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Welcome to HubSpot's Expert Edge Series, where we interview top execs at major brands to explore their perspectives on the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the industry.
TikTok is the envy of social media sites. Between 2024 and 2025, we’ve seen many social networks rolling out their own vertical video feeds to become more like the viral video juggernaut.
And it’s no wonder that these networks are trying to lure away TikTok’s creators and audience. According to our 2025 State of Marketing and Trends report, almost 21% of marketers say that short-form video gives the highest ROI, and 17% say they’re increasing their investment in short-form videos in 2025.
But the million-dollar question remains: Sure, TikTok is great at cultivating trends and generating sales thanks to TikTok Shop, but can you really generate strong leads from the platform?
The short answer? Yes. If you want the long answer — including how to generate leads — keep reading for expert tips from Lorry Destainville, TikTok's Global Head of Product Partnerships, and other experts.
And for even more insights, check out our latest TikTok Marketing Report as you embark on your lead gen journey.
TikTok Lead Gen
Meet a next-gen solution built for the new way people discover and connect with
- Industry data & stats.
- Best practices from TikTok.
- Metrics to track.
- And more!
TikTok Can Do More Than Drive Brand Awareness
For starters, I wanted to know whether Destainville truly believes TikTok is a viable platform for generating leads — because plenty of platforms are fantastic for brand awareness, but less powerful for lead generation.
Fortunately, Destainville told me plenty of TikTok's audience currently uses the platform to connect with new businesses and discover new products. And the data supports this. Product discovery is the number one reason why users interact with brands on TikTok, according to Sprout Social’s 2024 Media Content Strategy Report. And this is especially true for Gen Z.
It’s no wonder #TikTokmademebuyit is so huge. Not only do I see endless videos tagged with that hashtag on TikTok itself, but creators I follow on places like YouTube and Instagram can’t help but talk about the products they’ve found on TikTok as well.
Destainville says that “generating leads on TikTok allows businesses to drive that interaction with their new customers.”
Users are 1.3x more likely to sign up for something from a TikTok ad compared to other platforms, and 2 in 5 people actually end up following a brand after filling out a form on the platform.
Destainville also believes TikTok is viable for both B2B and B2C brands: “There's space for everyone. We have consumers, but we also have business owners on the platform, too … So there are absolutely B2B decision-makers within that audience.”
Ultimately, TikTok is a full-funnel advertising platform with built-in analytics tools to enable marketers to observe metrics like views, likes, comments, unique visitors, engagement, and reach.
Plus, TikTok integrates with HubSpot , so if you‘re a HubSpot customer, you’re in luck: You can now sync the leads you've gained via TikTok with your HubSpot CRM in real time.
6 Tips for Generating Leads on TikTok, According to TikTok's Global Head of Product Partnerships
1. Combine your organic and paid strategies.
At HubSpot, we’ve found that polished, high-quality content oftentimes doesn't perform as well as more authentic, natural iPhone content on social platforms.
Destainville says the same is true of TikTok, and he encourages businesses to lean into their organic content when they're looking to generate leads.
As Destainville puts it, “What's interesting is that for lead generation, organic and paid work smarter together. Having some great organic content that can be useful in generating ads can be very empowering for brands.”
He adds, “The ability to combine or optimize creative along with a lead gen call-to-action will drive to a much higher brand purchase. Put another way: It really is about the amplification of organic content through paid, which will then drive to earned media.”
This is fantastic news for SMBs with minimal advertising budgets: It means an organic-first strategy will actually yield stronger returns than creating a brand-new, flashy advertising campaign for TikTok.
2. When in doubt, go natural — not polished.
As Destainville told me, “There‘s a desire or an ambition from businesses who are advertising with TikTok for the first time to have the most polished content, but that’s not necessarily the priority, nor is it the ultimate best practice.”
Destainville believes a 20-second video created in the back of a car will likely work better than an ad that was shot in a studio. And that's great news for all of us: Less time spent producing and editing means more time to experiment on the platform and brainstorm ideas for content.
I have definitely found that when I make TikToks, homespun vibes work better compared to sleek and smooth content. Thinking in TikTok aesthetics, I say going for a more casual, boho feel instead of coiffed and buttoned-up coastal grandma.
Destainville says there’s no perfect formula to succeed on the platform. “What I can tell you is that the number one priority is to be authentic,” he says. “That‘s the true nature of the connection between any creator and TikTok’s user base. Authenticity is the name of the game, particularly because it leads to a great deal of trust."
Annie-Mai Hodge, founder of Girl Power Marketing and a tireless chronicler of the latest social media network updates, told me to watch how brands are “using social video as a bridge between visibility and depth.”
“Rather than chasing viral moments, many are leaning into consistent, lower-stakes video to reinforce brand values, share process, or highlight community,” she said.
Similar to Destainville’s point, Hodge told me, “In 2025, the most effective use of video isn’t necessarily the most polished or performative, it’s the one that helps a brand show up regularly, stay top of mind, build long-term familiarity and trust with their audience.”
3. Be a user first, and a marketer second.
Destainville acknowledges that it can be daunting when you begin creating content on TikTok. With all the clever skits, challenges, and of course, viral dances, how can businesses compete?
To get started on the platform, Destainville encourages business owners to watch TikTok content before they begin creating their own.
He says, “If I‘m a business owner and I’m going on TikTok for the first time, I'm going to want to pay attention to what the conversation in my industry is about. What do my competitors post about? What are the ways they engage with the community?”
I see his point: Last week, I tried creating my own TikTok account. And I watched exactly zero TikTok videos before creating my own. How did it pay off?
11 views to date.
In other words, a little research goes a long way and could save you a lot of time and effort. As someone who’s used to making videos longer than a minute, I first struggled with how to get my point across efficiently. On TikTok, you only have a few seconds to hook someone before they scroll away. So, it’s important to look at how successful creators make use of their time.
As Destainville puts it, “You want to learn these platforms as a user first – and a marketer second.”
The lesson here is to see what resonates most with TikTok's audience, find your niche within that, and then just keep posting.
“The one thing I think businesses tend to get wrong is to try to create a viral moment or expect that it is going to happen as a primary KPI,” says Destainville. “I would much rather consider a steady volume of engagement with content on the platform to be a success, rather than a one-off moment."
Consistency and engagement are the key, agrees Brian Alves, founder of Marketing Nerds, and author of Reframed, a newsletter about video marketing strategies.
“In today's marketing world, high engagement is somewhat similar to generating a lead,” he said. “On TikTok, you have to keep people engaged, watching, commenting, liking, and sharing. And spreading that word around, people start wondering about you, who you are.”
4. Don‘t just copy/paste from another platform — lean into TikTok’s uniqueness.
Destainville encourages marketers to ensure they‘re making content for TikTok’s audience first.
As he told me, "When approaching a new platform — whether it‘s TikTok or something else — I think having an open mind to learning what’s going to be unique on that platform and really leaning into that is going to be key. So don‘t just copy-paste an ad campaign into TikTok. Focus on TikTok’s audience first."
This makes sense: A TikTok user's expectations vary significantly compared to what they might expect to see on LinkedIn or even Instagram. Before considering how you can turn your audience into customers, you want to engage with them and entertain them — and that can only happen if you take the time to truly learn the platform.
When asked what sets TikTok apart, Destainville had one word: Creativity.
He says, “TikTok is the best platform to demonstrate creativity, and it only takes opening up the app to see what I mean. One example that comes to mind is how a subset of creators review certain songs produced in the past and add their own two cents – the creativity that comes out of that is absolutely mind-blowing.”
To succeed on the platform, you’ll want to lean into creativity, novelty, and playfulness. And, like any platform, the more you test, the better you'll understand what works best for your audience.
5. Focus on your form.
Beyond high-level strategy, Destainville has a few tactical tips for generating leads through TikTok.
His suggestions include:
- Use visuals. In your profile, make sure you create customized logos, as well as header and footer images.
- In your lead forms, be conscious of the number of questions – set a maximum of six questions.
- Use logic settings and custom questions with the advanced form to switch up questions based on how someone responded to your first question.
- Leverage strong lead qualifying questions to quickly discern between qualified and unqualified leads.
- Link to your privacy policy to guarantee any personal information is secure in accordance with local regulations.
- Include a review screen to ensure all information is correct.
- Don't forget to say thank you!
6. Set up your campaign for success.
When getting started with your lead gen campaigns, set your daily budget at 10x your expected CPA. Use the dayparting feature if you want to launch on a specific schedule (i.e., not weekends).
Make sure you use broad targeting to understand who your audience is on TikTok. Broad targeting also helps you gain the volume needed to build retargeting lists based on interactions with your form during peak seasonal moments, which contributes to higher conversion rates.
Additionally, consider leveraging spark ads to turn high-performing organic content into ads in an instant. And finally, integrate your CRM with TikTok to seamlessly and efficiently prospect and manage leads.
Ready to get started? Click here to start running lead-gen ads on TikTok and boost your content to new, high-intent audiences immediately.
As a Marketer, Get Good at Embracing Change
“Over the past few years, I‘ve spoken to business leaders and marketers about the opportunity to be successful on TikTok, and you’d be surprised by the amount of people who respond, ‘Oh, I’ll ask my daughter to show me,'” Destainville told me.
He adds, “I always think … Well, would you ask your daughter to show you how to spend multi-million dollar budgets on social media?”
Ultimately, he encourages marketers and business owners to step outside their comfort zones to truly learn the platform and test different types of content.
“Embrace the change,” Destainville says. “The brands who are the most successful on TikTok are the ones who take a leap of faith.”
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Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
TikTok Lead Gen
Meet a next-gen solution built for the new way people discover and connect with
- Industry data & stats.
- Best practices from TikTok.
- Metrics to track.
- And more!
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