The Complete Guide to Understand TikTok Ads Deeply (2022)

You’re most likely running ads on more established social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You could even use paid search through Google Adwords. You’ve decided to run advertisements on TikTok, the fastest-growing social media platform.

There are already many articles available on the internet about running advertising campaigns on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. However, there are few good articles about TikTok ads.

This is because many marketers are unfamiliar with the TikTok platform. TikTok got off to a fast start, and most brands and marketers are still catching up.

This article will walk you through creating a TikTok advertising campaign from start to finish.

Let’s get started.

Why You Should Advertise on TikTok?

TikTok ads are sponsored short-form mobile videos posted to the TikTok platform to reach a larger audience. TikTok ads are typically used to increase brand exposure, increase website traffic, and generate new leads.

TikTok is a social platform dedicated solely to short-form videos. You are not permitted to post images or text ads on the platform. To reach your target audience with ads, you can only use videos or videos with text overlays.

We’ve seen a quick overview of how TikTok works. Let’s look at some statistics to see why you should advertise on TikTok.

• TikTok is the world’s sixth most popular social media platform. TikTok has a user base of over 800 million people. The platform has a larger user base than Reddit, Snapchat, and LinkedIn combined.
• TikTok is popular in over 154 countries.
• TikTok has received over 1.5 billion downloads. TikTok’s lifetime user spend has also surpassed $175 million globally. (Sensor Tower) 
• More than one-third (37%) of TikTok’s unique visitors come from households with a total income of $100,000 or more.
• 29.5 percent of TikTok users are between the ages of 20 and 29.
• According to Influencer Marketing Hub research, TikTok has the highest social media engagement rates across 100,000 user profiles.
• The platform can be accessed in 39 different languages!
• Ninety percent of TikTok users use the app multiple times per day.

These statistics demonstrate the value TikTok can add to your brand. If you haven’t already included TikTok in your social marketing strategy, you should!

Are TikTok Ads Right For Your Business?

This is a critical question to ask. Before investing in TikTok ads, make sure it’s the best move for your company. TikTok may not be the best platform for you, depending on your audience demographic, and TikTok’s audience is younger than most social media platforms.

Teenagers have the highest proportion of users, according to Statista. 32.5 percent of users are between the ages of 10 and 19, while 29.5 percent are between 20 and 29. Users aged 10 to 29 account for 62 percent of total users. Only 16.4 percent of TikTok users are between 30 and 39, and 7.1 percent are 50 and older.

The platform has a small gender gap. Males account for 56% of TikTok users, while females account for 44%. If your company provides services to people over 50, the app may not be the best option for you. TikTok ads work best if your target audience is teenagers or young adults.

Even with a young audience, you shouldn’t dismiss the platform entirely. As TikTok grows in popularity, more people flock to the platform, and older demographics are likely to begin using the app over time.

You can also target the older demographic directly, as with other social media platforms. TikTok allows you to target your ads based on demographic factors such as age, gender, location, interests, and device type.

How Much Do TikTok Ads Cost?

Getting started with TikTok ads is not cheap, and it is more expensive than most social media platforms. While you can create In-Feed ads on your budget and schedule, a minimum campaign budget of $500 is required to get started. The bare minimum for an ad group is $50. TikTok is more expensive than Facebook, where you can start a campaign for as little as $1.

TikTok advertisements begin at $10 per CPM. According to the adage, the cost of advertising on TikTok can range from $50,000 to $120,000, depending on the ad format and duration.

These ad costs may be prohibitively expensive for small businesses or solopreneurs. The good news is that, aside from TikTok’s native paid advertising program, there are other ways to advertise on the platform.

TikTok Ad Formats

TikTok has five ad formats, and let’s look into how each type works. 

• In-Feed Ads

In-Feed Ads look like the ads you see while scrolling through your Instagram feed. When a user scrolls through the For You section of TikTok’s homepage, In-Feed Ads appear.

In-feed video advertisements can range in length from 9 to 15 seconds. To increase conversions, you can also include a call-to-action.

The call-to-action can be a link to your website (to increase website traffic), a link to your online store (to increase sales), or a link to a landing page (to help increase subscriptions to your service). When it comes to calls to action, the sky is the limit. If you want, you can even include multiple calls to action.

TikTok In-Feed Ads also allow users to interact with the videos by liking, commenting, sharing, and commenting on them. Therefore, in-Feed Ads are a good option if you want to increase engagement with your followers.

• Branded Takeover 

TikTok ads with branded takeovers appear immediately when a user opens the app, and the ad would be displayed as a full-screen video on the user’s device.

Because your ad appears as the first thing the user sees when they open the app, this ad format is more direct than In-Feed Ads. Another benefit of this ad format is that your ads can be displayed as videos, GIFs, or still images on the For You page.

You can also include a clickable link that takes users to a Hashtag challenge within the app or a landing page.

Guess Jeans used the clickable link feature to direct users to their viral #InMyDenim challenge.

Guess Jeans promoted the hashtag challenge campaign with a Brand Takeover ad that included a clickable link. Consumers were challenged to show off their denim fashion sense.

After six days of running the Brand Takeover ad campaign, 5,500 users created videos with the hashtag #InMyDenim. The videos received over 10.5 million views, a 14.3 percent engagement rate, and 12,000 TikTok followers.

Please keep in mind that Brand Takeover Ads are one-of-a-kind, and this means that each user only sees one Brand Takeover ad per day. Because of this, the cost of Brand Takeover Ads is high.

• TopView

TopView Ads and Brand Takeover Ads are very similar, and the only difference is that TopView Ads appear 5 seconds after the app is launched.

TikTok’s longest video ad format is also this one. Videos on TopView can last up to 60 seconds. The videos are in full-screen mode, with sound and auto-play. You can include links to internal or external pages in the advertisement.

Balenciaga drove traffic to their shopping pages using the TopView ad format.

The advertisement displayed a beautiful full-screen video of their product overlaid with bold text to draw attention. They added a call-to-action button that directs visitors to their shopping page.

Over 23 million people saw the advertisement in the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. The ad’s average CTR was about 18%.

• Branded Hashtag Challenge

Sponsored hashtag challenges on TikTok’s Discover Page have branded hashtag challenges.

When a user clicks on the sponsored hashtag, they are taken to a landing page that includes the sponsor’s logo, website link, challenge description, and the most popular videos with the hashtag.

The only drawback to this ad format is its high price. To be featured on TikTok’s Discovery banner, you may need to pay $150,000.

The good news is that you can run a Branded Hashtag Challenge for a low cost. Instead of promoting your branded hashtag through TikTok’s advertising program, you can collaborate with influencers to promote it.

• Branded Effects

Brands can customize their ads using AR filters, stickers, lenses, and branded shareable stickers with this ad format. You can also build a custom filter right in the app.

Branded Effects can help you add personality to your advertisements. Your goal is to capture the user’s attention and persuade them to take a specific action. Branded effects such as stickers and augmented reality can help you increase ad engagement.

Setting Up Your TikTok Ads Campaign

Here are the steps to follow in setting up your TikTok Ads campaign:

Create a TikTok Ads account

The first step is to go to the TikTok Ads home page and press the Create an Ad button.

If you are not located in India, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, or Indonesia, you must first contact a TikTok advertising representative. You’ll need to fill out a form with your company’s information.

After you fill out the form, a TikTok advertising representative will contact you.

Create Your Ads Campaign 

When you open the TikTok Ads dashboard, four tabs will appear Campaign, Library, Reporting, and Insights. To begin, go to the Campaign tab and click the Create button.

Following that, you select your advertising goal. The goal of your ad will be the advertising objective. You have the following options:

• Traffic
• Conversions, and
• App Installs

The following step is to create a budget. You can choose between a daily and a total budget under the settings tab. It is important to note that your daily or total budget cannot be less than $50.

Create a TikTok Ad Group

After you’ve determined your advertising goal and budget, you’ll need to create an Ad group. Set up your ad placement, details, targeting, schedule, bidding method, and delivery type here.

Configure Your Ad Placements: This is when you decide where your ads will appear. You have the option of using Automatic Placements or manually configuring it.

Create Ad Details: You’ll fill out the ad details section, and you must provide a detailed description of your ad.

The following information is included in the ad details:

• Promotion type: Here, you choose the advertising objective of the ad. You have the option of installing an app or visiting a website.
• Display Name: Enter the name of your company.
• Profile image: This is the image that your target audience will see when they see your ad. It must have a 1:1 aspect ratio and a file size of no more than 50KB.
• Category: Select the appropriate category that best describes your promotion.
• Ad tags: TikTok algorithms will use the tags (keywords) you select to match your ad with the appropriate audience. Each ad can have up to 20 tags.
• User comment: If you want users to be able to comment on your ad, you can enable this feature.

Set Up Targeting: You can control who sees your ads in this section. The parameters you specify are the audience, gender, location, age, languages, interest category, connection type, and OS versions.

TikTok allows you to upload a custom list as a CSV, TXT, or Zip file to show ads to a specific audience.

Make A Budget And A Schedule: The next step is determining your campaign’s budget and timeline. You have the option of creating a Daily Budget or a Lifetime Budget.

Then you decide how long you want the ad to run. After selecting the dates for which you want the ad to run, you can take it a step further by specifying the times of day the ad will run.

Choose Your Pacing Options

You get to choose how fast your ad will run at this point. There are two delivery methods to choose from: standard and accelerated.

• The Standard delivery method would evenly space your ad across the campaign’s duration.
• Your ad budget would be spent as quickly as possible with the Accelerated delivery method.

Select Your Optimization Goal

Your optimization goal should be consistent with the overall goal of your campaign. Conversions, Clicks, or Impressions are the three ad goals you can select. The optimization goal you select will also influence your bidding.

If you select Conversions as your goal, your ads will be shown to people most likely to take the action you have specified. The CPC bidding method is used (optimization cost per click), which implies that you would bid on the expected individual cost conversion.

If you select Clicks as your optimization goal, the algorithm will optimize your ad to get the most clicks. Clicks are bid on using the CPC method (cost per click).

If you select Impressions as your goal, your ad will be optimized to receive the most impressions possible. CPM is the bidding method for Impressions (cost per mile or cost per thousand impressions).

It’s worth noting that if you select Conversions as your goal, you’ll need to install a conversion tracking pixel. You can configure this in the Library section by selecting Conversions.

It’s also critical to enable TikTok’s Smart Optimization feature, ensuring that TikTok keeps optimizing your ad for conversions.

Design Your Ad Using TikTok’s Video Creation Kit

The TikTok ads platform includes a tool called the Video Creation Kit, which provides you with image and video templates to use when customizing your posts. It also includes over 300 free background music tracks.

After uploading your media from your computer or adding it from your Library, click on Create a Video.

You can write your text copy and call-to-action button after you’ve finished making the video.

After that, click Submit, and your ad will be live on the scheduled date.

How TikTok Ranks Ads?

Relevance, ad quality, and bidding are the three main factors TikTok considers when ranking ads. While bid price is important, high-quality and relevant ads are prioritized because they generate more engagement and revenue for the platform. TikTok ad buyers claim that engagement factors such as shares, comments, and likes are also considered.

TikTok is most likely determining relevance through watch time and watch loops (the number of times a user watches an ad). To increase your watch time, you must regularly create high-quality videos for your advertisements.

Types of TikTok Advertising and Marketing 

You can use several strategies to advertise and market your brand on TikTok for business. Apart from using TikTok’s paid advertising program, you can advertise your brand in the following ways:

Partnering With Influencers

On TikTok, this is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your brand. You can promote your brand by collaborating with influencers, and Influencer marketing is extremely effective at raising brand awareness.

Working with social media influencers can boost your company’s ROI by 11%. According to another study, businesses earn $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.

After collaborating with influencers, CashApp used a song to go viral and promote their brand on the app.

It is critical to partner with the right influencers. Don’t choose an influencer solely based on their number of views or followers. It is best to choose influencers who post content relevant to your brand and goals.

Choose influencers who have a direct relationship with your niche or industry. For example, if you are a fitness brand, working with a health influencer makes more sense than a tech influencer.

Examine their engagement rates as well. Audiences who trust influencers with consistent engagement rates are more likely to trust their content. The goal of your campaign is to get users to interact with your brands. The more trusted an influencer is on the platform, the higher the level of engagement they receive.

You can easily find the best influencers to work with by using influencer marketing platforms. These platforms would do all of the legwork in locating influencers who are a good fit for your brand, product, or service.

Instead of a one-time payment, use a commission-based payment to encourage influencers to continue promoting your brand. Similar to affiliate marketing, influencers are compensated per lead.

Sharing Your TikTok Content on Other Channels

You can expand the reach of your TikTok content by posting it on other marketing channels. You can share your TikTok videos on other social media platforms, your brand’s website, YouTube, etc.

TikTok videos are extremely popular on YouTube and Twitter, and TikTok is responsible for half of the viral videos I see on Twitter.

Sharing your content on other channels will increase your brand’s visibility and reach. If you have a small marketing team with a limited budget, you can use this strategy to raise brand awareness instead of spending money on paid ads.

Promoting Your Brand’s TikTok Channel

If your target audience is on TikTok, you should consider creating a TikTok channel. This will assist you in connecting with your target audience and developing a relationship with them.

The key to success is to provide value and entertainment through your TikTok channel. You can then use paid ads or influencer marketing to promote your TikTok channel. Keep in mind that TikTok users use the app to be entertained and have fun. You will receive little engagement if you only show ads that promote your product or service.

The more engaging your videos are, the more people will watch them. Users’ attention spans are short. You must create videos that pique their interest, or they will move on to the next video in the feed.

Creating a TikTok Challenge

The most popular video format on the platform is challenging. The app’s viral challenges typically receive millions of interactions. Running a TikTok challenge campaign is one of the most effective ways to market your brand.

Here are some examples of brands that have used TikTok challenges to raise brand awareness.

OPPO

When OPPO unveiled its new F11 Pro smartphone, In 2019, they launched the #LightUpF11Pro hashtag challenge to raise awareness of the device in Malaysia. The hashtag challenge required participants to create a dance video while illustrating a “taking a photo” gesture with their hands. The challenge’s winners received a new F11 Pro device and cash prizes.

During the 6-day campaign period, the challenge generated over 7,000 user-generated videos, 6 million video views, and 326,000 likes.

REXONA

Rexona launched the #RexonaChallenge to raise awareness for their new summer line of teen-targeted products. The challenge was first launched with a top influencer, Kate, and she composed pop music for the challenge and posted a video of herself dancing to it in her unique style.

Rexona then awarded prizes to those who shared their unique music video interpretation. During the 6-day campaign period, the challenge generated approximately 93 million views, and Rexona’s TikTok account also gained 14,000 followers.

TikTok’s Paid Advertising Program

We’ve already gone over how TikTok’s paid advertising program operates. Earlier in this article, we discussed the various ad formats that TikTok provides and how to set up your TikTok Ads campaign.

Conclusion

TikTok ads are a great way to raise brand awareness, increase leads, and generate sales for your online store. The key is to target the right audience and upload video ads that pique users’ interest.

This article should assist you in getting started with your ad campaign.

While TikTok’s native paid advertising program can be pricey, there are other advertising opportunities on the platform, such as Influencer marketing.