music library to create your own content without worrying about copyright infringement.
This is particularly a significant advantage for personal accounts since using trending songs is an effective way of organically boosting visibility, a feature business account users can only dream of.
2. Can be Monetized
TikTok provides monetization programs for personal account users, offering cash incentives to creators for their video content. Additionally, you can get LIVE gifts and brand partnership gigs if you have a large following.
3. Privacy Settings
TikTok personal offers more privacy settings. If you want to limit who can view or interact with your account, the personal account allows you to do just that.
Disadvantages of TikTok Personal Account
1. No Access to Paid Ads
You can’t run paid ad campaigns with a TikTok personal account. This means you can only grow your account or increase your visibility organically.
Your best chance of growing your account is by creating higher quality content, connecting with other creators, encouraging your existing followers to like and share your content and more. All of which may take a long time to pay off.
2. Limited Analytics
Another disadvantage of using a personal account is that you have limited access to data analysis. The analytics pages only show information such as the number of post views, likes, shares, profile views and comments. With limited information to work with, you may struggle with identifying specific aspects of your content that need improvement.
3. Cannot Integrate with Third-Party Apps
Unlike business accounts, TikTok creator accounts can’t integrate with third-party social media management apps like Hootsuite and Buffer. Or messaging apps like respond.io. This means you have to manually handle everything on your page, which can be overwhelming.
Who is TikTok Personal Account Best for?
If you enjoy creating content or wish to become an influencer, the TikTok personal account is your best bet. Also, if you are someone who just wants to share fun content online, engage with your audience and grow your accounts, a personal account is all you need.
Pros and Cons of TikTok Business Account
Since we’ve seen the pros and cons of a TikTok personal account, let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages associated with a business account.
Advantages of TikTok Business Account
1. Integration with E-commerce Platforms
One of the biggest advantages of using a TikTok business is that it allows you to seamlessly integrate your account with e-commerce platforms like Shopify. This way, you can create a virtual shop on your TikTok called TikTok Shop, which lets audiences buy your product or service directly within your profile without exiting the app.
Having a TikTok shop can tremendously boost your sales rate as more than 70% of TikTok users say they buy something they come across in their feed. Learning how TikTok Shop works and how to sell on TikTok can help increase your sales and revenue.
2. Access to TikTok Web Business Suite
Another huge advantage of a business account is the Web Business Suite that it comes with. The suit gives you access to features such as;
- Advanced Analytics: Eliminates guesswork by providing a well-detailed insight into the overall performance of your business, which helps you make better decisions. You can see details such as the number of video views, follower demographics (age, gender, location) and engagement metrics, including likes, comments and shares. In addition, TikTok analytics can help you identify the best time to post content and collaboration opportunities.
- Workspace: Comes with Promote, an advertising tool that helps boost your video visibility, leading to an increase in traffic generation and followership.
- Activity and Support: Discover creative ideas and information on how to optimize your business account.
3. Access to Ad Manager
The business account comes with a TikTok Ad Manager for creating, running and managing paid advertising campaigns. In addition, you can target specific audiences for ads based on factors like location, age, gender and more.
These are just the tip of the iceberg of what the advertising feature offers. There are several other game-changing reasons why your business needs TikTok advertising.
4. Auto-Messaging
Manually responding to customers limits how much you can scale. It can easily overwhelm your agents and delay time to respond to prospects. 50% of customers are less likely to buy from a business that responds too slowly.
This is where the auto-responder feature comes in. TikTok business account allows you to set automatic messages that address your customers’ common concerns.
If you use TikTok Messaging Ads, you can integrate it into a customer conversation management software like respond.io to customize and create sophisticated automated responses. It’s Workflows automation builder and AI Agent offer better responses, improving the odds customers buying from you.
5. Advanced Profile Customization Abilities
The TikTok business account offers exclusive customization features once you register your business on the business suite. These include app download links, link-in-bio, lead generation, business page and video geo-targeting. Customizing these options allows you to stand out from competitors.
Disadvantages of TikTok Business Account
1. Can’t be Directly Monetized
One of the disadvantages of a business account is that it can’t be directly monetized, unlike a personal account. While businesses can generate sales and revenue through the app, business accounts can’t participate in TikTok monetization programs like creator funds and live gifts. That said, your only hope of making money through the platform is by actively and aggressively promoting your product and services.
2. Doesn’t Allow the Use of Public Music
Another major drawback of this type of account is restricted access to public sound and music. We all know TikTok to be a haven of trending songs and content.
However, only personal accounts can fully enjoy the free use of these materials. A business account, on the other hand, has to worry about licensing restrictions, therefore limiting its access to public music. This limitation can prevent you from jumping on trends that can benefit your business.
With all of this in mind, which businesses should use TikTok Business account?
Who is TikTok Bussiness Account Best for?
While any business can start a TikTok Business Account, you should consider using it if you run ad campaigns. This is where you can scale your growth and reach many more customers. Here are a few success stories that showcase the impact a TikTok Business Account has.
- Travel: Accor, a leading hotel group, became the first in its industry to globally launch Dynamic Travel Ads on TikTok, achieving a 2.3x increase in return on ad spend (ROAS).
- E-commerce: PedidosYa, a Latin American food delivery platform, acquired new customers by 11% and in-app purchases by 7%.
- Retail: Nectar Sleep, a mattress retailer, used TikTok ads to capitalize on a holiday peak shopping period. During this campaign, they reduced their cost per acquisition by 59% while increasing their ROAS by 172%!
- Professional Services: Apartments.com, an online rental marketplace, has addressed every stage of the marketing funnel, from awareness to conversion. It Improved the click-through rate by 72% while reducing cost per impression by 16%.
Final Verdict: TikTok Business Account vs Personal
If all you want to do is share content and grow your followings on TikTok, a personal account can get you that. However, if you want to do a lot more than that, especially as a business owner, the business account is your best option. With features like Ad Manager, detailed analytics, auto-messaging and TikTok Shop, it can take your business to the next level.
5 Easy Steps to Switch from TikTok Personal to TikTok Business Account
Switching to a TikTok business account is a straightforward process. Simply follow the steps below to switch your account.
1. Log in to your account and head over to your profile
2. Tap on the three lines in the top-right.
3. Click on Settings and Privacy
4. Select Account from the list of options.
4. Tap Switch to Business Account
Finally, follow the prompts you see on your screen to set up your business profile.
How to Make the Most of your TikTok Business Account
Choosing to use a TikTok business account is one thing, making the most of it is another. Here are a few tips that can help you grow your business using this account.
Use TikTok Ads
TikTok Ads is your best bet for reaching a larger audience and growing your account faster. The ad feature offers various ad options including ad placement. We recommend you explore Ad Manager to identify what is obtainable and how to best tailor your ads to achieve your desired results. Also, it is paramount that you understand TikTok Ads costs so you can maximize returns on investment (ROI).
For example, Gina Tricot, a Swedish fashion ran a TikTok advertising campaign that generated a 28% boost in return on ad spend, as well as causing a 64% drop in cost per action.
Create Quality and Engaging Content
Content is the heart of TikTok. Therefore, to succeed, create videos that can easily capture the attention of your audience and encourage interaction. Storytelling can be an effective way to make it happen. Instead of just shooting plain videos that showcase your product, try creating a story around the product.
This could be a story of how the product satisfied a customer's needs, or how to maintain the product in question. Most importantly, don’t forget to keep it short. Since the average attention span of humans has dropped to about 8.25 seconds, creating short videos increases your chances of success. Statistically speaking, videos that are less than 90 seconds retain a 50% viewership rate and can boost sales by up to 80%.
Engage with Your Audience
While you are trying to sell something on TikTok, remember that TikTok is a social platform. And like other social platforms, engaging with your audience helps you build a strong online presence and community around your brand.
Respond to as many comments on your content as you can. Doing this will help create a connection and make your followers feel valued. In addition to that, responding promptly to direct messages in your inbox would also be a plus. If you have a large customer base, handling this manually can be overwhelming.
This is where we come in. You can integrate respond.io into your app to improve your messaging capabilities and increase your lead conversion rate. Using respond.io, Qobolak had 95% more lead conversions from their advertising efforts.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can I switch from a TikTok personal to a business account?
Yes, you can and the process is straightforward. We have covered the steps in the guide above.
2. How can I manage leads and close more sales on TikTok?
You can do this by using a TikTok business account which allows you to integrate third-party messaging apps like respond.io into your TikTok account. Using a dedicated messaging app helps boost your response time and increase your chances of successfully closing a deal.
3. Can I run ads on my TikTok personal account?
No, you can’t. Only the TikTok Business account gives you access to this feature.
Get Started with TikTok Messaging Ads Today
Exciting news! TikTok Instant Messaging Ads is now available in Beta for LATAM. Businesses can now connect with TikTok leads via WhatsApp and Messenger to provide consultations, book appointments and close sales — all in one chat.
Access is available via whitelisting for select LATAM countries. To apply, fill out the appropriate form:
Special Offer: Receive 50% off TikTok Instant Messaging Ads spending from December 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, when you integrate with respond.io and optimise your campaigns toward conversations.
🌏 For APAC: Integration is open to all countries — no whitelisting required. Download our TikTok Ads E-Book to know more, or book a consultation to get started today.
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Further Reading
If you enjoyed reading this article, check out these other blogs:
- Ultimate Guide to TikTok for Business
- 5 Game-Changing Reasons Businesses Need TikTok Advertising
- How to Sell on TikTok: Turn Scrolls into Sales with TikTok Shop and Beyond
