Including TikTok in your marketing strategy is an obvious choice. TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media networks and boasts many features outside of just memes and dances, including shopping. Users on the platform are more likely to buy products from advertisements on the app.

In the event you’d like to tap into the Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, consider spending some of your advertising budget on TikTok. Learn how to create successful ads on TikTok, utilize the ads manager, and incorporate TikTok advertising best practices to get the most out of your return on ad spend (ROAS).

What are ads on TikTok?

Ads on TikTok are sponsored pieces of content, typically in the form of an advertisement or full-screen video, that a brand or creator is trying to market toward a specific group of people.

TikTok’s ads are a form of social media marketing, as they are intended to either market the brand or business or sell a particular product or service. When talking about ads on TikTok, there are three tiers or levels of organization:

TikTok Ad: Refers to a single ad. Single TikTok ads typically come in the form of videos promoting a product or service or a special offer from TikTok.
TikTok Ad Group: A group that consists of TikTok Ads.
TikTok Campaign: Groups of TikTok Ad Groups.

For instance, a clothing brand may promote a sneaker in a short TikTok video ad. This particular advertisement is just one out of several marketing videos within an ad group categorized under a campaign geared towards summer footwear sales.

How much do TikTok ads cost?

The total expenditure on TikTok advertisements is influenced by various factors:

Ad type. Depending on their visibility and placement, different ad types like in-feed ads, brand takeovers, and branded hashtag challenges tend to differ in cost.
Ad Targeting Level. The greater the specificity of your target audience, the more expensive it will be to reach them. But if the fit is worthwhile, the expenditure may be worth it.
Bidding method. The cost of your ads can be affected by your bidding method (CPC or CPM) because TikTok operates on an auction system where advertisers bid for ad placement.
Advertiser Competition. The cost of your ads may vary with the level of competition you experience in your particular industry. If a large number of advertisers within your niche are targeting the same audience as you, costs may increase.

Ad Types in TikTok

There are multiple ways of advertising on TikTok. It is upon you to pick the most suitable one for accomplishing the goal of reaching your target audience. Below are the different options provided for the TikTok advertising platform:

In-feed video: These ads are found within the news feed of TikTok users on the For You Page.
Spark ads: TikTok introduced this type of ad in 2021 and allows brands to promote relevant organic content that is already doing well for their products.
TopView ads: These ads pop up when users launch the application. They are full-screen, sound-on videos, which makes it easy to grab their attention.
Image ads: These are ads in the form of images that contain a brand or app name and some information below it.
Video ads: These are ads that take the form of videos that last between 5 and 60 seconds and they always pop up on a user’s For You page.
Pangle ads: It is a feature of the Pangle video platform that integrates with TikTok to bring about video, native, and banner ads, but it is limited to certain countries.
Carousel ads: These ads contain up to 10 images and are displayed in TikTok’s news feed applications.
Video shopping ads: A person can click on a product image from the video ad to visit an instant gallery page that opens within the app, thanks to a shoppable feature.
Branded effects: Stickers and filters are examples of AR content that users can employ in their videos and TikTok can promote these branded ads to users.
Hashtag challenge: These ads show up in the form of challenges found in the Discovery section of the app and invite users to participate.
Sponsored influencer content: An ad type on TikTok where the ad message is integrated into the content of a popular TikTok creator is called sponsored content.
Playable ads: These types of ads are made for gaming companies where users can interact by playing a portion of the game without downloading it.

How to Set Up a TikTok Ad Campaign

Log into the TikTok Ads Manager and select Campaign. Afterwards, follow the next steps to launch your ads:

1. Set your objective

Clearly stated objectives are the pillars that support a successful campaign. TikTok ads cater to each section of the sales funnel. The seven options TikTok offers are as follows:

Brand awareness Reach
Traffic to a URL
App installs
Video Views
Lead generation via a pre-populated form
Website Conversion
Catalog sales for managed ad account holders

2. Set your campaign budget

Creating a campaign budget will enable you to set limits and control ad spending. You will assign a budget later to each ad group. Be prepared to think about how to allocate your resources because there’s an option for specific ad group budgets later. You’ll also choose a name for your campaign. Names are limited to 512 characters.

3. Choose your ad placements

The first thing to do when setting up your ad placements is to select a campaign. You can further split each campaign into individual ad groups (maximum of 999). Thereafter, every ad group can have its own descriptive name.

For each ad group, you can select one or multiple placements that include:

“TikTok placement” (In-feed ads)
“News feed app placement” (Ads within TikTok’s other apps)
Pangle ad network
Automatic placement (TikTok optimizes ad placement)

4. Optional: Enable automated creative optimization

With this feature, TikTok can create several combinations of the images, videos, and texts you provide to optimize it. The ad system will automatically display the best-performing ads. For now, just choose whether you would like to activate this feature or manage it on your own.

5. Define your target audience

To maximize your ad spend, you can narrow the audience that will see your ad through different demographics. Some of the specific characteristics are:

Age
Gender
Language
Location
Interests (Technology, Automotive, Baby, kids and maternity)
Behaviors
Devices

6. Select ad group budget

Next, you assign budgets to each ad group individually. You can assign a daily or lifetime budget for each ad group. The Dayparting feature also lets you choose to run your ads at certain times in certain time zones.

7. Select a bidding strategy

Advertisers on TikTok can choose among three bidding strategies, which are:

Bid Cap: where you set a maximum bid per CPC, per view, or per 1,000 impressions (CPM).
Cost Cap: The average cost for every 1,000 impressions is called the CPM, which can go over or under the cap but will average out to what is prescribed.
Lowest Cost: The campaign ad spend is optimized automatically to achieve the highest possible outcome for the lowest price.

Standard delivery will enable your ad spend over the campaign duration evenly, while accelerated delivery will utilize your ad budget as fast as possible.

8. Create the Ads

Up to twenty ads can be incorporated in each ad group. Select an ad format and upload your image or video or use TikTok’s ad manager to make a video using TikTok’s tools and templates.

Create or select a default thumbnail, add your text and link, and preview the ad while you build it. After adding all parts, click Submit. Before going live, all ads are reviewed by TikTok.

Best Practices for Advertising on TikTok

Here are some recommendations to ensure TikTok ad campaigns perform at their best:

1. Make TikTok your priority

Make your ad videos as organic to the platform as possible. Use platform-specific voiceovers, text overlays, and green screens, as well as duets! On top of that, users appreciate brands adopting TikTok trends, memes, or challenges.

2. Constantly refresh your creativity

Even the best ads on TikTok get old over time. To prevent this from happening, TikTok suggests advertisers use different creative assets during the initial stages and change ad creative every 7 days. Smart Creative and Smart Video tools can help accelerate this process.

3. Highlight the hook

Your hook is one of the most important factors to consider. If you do not pay attention to your hook, you run the risk of missing out on 90% of the ad recall impact recall that occurs in the first 6 seconds. Make sure your value proposition is explained early, along with incorporating suspense, surprise, or emotion to get the audience’s attention.

4. Promote during peak ad times

It is crucial to understand when the best times to post TikTok videos are so that your content receives maximum visibility. Furthermore, timing your ad campaigns alongside trending topics and events can also stir up interest for your campaign. Furthermore, please keep in mind that TikTok analytics can tell you the best time to place your ads to maximize reach to potential audiences.

5. Add hashtags

Hashtags play an integral role in helping audiences find content. So be sure to check for trending TikTok hashtags as well as what is displayed on the TikTok discovery page, and select the ones that best suit your advertisement and brand.

6. Collaborate with influencers

Partnering with TikTok influencers can give your ad campaign a considerable boost of reach, as these influencers already possess an established following. On the TikTok Creators Marketplace, find influencers who are already using your product or who fall into your target audience. Either create a fresh campaign with the influencer to generate interest around your brand or search for influencers who have great Spark Ad-ready content and let them promote it.

7. Make adjustments and optimize

Utilize your TikTok analytics on a regular basis to determine how your TikTok ad campaigns are performing. Consider views, interactions, and click rates. Change your content strategy if it isn’t meeting your standards.

Conclusion

As stated before, creativity blended with company data is necessary to reliably create successful TikTok ad campaigns. Knowing your intended audience and using TikTok features will help you create captivating ads that speak to users. Continuously assessing performance metrics and adjusting your strategies is vital if you want to maximize reach and engagement. Working with influencers can also improve your campaign’s effectiveness by utilizing their follower counts. It is important to track emerging TikTok trends and other platform changes so you can keep your campaigns relevant as the platform develops over time. Take advantage of TikTok advertising to elevate brand influence.

Komal T.

Komal is a dynamic and results-driven digital marketing professional with a passion for leveraging innovative strategies to drive business growth. Her expertise spans across social media marketing, content creation, SEO optimization, and data analytics, making her a valuable asset in the ever-evolving digital landscape.