Wondering how to write TikTok scripts that convert?
TikTok has achieved meteoric growth in the world of social media, challenging established networks like Facebook and establishing itself as a major player. The app currently boasts around 1bn monthly active users and TikTok content often leads the way when it comes to global video trends and viral challenges.
However, TikTok isn’t just attracting hordes of new users. Ambitious marketers are also flocking to the platform to capitalise on exciting video advertising opportunities, and TikTok ads can be highly effective for digital advertisers.
The right TikTok video can generate huge organic reach and mass engagement, helping you to grow brand awareness and drive those all-important sales.
But while it’s easy to obsess over the visual elements of your TikTok videos, the importance of a well-crafted and sales-optimised video script shouldn’t be overlooked.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to write successful TikTok scripts that engage and convert high-value audiences.
Why use a TikTok video script?
Authentic, UGC-style content has become extremely popular among social media advertisers. These videos feel inherently natural and trustworthy, which helps marketers quickly gain credibility with their audience.
But this type of TikTok video has a time and a place.
Not every video needs to be spontaneous and shot from the hip. Sometimes, adding a little more structure to your content can help you dramatically improve performance and boost your conversion rate.
By taking the time to create solid TikTok scripts, you can ensure that you effectively showcase your key product benefits, address your audience’s pain points, and provide viewers with a compelling reason to buy.
When your brand communications are carefully constructed and polished, they can be incredibly convincing for potential customers on TikTok.
How to write TikTok scripts that sell
While it takes a bit of time to produce high-performing TikTok scripts, the results usually make the process more than worthwhile.
Plus, you don’t need to be a budding Spielberg to write something effective.
By following a few simple best practices, you can create a strong script that works hard for your business.
Below are some expert tips for writing TikTok scripts that engage your target audience, highlight your products, and enhance your overall marketing performance.
1. Understand your target audience
If you don’t understand who your target audience is, it’s going to be extremely difficult to write TikTok scripts that resonates with them. Generic TikTok videos are easily forgotten, but if your content feels tailored to your viewers, it’s infinitely more likely to hold their attention.
Understanding your target audience isn’t just about basic demographic information, either.
You need to pinpoint their specific interests, passions, aspirations, and challenges if you’re going to produce content that genuinely engages them.
Before you start working on a TikTok video script, try to harvest as many robust audience insights as possible. Use the TikTok Audience Insights tool to build a clearer picture of your viewers, identifying their common passions and interest categories to fuel your scriptwriting.
Once you’ve built up a more detailed buyer persona, you’ll be able to produce a script that speaks directly to your audience and keeps them hooked. The more personalised your script feels, the better the results will be.
2. Break down your audience’s pain points
If you want to write TikTok scripts that generate conversions, you need to show a clear understanding of your audience’s pain points.
When TikTok users feel like you truly understand their challenges, they’ll be more receptive to your brand messages. Try to highlight common issues or obstacles that the majority of your viewers will be facing so that you can engage a wider audience.
It’s also very important to be as specific as possible when you’re breaking down these pain points or irritations. Rather than making sweeping statements, focus on particular problems or situations that your products can solve.
For example:
- Many businesses struggle to personalise their marketing emails at scale.
…feels more specific and impactful than:
- Many businesses struggle with their email marketing campaigns.
Calling out a specific issue, fact, or statistic is a terrific way to instantly increase the relevance of your video script.
3. Emphasise how your products can solve audience challenges
Once you’ve identified your audience’s biggest challenges, you need to swiftly demonstrate how your products or services can resolve them.
After watching your TikTok videos, users should be 100% clear on how your brand can address their particular problems. Making the connection between pain points and remedies is key, so stay focused on this when writing or editing your scripts.
You should also harness the power of specifics whenever you’re talking about your products.
Statistics and hard facts are far more persuasive than blanket statements, so use them to your advantage.
For instance, highlighting that your product saves users ‘30 minutes a day’ is more impactful than saying it saves ‘lots of time’. The more specific your messages are, the better.
Finally, when you’re drafting new TikTok scripts, concentrate on showcasing product benefits rather than product features. Your audience isn’t interested in how your products work – they’re interested in how they can work for them.
4. Keep your script copy concise
Free-flowing writing is fine for the first draft of your TikTok scripts, but you need to be ruthless with your editing to create a high-performing TikTok video.
Keep your video scripts tight and concise to give yourself the best chance of capturing (and retaining) audience attention.
25% of the top-performing videos on the TikTok platform have a duration of 21 to 34 seconds, so bear this in mind when you’re pulling your script together.
TikTok is packed with fast-moving and punchy videos, so if your script is painfully long-winded, your audience is almost certainly going to lose interest. The average human’s attention span is now a mere 8 seconds, so you need to land your core messages quickly and efficiently.
Aim to use simple and clear language that’s easy for users to understand.
Your audience will be scrolling through a near-infinite amount of new content in the TikTok feed, so it’s crucial that your messages are simple to absorb.
5. Focus on the first few seconds of your TikTok
The opening seconds of your video are vital for capturing the attention of your viewers, and your scriptwriting needs to reflect this.
According to TikTok data, 63% of all videos with the highest click-through rate (CTR) communicate their key product messages within the first 3 seconds.
Many users will lack the patience to stick with a longer video ad, so there’s no time to waste.
Make sure that your brand logo and primary message appear as quickly as possible so that even viewers with a tiny attention span can acknowledge the key information.
A good way to ensure that you’re making the most of these precious opening seconds is to imagine how your script will come to life in audio and video. Read your first lines out loud, and visualise how they’ll appear to your audience – will viewers be able to retain the most important information that you’re trying to communicate?
6. Lead with a strong hook in your TikTok scripts
When you’re writing your TikTok script, aim to lead with a persuasive hook that will convince your audience to stay tuned.
Social proof can be a valuable tool to utilise here, as it allows you to instantly create intrigue and reinforce the credibility of your business.
For example, if you immediately inform your audience that your product is ‘trusted by over 7,000 customers’, you’re giving viewers a compelling reason to watch the rest of your video and discover why your brand is so popular.
This is the power of a strong hook.
However, this doesn’t mean that you need to resort to hyperbole or exaggeration to keep users interested. Just focus on delivering an interesting product benefit or statistic that will help your video to stand out in a competitive feed.
There’s also no need to get bogged down in the technical details of your products when you’re pulling together a punchy TikTok video script.
Users can always visit your website for more information if they’re interested – your job is to create a script and an opening hook that will stir up their curiosity.
7. Write TikTok scripts that sound natural
Whenever you’re crafting a TikTok video script, remember that your words will be spoken out loud in the final product. Your script needs to flow easily when read aloud, so concentrate on using natural language and phrases that feel authentic.
It’s dangerously easy to end up with long, rambling sentences on a computer screen, but short and snappy statements will translate best to a TikTok video.
Think carefully about the intended audience for your videos too.
- Will they understand technical phrases?
- Do you need to simplify complex terms for them?
- Could colloquial language make your brand more endearing?
- Is a formal tone more appropriate?
You’ll also need to account for breaths and natural pauses when you’re working on your final script. It can be difficult to imagine a voice-over cadence when you’re typing away at a keyboard, so read your script out loud to make sure that it’s not jarring or overly wordy.
8. Don’t shy away from storytelling
A story driven TikTok script can help you to highlight your product benefits in a more captivating way.
(And don’t worry, you don’t need to create in-depth characters or a complex plot.)
All you need to do is build a simple story that resonates with your target audience and positions your products in the centre of the action.
For example, you might show how a customer overcomes a daily challenge and improves their situation by using your products.
The first thing to concentrate on is setting up a clear structure for your story that’s easy to follow. Introduce a common pain point or obstacle, show the wider impact of this issue, and then resolve the situation with your products or services.
You should also make sure that there’s a well-defined ending to your story that wraps everything up and nudges users in the right direction. Try to finish your script by reiterating your key messages and deliver a strong CTA that tells your audience what to do next.
However, it’s worth noting here that a story-driven narrative won’t necessarily fit every brand or brief – don’t try to force it if it doesn’t come naturally.
9. Test your scripts on family and friends
Although you might feel like you’ve nailed your video script, it can be difficult to judge the quality of your own work.
That’s why testing out your scripts on family and friends is a fantastic way to expose potential weak points in your content. Try to spot the moments where your listeners lose interest in the script or identify any phrases that feel particularly jarring.
Take all of this feedback on board and use it to refine your scriptwriting.
The process may take a couple of rounds to perfect, but the end result will make the edits worthwhile.
This is also a good opportunity to make sure that your key points are sticking with your audience. Establish the main product benefits or brand messages that you’d like viewers to remember, and check that your listeners can recall them after you finish the script.
If your audience can easily soak up your key messages, then you can proceed to create your TikTok video with confidence.
10. Use subtitles to make content easily accessible
Subtitles are hugely important in the world of social media marketing.
Studies suggest that 91% of videos with captions are watched until the end, compared to just 66% of videos without captions.
Not every user will be browsing the TikTok feed with their sound on, and if you’re relying exclusively on audio to communicate your messages, you could be missing out on a substantial number of viewers.
By including subtitles in your TikTok videos, you can broaden the appeal of your content and make it immediately accessible for anyone without audio enabled.
Fortunately, TikTok offers a convenient Auto Captions tool for brands which enables them to set up video subtitles quickly and easily.
This is another important reason to ensure that your video script is snappy, succinct, and simple. Your script will need to translate easily into on-screen subtitles, which means you need to cut down on long-winded sentences.
11. Finish strong
We’ve already highlighted the importance of the opening seconds of your TikTok videos – but the finale of your content is just as important as the beginning.
Don’t let your script fall down at the final hurdle with a weak or forgettable ending. If you produce a top-notch piece of video content but fail to make an impact in the closing seconds, you risk users scrolling on without taking action.
Try to wrap up your TikTok script with a clear conclusion and an obvious CTA.
Think carefully about the action that you’d like your audience to take, and make sure that the end of your video sends them in the right direction. For example, if you want viewers to visit your website, remind them why they should click and provide them with a visible prompt.
You should also use the closing seconds of your script to reiterate your most important brand messages. If you have a highly persuasive product claim or statistic, this is a fantastic opportunity to re-emphasise it so that viewers are guaranteed to remember it.
It’s also a good idea to show off your branding once again so that users will remember your name and logo.
12. Establish your marketing goal (and track against it)
Before you even put pen to paper, you should be crystal clear on what you’re hoping to achieve with your TikTok videos. If you don’t establish an actionable marketing objective before starting content creation, you’ll struggle to create a focused script that helps you to achieve your goals.
Ask yourself a few basic questions before you start pulling together a script.
- What do you want viewers to do after watching your TikTok?
- How can you ensure that viewers will perform the right action?
- How will you measure the success of your activity?
Once you understand your primary marketing objectives, it will become much easier to produce a script that allows you to tackle them.
You’ll also need to ensure that you have access to analytics data that can help you to connect the dots between your video performance and business goals.
The TikTok Analytics dashboard is a great place to start for video engagement metrics, and if you’re interested in tracking conversions or specific website events, you can implement the TikTok Pixel for more granular data.
Setting up custom reports that highlight your priority metrics (e.g. views, clicks, comments) will also help you to concentrate on the key data and gather valuable insights that can fuel your future campaigns.
Wrapping it up
Planning and executing a TikTok script can be a game-changer for your video performance.
A script can help you to structure your content effectively, focus clearly on your core messages, and ensure that your videos are tailored to your target audience.
A well-crafted script can also enable you to stand out from the competition, particularly if other brands are relying exclusively on off-the-cuff, UGC-style videos.
If you’re thinking about producing a video script for an upcoming project, just remember some of the basic principles that we’ve shared in this guide.
Always think about your audience when you’re drafting a new script, consider how your words will translate to audio and video, and be meticulous with your editing to create a polished piece of content.
Guest Author: Jordan Bucknell is the founder and CEO of Upbeat, a London based digital marketing agency. We help companies to drive sales, generate leads and grow their brand using forward thinking creative and the latest media buying techniques.
