With over 1.25 billion users and 170 million users in the US alone, TikTok offers a unique opportunity for businesses to market their products. Whether it's increasing brand visibility, driving traffic to a website, or selling products and services, TikTok ads offer a unique opportunity to reach a young and vibrant audience.

However, the platform has various ad formats for different budgets and campaign goals. This makes it hard to choose the right ad for your campaign. Even when you already know which ad format to go for, there is still a lot to know about how to make the most out of each ad. Luckily, this article will provide everything you need to know about making good and converting TikTok ads.

Why Use TikTok Advertising?

There are several reasons why brands should consider TikTok advertising. These include:

Great Option for Reaching a Young Demographic

Majority of TikTok users are Gen Zs aged between 18 and 34. As of 2024, this audience comprised 40% of the global consumer market and had a disposable income of $360 billion. This indicates that if businesses will remain competitive, they must change their marketing strategy to target this demographic more.

Higher Engagement Rate

Compared to other advertising platforms, TikTok's engagement rate is usually higher, at an average of 4.25%. When compared to Instagram, it comes second with an engagement rate of 0.6%. Remember that if your audience engages more with your content, you will have better outcomes for your advertising efforts.

Better Conversion Rate

In the recent past, there has been an increase in the reach of video marketing. One study suggested that viewers could remember 95% of video messages. Another study indicates that 93% of brands got a new customer after using social media video ads. As a video-sharing platform with many video editing services, TikTok marketing offers users a unique opportunity to reach their target audience and convert them into customers.

Wide Range of Ad Formats

TikTok comes with various ad formats that are best suited for driving engagement. We will discuss more of these ad formats later in this article. However, these ad formats are an excellent option for increasing engagement. For instance, you can use in-feed ads if you want users to like, comment, follow, or share your video.

Ability to Reach a Global Audience

Available in 154 countries and 75 languages, TikTok offers a unique opportunity to reach a global audience if your business operates internationally.

A Look at the Effectiveness of TikTok Ads

If you are considering using TikTok ads, one of the questions you will have in mind is whether these ads will be effective. The answer is Yes. As noted earlier, TikTok has over 1 billion users, which provides an unmatched opportunity for brands to interact with their audience. 

Studies indicate that most users were inspired to take action after viewing a TikTok video, while another 37% have bought a product after viewing it on the platform. Therefore, TikTok ads have a better return on advertising than other social media sites.

Types of TikTok Ads

Now that we have seen the benefits and effectiveness of TikTok advertising, let us look at the different types of TikTok ads. These are:

In-feed Ads

When scrolling through the TikTok For You Page (FYP), you might have encountered an ad displayed on the native newsfeed that blended well with the TikTok feed. These ads are known as in-feed ads and are an excellent choice for brands looking for increased engagement, as they quickly generate likes, comments, shares, and interactions. They are also an excellent choice for brands looking to:

• Increase brand recognition and market share.
• Grab the viewer’s attention.
• Change the brand’s perception.
• Inspire viewers to know more.
• Enhance collaboration.

Brand Takeover

When a user opens the TikTok app, brand takeover ads appear as pop-ups on the home screen for a few seconds before turning into an infeed video ad. They can also be seen on the For You page in the form of videos, images, and gifs, and they include clickable links that take you to a landing page within the TikTok app.

Brand takeover ads are great for:

• Generating mass product awareness
• Driving sales
• Taking viewers to a landing page or a hashtag challenge

These ads also allow you to add custom logos to remain in the viewer’s mind. They are interactive and can encourage users to take specific actions, such as website visits or app downloads. However, advertisers are limited to creating one brand takeover ad daily.

Top View Ads

If your goal is to increase brand exposure, the TikTok top view ads are an excellent choice to enable you to do that. These ads are closely related to the brand takeover ads, with the difference being that they don’t cover the screen after a user has signed in. Instead, they appear as the first in-feed post after three seconds. They will then appear as full-screen videos for 60 seconds with sound and autoplay. Since these ads are shown to a wide range of users, they are a good choice for reaching a large audience.

Branded Hashtags

Another popular TikTok ad is the branded hashtags. This ad encourages users to record themselves while performing a dance or anything else and post the video using defined hashtags. The ads are usually seen at the top of the discovery page and can include branded hashtags, custom effects, and music.

Users who click on that particular hashtag are taken to a TikTok landing page with videos using the same hashtags. Branded hashtags are a good choice for increasing brand awareness and engagement when marketing on TikTok.

Branded Effects Ads

Branded effects ads enable brands to add customized effects and filters to their TikTok videos, including the brand logo and other elements. These ads usually last ten days and are excellent for driving engagement, especially when combined with other ads, such as branded hashtag challenges. Therefore, you can use them to increase interaction and engagement.

Collection Ads

With collection ads, users can discover, find, and browse products on the full screen of their ads. When using collection ads, brands ensure they take users to an instant gallery page. The ads offer a curated and inspiring product collection to enable users to browse products inside the app. These ads are a good option for encouraging consumers to take immediate action.

Spark Ads

These ads aim to increase the visibility of your organic content by promoting your TikTok video. This is a great ad format for driving interactions such as likes, comments, and shares. The ads allow users to visit your brand profile by simply swiping left or clicking on your profile picture or handle name. If they want to follow your TikTok account, users can simply click the + sign under the profile picture.

Spark ads allow brands to grow their TikTok account as they can build genuine connections with followers. They are great for adding authenticity as they combine the power of ads and organic content.

How to Run a TikTok Ad Campaign

If you are getting started with running TikTok ads, you might be wondering where to start. Luckily, the process is straightforward and automated. Before you start, you must install the TikTok pixel on your site. After that, you can follow the following steps:

Setting Up TikTok Ads Accounts

Here are the steps when setting up TikTok ads:

TikTok Ads Signup

You will need to provide an email address where you will get a verification code. You can then click “sign up”. You will be taken to a new page where you must fill in information such as your brand name, country, industry, etc. Once you are done, you can click register. If you already have a regular TikTok account, you can use it instead of signing up for a new TikTok ads account.

TikTok Campaign Set Up

Your next step is to set up your TikTok ad. There are several steps to follow when doing that. These are:

1. Visit the ad sign-up page where you will register your business. You must provide the business location and choose whether it's a business or personal account. Once done, you can click next.
2. Add an email address and password. A verification code will be sent to your email, which you will need to add. You can click on Agree to the terms and conditions of the ad. That is all that is necessary to set up the TikTok campaign.

Creating Your TikTok Ad

There are three steps involved in creating a TikTok ad. These are:

Campaign Set Up

In this step, you must add your campaign name, objectives, and budget. Go to the TikTok Ads Manager and Tap Campaign. Then, you can choose the campaign objective or the action you want people to take. It could be video views, reach, conversion, traffic, or app installation. For instance, if you want to generate more traffic to your site, choose Traffic.

Create Your Ad Group

You must specify several parameters, such as ad placements, target audiences, optimization goals, campaign budgets, bids, and schedules. The first parameter you need to choose is the ad placement, which specifies where you want your ad to appear on TikTok. You can decide where the ad will appear or have TikTok choose the correct placement by going with the automatic ad placement. 

When you allow TikTok to choose the right place for the ad, you can optimize your ad delivery to achieve your desired campaign objectives. To go with this option, simply select Automatic Placement. In some countries, they have access to the blocklist or pangle feature that allows them to block any undesirable ad placement.

Choose Your Desired Creatives

You can create asset combinations with automatic creative optimization for the best performance. For instance, a campaign's ad creative assets can include ad texts, explainer videos, and images.

Ads Targeting

This is where you will choose the audience you want to target in the campaign. You can choose either a custom audience or a look-alike audience. Ad targeting allows you to target your audience using demographic and device options. These factors can include various TikTok metrics such as age, gender, location, behavior, language, mobile carrier, operating system, and device price.

With the TikTok custom audience, you can target your desired audience using customer data files and information on your previously engaged audiences. These are users who previously interacted with an ad or have seen it before in impressions. It also considers app activities such as signing up, purchasing, and activating. Finally, custom audience targeting considers website traffic actions such as viewing content, purchasing, form submissions, etc.

In other words, TikTok's custom audiences allow you to target people who have previously interacted with your business. You can create your custom audience using data from different sources, such as lead generation, website traffic, engagement, app activity, customer files, and engagement.

Ad Budget Setting and Scheduling

The next step is to set up the budget for a day, week, month, or lifetime. You need to specify when the campaign begins and ends. You can also use the day-parting option to select a specific period of the day when you want the campaign to run. This can range from half a day to a maximum of 24 hours.

Bid Setting and Optimization

This part can be used to set up your bidding process and optimize your campaigns. If you have third-party tools to measure your campaign's performance, this is the right place to add them. You will begin by selecting your optimization goal: conversion, clicks, or reach.

Begin by choosing your campaign goal before configuring your billing options. The TikTok system will automatically set your billing depending on your desired optimization goal. For instance, if the reach is your goal, your billing option will be CPM (Cost Per Mile). The next step is activating the Smart Optimization option, allowing the system to choose the correct conversion event and deliver it smartly.

By choosing a bid strategy, you can control the cost per result when you select the standard bid mode. When you do that, the average cost of each result will be within the bid range.  Use the bidding option to set how much you can pay per conversion, click, or 1000 impressions. These are the specifications the TikTok system will use to deliver the ad.

The delivery format can be categorized as either standard or accelerated. With the standard delivery, the ad is spent evenly throughout the campaign. On the other hand, accelerated delivery is a good option for spending the budget quickly in a campaign.

Ad Creation

It's not hard to create an ad on TikTok; you only need to upload a high-quality video or image. With the many features of TikTok Ad Manager, it is easy to create a captivating ad in a few minutes. TikTok allows you to create video or image ads but can only generate a maximum of 20 ads for each ad group. Here are the steps to follow when creating a TikTok ad:

1. Under the specified column, enter the name of your ad. This is important for easy ad identification.
2. Select your desired ad format, either video or image. As of now, TikTok only allows you to create video ads.
3. Upload your creative media to add your details. You can choose to upload completely new media or use previous ads. If you want to create a video, use either the smart video or the template. You can choose the thumbnail for the video ad cover photo. Add the link and text to the ad, such as the display name, profile image, call to action, and website URL where you want to drive traffic. You can preview the ad to see how it will look after publication.
4. Add third-party links. If there are third-party tracking tools and pixels you would like to add to track the performance of your ad, you can add them now.

Once you are done with the above steps, tap on the submit button. TikTok will review the ad, and once it's approved, it will go live.

How to Optimize Your TikTok Ad

To optimize your TikTok ad, you need a better understanding of the platform’s ad policy. You can use these tips to optimize your TikTok ad:

• Use the correct ad format. As explained earlier, there are many ad formats to choose from. Therefore, select the correct format and ensure you follow its guidelines.
• Use high-quality videos. Like organic content, the quality of the video will determine if people watch it or not. Create great videos with a high-quality camera, lighting, and sound.
• Choose the right video length. TikTok is very strict on video length; therefore, you must ensure your video meets the requirements. It's advisable to use shorter videos as these perform better on the platform. Therefore, go with videos that have a length of 15 to 30 seconds.
• Follow the ad specification. TikTok is very strict about ad technical requirements such as video resolution, aspect ratio, and file size. Ensure that your ad meets these specifications so that technical issues will not affect it.
• Keep testing and optimizing. By monitoring an ad's delivery, conversion, and engagement, you can optimize various aspects of it. Where possible, make adjustments to improve the ad's performance.

Conclusion

TikTok has become a popular platform for marketers for several reasons. These include a large audience base and a high engagement rate. However, you are only halfway through when you generate many leads on TikTok. You also need to nurture those leads to convert them. By understanding how the TikTok ads work, you can leverage them for better conversion. Using our guide, you can take your TikTok advertising to the next level and, therefore, easily go viral on Tiktok.

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