TikTok advertising is an effective way for brands to connect with a younger, eager audience. Follow these essential tips to start crafting your own successful TikTok ads.

TikTok Ads can reach up to 884.9 million people over the age of 18, which is 18% of adult internet users. Globally, the average TikTok user spends nearly 20 hours per month on the app. The key takeaway? TikTok advertising can be a highly profitable venture, especially if your target market includes women, as 57% of the TikTok Ads audience is female. Here's how to ensure your ads achieve their full potential.

Let's Understand What are TikTok Ads?

TikTok ads are paid promotional content, typically full-screen videos, designed to reach a specified target audience. These ads serve as a powerful tool for social media marketing, aiming to boost brand awareness or promote a specific product or service.

The structure of TikTok ads is organized into three tiers:

  1. TikTok Ad: An individual advertisement, often a video, highlighting a product, service, or special offer.
  2. TikTok Ad Group: A collection of individual TikTok ads.
  3. TikTok Campaign: A series of TikTok ad groups.

For example, a fashion retailer might create a video ad for a pair of sneakers. This ad could be part of an ad group containing various sneaker-related videos, which would then be included in a larger campaign focusing on summer footwear promotions.

Different Types of TikTok Ads

Curious about the various types of ads you can create on TikTok? Here's a breakdown of the different advertising options available. Keep in mind that not all types of TikTok ads are available in every country, so be sure to check what's accessible in your region.

In-Feed Ads

In-feed ads on TikTok are self-created advertisements that you can design and manage using the TikTok Ads Manager interface. These ads appear seamlessly within the user's feed, allowing for a more integrated and engaging advertising experience.

TikTok Video Ads

TikTok video ads are one of the most prevalent forms of advertising on the platform. Created by brands or creators and managed through a TikTok Ads Manager account, these ads resemble regular TikToks but are designed to drive traffic to a landing page or encourage app installs.

TikTok Video Ads

For example, to maximize marketing effectiveness, a brand can create a video ad that looks like a regular TikTok post. However, by tapping the account name or the custom call-to-action button, viewers are directed to a landing page for more information or to make a purchase.

These video ads appear in users' feeds for the duration of the advertiser's payment period. Unlike regular TikTok posts, they cannot be duetted or stitched and do not remain permanently on the platform.

Spark Ads

Spark Ads differ from regular video ads by amplifying organic content from any user's TikTok account. These ads appear on your profile like any other TikTok video and remain visible even after you stop paying for promotion.

Spark Ads can be duetted or stitched, enabling your audience to engage more interactively with them. This interaction can be beneficial for building a stronger connection with your audience. Unlike standard ads, Spark Ads continue to contribute positively to your brand's overall metrics even after the promotion period. According to TikTok, Spark Ads achieve a 142% higher engagement rate compared to standard in-feed ads.

You can use content from your own business profile or from other creators' profiles (with their permission) for Spark Ads.

TikTok Image Ads

Image ads on TikTok consist of static images that include a brand or app name along with ad text. These ads are available only through the Global App Bundle and Pangle Placements, which are not accessible in all regions. To check the availability in your area, refer to the country-by-country breakdown chart.

Playable Ads

Playable ads on TikTok function as interactive mini-games, making them highly engaging for users. This ad format is excellent for capturing attention and encouraging user interaction. However, playable ads are only available in select countries.

Shopping Ads

Starting in spring 2024, TikTok is transitioning away from Dynamic Showcase Ads and Collection Ads. Instead, it is integrating the core features of these formats into the new Video Shopping Ads. Currently in the testing phase, these ads are available only to a select group of advertisers. Video Shopping Ads aim to streamline the shopping experience by combining dynamic product displays with engaging video content, making it easier for users to discover and purchase products directly through TikTok.

There are three types of shopping ads:

  1. Video Shopping Ads: These are shoppable videos that appear on the For You page of a targeted audience.
  2. Catalog Listing Ads: These ads promote catalogs featuring shoppable products.
  3. Live Shopping Ads: These ads allow users watching your TikTok Live to see and purchase specific products featured in the stream.

Carousel Ads

Carousel Ads on TikTok are exclusively available within the platform's news feed app series, BuzzVideo. This format allows advertisers to post up to 10 images in a single ad, with each image having its own caption. Carousel Ads provide a versatile way to showcase multiple products or features, offering a richer storytelling opportunity and engaging viewers with a variety of visuals in one seamless ad experience.

Pangle Ads

Pangle Ads are advertisements placed through the TikTok Audience Network. This network extends the reach of TikTok ads beyond the app itself, allowing advertisers to connect with a broader audience across various partner apps and websites. Pangle Ads help enhance visibility and engagement by leveraging TikTok's extensive user base and sophisticated targeting capabilities.

Exclusive TikTok Ad Formats for Managed Brands

Managed brands, which collaborate directly with a TikTok sales representative, gain access to additional advertising formats not available to all users. If you're interested in becoming a managed brand, contact TikTok to see if your business qualifies. The exclusive ad formats available to managed brands include:

TopView Ads

TopView Ads are high-impact video ads that take over the entire screen for 5 to 60 seconds when users first open the TikTok app. This format ensures maximum visibility and engagement, as it captures the audience's attention immediately upon launching the app. TopView Ads are ideal for making a strong impression and promoting significant campaigns or product launches.

Branded Hashtag Challenge

The Branded Hashtag Challenge is a highly engaging ad campaign format running for three to six days, designed to encourage user participation. Brands create a unique hashtag and challenge, prompting users to generate content that appears on the dedicated hashtag challenge page. This format boosts brand visibility and fosters a sense of community by inspiring users to create and share their own videos based on the challenge.

BrandeCd Effects

Branded Effects are custom stickers, filters, and special effects designed to encourage TikTok users to interact with your brand creatively. These interactive elements allow users to incorporate your branded effects into their videos, enhancing engagement and increasing brand visibility. Branded Effects provide a fun and immersive way for users to connect with your brand, making your marketing campaign more memorable and impactful.

TikTok Ad Specs

Achieve social media success by ensuring your TikTok ad is the correct size, shape, and format. Here are the optimal specifications for a TikTok video ad:

  • Aspect Ratio: 9:16, 1:1, or 16:9 (9:16 is ideal for best visual impact)
  • Minimum Resolution: 540x960px, 640x640px, or 960x540px
  • Video File Type: .mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp, or .avi
  • Video Length: 5 to 60 seconds (TikTok recommends 9 to 15 seconds for optimal engagement)
  • Video File Size: Maximum of 500MB

By adhering to these specifications, you can ensure your TikTok ads are visually appealing and effective.

Understanding the Cost of TikTok Ads

How much do TikTok ads cost? The answer largely depends on your budget. TikTok operates on an auction and bidding model, allowing advertisers to set their own prices per video view, click, or impression.

While you have flexibility in your spending per optimization goal, there are minimum budget requirements for both campaigns and ad groups:

  • Minimum Campaign-Level Budget: $50 USD per day, ensuring that your campaign spends at least $50 each day it runs.
  • Minimum Ad Group-Level Budget: $20 USD per day, guaranteeing a minimum daily spend of $20 for each active ad group.

TikTok states, "Your bid, among other factors, represents how competitive you want to be in the auction to achieve your desired outcome." Therefore, your budget and bid strategy directly influence your ad's visibility and success.

How much do TikTok ads cost

Exploring TikTok Bidding Methods

TikTok offers four distinct bidding methods for advertisers to choose from:

  1. Cost Per Click (CPC): Pay each time someone clicks on your ad.
  2. Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM): Pay for every 1,000 impressions your ad receives.
  3. Optimized Cost Per Thousand Impressions (oCPM): Optimize for specific goals like conversions or app installs, paying per 1,000 impressions.
  4. Cost Per View (CPV): Pay each time a user views your video ad for a predetermined duration.

Selecting the appropriate bidding method depends on your campaign objectives, whether you aim for clicks, impressions, conversions, or views. This flexibility allows you to tailor your advertising strategy to achieve the best results for your brand.

TikTok Bidding Strategies

When it comes to TikTok bidding strategies, there are two primary options:

  1. Lowest Cost With the lowest cost bidding strategy, you don't set a specific bid per action. Instead, you define a total campaign budget, and TikTok will automatically optimize to maximize the number of conversions. This approach is ideal for those who want to simplify the bidding process and focus on getting the most value from their budget.
  2. Cost Cap or Bid Cap This strategy involves setting a specific bid price for your optimization goal, such as cost per acquisition (CPA). TikTok explains that while this method helps control the CPA, there are some considerations: "Your CPA may fluctuate daily, depending on competitor performance. Additionally, your budget may not be fully utilized if competitors outbid you, limiting the inventory available for your ads."

Choosing the right bidding strategy depends on your campaign goals and budget management preferences.

Launching a TikTok Ad Campaign

To get started with your TikTok ad campaign, access the TikTok Ads Manager. Ensure you are using a TikTok for Business account; if not, it's easy and free to switch.

1. Setting Up a New Campaign

Begin by logging into TikTok Ads Manager and selecting "Campaign" from the top menu. Click "Create" on the Campaign page.

Choosing a Campaign Mode:

  • Simplified Mode: Ideal for quick ad creation, typically under 5 minutes.
  • Custom Mode: Offers more detailed configuration options. For this example, we use Custom Mode, but both modes follow similar steps.

Defining Campaign Objectives:

TikTok asks you to select your marketing objective at the start to align your goals. Objectives are divided into three categories:

  • Awareness: Increase visibility of your brand or product.
    • Reach: Display your ad to the widest possible audience.
  • Consideration: Engage potential customers with your brand.
    • Traffic: Direct traffic to a specific URL or landing page.
    • Video Views: Maximize video views and engagement.
    • Lead Generation: Collect leads for your business.
    • Community Interaction: Boost followers and profile visits.
  • Conversion: Drive specific actions such as purchases.
    • App Promotion: Encourage app installs and in-app purchases.
    • Website Conversions: Increase valuable actions on your site, like sales.

Naming Your Campaign:

Give your campaign a name and specify if it falls under special ad categories (housing, employment, or credit). Decide if you want TikTok to optimize the campaign budget across all ad groups.

Setting a Campaign Budget:

Set a total budget for the campaign, which covers all ad groups and ads within it. You can also set individual budgets for each ad group and ad.

2. Creating an Ad Group

With the campaign established, configure the Ad Group settings next.

Naming Your Ad Group and Interaction Settings: Name your ad group. Under Advanced Settings, decide whether users can comment, download, and share your video ads.

Targeting Your Ad Group: Define your target audience based on demographics such as location, gender, age, and language, along with more advanced criteria like interests, behaviors, and devices used.

Setting Content Exclusions: Choose whether TikTok should avoid showing your ad alongside mature-themed content while adhering to Community Guidelines.

Ad Group Budget and Schedule: Set a daily budget (minimum $20 USD) and define the schedule for your ad group. Choose whether the ad runs continuously or at specific times.

Bidding and Optimization: Select your bidding strategy and optimization. For instance, if your goal is video views, you will work with CPV (cost per focused view). Leave the bid control blank for the lowest cost strategy. Opt for either standard or accelerated ad delivery.

3. Finalizing Your Ad

Lastly, upload your creative content.

Uploading Content: Upload your video or image, add a caption, and choose your identity (either your brand's TikTok account or a display name for Spark Ads).

Setting Your Destination Page: Link your ad to your brand's website, a landing page, or an in-app page using Instant Pages. Include a legal disclaimer if necessary.

Setting Up Tracking: Optionally, configure tracking for events on your website, app, or third-party sites.

Submitting Your Ad: Once everything is ready, click "Submit" to send your ad for TikTok's review. Most ads are reviewed within 24 hours.

By following these steps, you can effectively create and manage a TikTok ad campaign that aligns with your business objectives.

7 Inspiring TikTok Ad Campaigns

Discover how brands are effectively utilizing TikTok's advertising features to engage their audience and achieve impressive results. Here are seven unique examples of successful TikTok ad campaigns:

1. StarStable Entertainment's Captivating In-Feed Ads

StarStable Entertainment, a popular online horse adventure game, boosted registrations in Germany and the U.S. with their in-feed ads. They utilized attention-grabbing openings to hook viewers within the first few seconds. By localizing their ads to match the audience's language, they ensured higher engagement and retention.

2. SEEQ's Spark Ads for Organic Reach

Protein powder brand SEEQ leveraged Spark Ads to enhance the reach of their organic content. They promoted behind-the-scenes footage and product showcases, similar to what they already shared with their 30k followers. This paid promotion helped them reach new potential customers likely to be interested in their products.

3. NEST New York's Black Friday Success

Perfume company NEST New York used TikTok's catalogue ad feature for their Black Friday promotions. This made it easy for users to discover and purchase products directly through TikTok. As a result, 94% of their website visitors from TikTok were new, indicating successful outreach to fresh audiences.

4. L'Oréal's Influencer Marketing Campaign

L'Oréal utilized influencer marketing with the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag. They sent product packages to 200 influencers and incorporated the resulting videos into their campaign. This strategy led to significant product sell-outs, showcasing the power of influencer partnerships on TikTok.

5. SweeTARTS's Branded Film Festival

SweeTARTS organized a branded film festival, encouraging users to submit short films tagged with #SweeTARTSFilmEntry and @SweeTARTSCandy. This initiative resulted in over 2,000 entries, boosting brand visibility and engaging users in a creative and interactive way.

6. Gymshark's Community Engagement

Gymshark, a fitness apparel brand, fostered community engagement by prompting users to share their fitness stories with the hashtag #GymsharkChallenge. They used in-feed ads and user-generated content to build a loyal community, increasing brand awareness and engagement.

7. Chipotle's Viral Challenge

Chipotle's #GuacDance challenge invited users to post dancing videos for a chance to win free guacamole. This engaging and fun challenge quickly went viral, significantly increasing Chipotle's visibility on TikTok and driving traffic to their stores.

These examples demonstrate the innovative ways brands can use TikTok to connect with their audience, drive engagement, and achieve their marketing goals. By leveraging TikTok's unique features and fostering creativity, these brands have successfully captured the attention of the platform's vast user base.

Best Practices for Effective TikTok Advertising

Creating ads on TikTok offers limitless opportunities for creativity, as they closely resemble regular TikTok videos, with the added detail of being paid promotions. To ensure your ads are successful and engaging, follow these best practices:

1. Keep It Authentic

TikTok users appreciate genuine content. Create ads that feel natural and blend seamlessly with user-generated content.

2. Grab Attention Quickly

Capture your audience's attention within the first few seconds. Use compelling visuals or intriguing openings to keep viewers from scrolling past.

3. Use High-Quality Visuals

Ensure your videos are of high resolution and well-produced. Clear and visually appealing content is more likely to engage viewers.

4. Leverage Trends and Hashtags

Incorporate popular TikTok trends and relevant hashtags to increase your ad's visibility and relatability.

5. Include a Strong Call-to-Action

Guide viewers on what to do next, whether it's visiting your website, downloading an app, or making a purchase. A clear and compelling call-to-action can drive conversions.

7. Experiment with Different Formats

Utilize various ad formats like In-Feed Ads, Spark Ads, and Branded Hashtag Challenges to find what resonates best with your audience.

8. Engage with Your Audience

Encourage interaction by asking questions, prompting users to duet your video, or creating challenges. Engaging content fosters a sense of community and increases brand loyalty.

9. Test and Optimize

Continuously test different versions of your ads to see what performs best. Use TikTok's analytics to track performance and make data-driven adjustments.

10. Keep it Short and Sweet

While TikTok allows ads up to 60 seconds, shorter videos (9 to 15 seconds) often perform better. Keep your message concise and to the point.

By following these best practices, you can create effective and engaging TikTok ads that resonate with your audience and achieve your marketing objectives.