How To Run Ads On TikTok – The Step-By-Step Guide

TikTok is a popular short-video app with 1.5 billion monthly active users in 2023 globally. That’s a lot of potential customers! And since TikTok is all about creative content, it’s the perfect platform for brands that want to show off their personality and connect with users on a deeper level. 

So if you’re looking for a new way to reach your target audience, TikTok is the thing for your business. 

If you are new to TikTok advertising, you are at the right place because, in this blog post, we will guide you on how to run ads on TikTok. You’ll see the types of advertisements with examples, learn about ad specs and the best practices to follow. 

Let’s begin!

Why Choose TikTok Advertising?

As already seen, if you’re looking for a new and innovative way to reach your target audience, you should consider advertising on TikTok. 

Here’s why you should choose TikTok as your advertising platform:

• TikTok offers a highly engaged user base. Users of the platform are highly active, spending an average of 52 minutes per day on the app.
• TikTok is a visually-driven platform, making it ideal for brands that have strong visuals.
• Creating a video ad on Tiktok is relatively easy and quick, even if you are a beginner. 
• TikTok videos are often personal and relatable, allowing brands to connect with users on a more personal level.
• The platform offers several creative opportunities for brands, from traditional ads to sponsored challenges and hashtag challenges.

TikTok is worth considering as part of your advertising strategy if you’re looking to reach Gen Z users.

Is TikTok Advertising Suitable for Your Business?

You have to consider a few things to understand whether TikTok advertising suits your business. First, you must ensure that your target audience is using TikTok. As the platform is most popular with Gen Z users, you must consider other platforms if your target audience is outside of that age group. 

Second, you need to consider the types of ads that are available on TikTok. The platform offers a variety of ad formats, from video ads to hashtag challenges, so you’ll need to decide which one is right for your business. 

Finally, you need to think about your budget. TikTok ads can be relatively expensive, so you’ll need to ensure you have the resources to invest in a campaign. 

If you can answer these questions, you’ll be in a good position to decide if TikTok advertising is suitable for your business.

You can then club it with your content marketing strategy to get great results.

Types of TikTok ads

There are 7 types of TikTok Ads:

• In-Feed Ads
• Brand Takeover Ads
• TopView Ads
• Branded Hashtag Challenge
• Branded Effects
• Spark Ads
• Search Ads

Let’s look at each of them,

In-Feed Ads

In-feed ads appear between user videos while scrolling through the For You page. They have a similarity to the ads that appear while viewing Instagram stories. It is possible to add several CTAs to this and keep your video 9 to 15 seconds long. The main point to bear in mind is that users scroll through the feed quickly, and you only have around 2-3 seconds to get the audience’s attention. Try keeping them full-screen so that users don’t scroll through them.

Brand Takeover Ads

The ads that appear when you open TikTok are called brand takeover ads.

If you are looking for an opportunity to create brand awareness and drive sales, this kind of ad is the best. Apart from appearing when using the app, they appear on the For You page as images, videos or GIFs with a clickable link to a landing page. Brand takeover ads are exclusive ads that users cannot see more than once a day. However, this ad is not suitable for those who have just started TikTok advertising. Additionally, it is expensive because it is capable of fetching desired results. Therefore, it is best for enterprises with a huge marketing budget. 

TopView Ads

This is a relatively new advertising type based on brand takeover ads. 

The difference is that with the TopView ads, the user doesn’t see the ad as soon as they open the app. Instead, it appears in the feed after 3 seconds. It appears on the top of the for you page and can be 60 seconds long with autoplay and sound.

Branded Hashtag Challenge 

This kind of ad is exclusive to TikTok. You may have seen this on the TikTok discovery page. You have both organic and sponsored options for branded hashtag challenges. In a way, it helps increase brand awareness. 

The fascinating part of these ads is that brands can collaborate and become one with the TikTok community. However, when you are creating a branded hashtag challenge, you must have an objective in place. It can be to create awareness or generate leads. Upon clicking on the sponsored hashtag, the user lands on a landing page having the brand logo and a link to their website. There’s the description of the challenge and videos with the hashtag.

Branded Effects

You get branded shareable stickers, AR filters and lenses on TikTok. It allows brands to create their custom filter on the app. The life of branded effects is 10 days, and is a great way to get users to engage with your brand.

Spark Ads

With Spark ads, you can make the most of your existing posts and turn them into ads. You can use your own organic post or create a paid post with all the views, shares, likes, comments, and follows linked to the organic post.

Search Ads

Search ads are videos with a sponsored label appearing in users’ search results. This relatively new feature helps a business target and retarget users searching for keywords related to the product or service. To place search ads, a brand must have running in-feed video campaigns. 

How To Run Ads On TikTok?

It’s not time to learn how to advertise on TikTok.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to run ads on TikTok,

1. Create a TikTok ads account 

Visit the TikTok home page and click create an ad. You need to fill out a form with all your business details, after which a rep will reach out within two days of setting up your account.

2. Create a TikTok ad campaign

After setting up your ad account, you can go to the Tiktok ads dashboard. From there, you can select the campaign, tap on the top of the page and click create. Mention the objective of your campaign by choosing from the three options: traffic, conversions, app install.

3. Create a TikTok ad group

Once you finish setting up your ad campaign, you must create an ad Group. Here you can choose ad placements, define ad details, pick a target audience, create a schedule, and finalize your budget, delivery type and bidding method. 

4. Selecting placement and ad details

The term placement refers to the area where ads will appear. It is a good idea to select automatic placements where TikTok will place ads in the most profitable places. 

After that, you can fill in details in the ad detail section mentioning what you are promoting. You can include the following details: 

Promotion type– You can choose one of the two options – app install and website.

Display name – Mention the brand or app name you want to display. 

Profile image – Upload a profile image that is not more than 50 KB with an aspect ratio of 1:1.

Category – You can add a category that is related to your promotion. Doing so will help TikTok’s ad optimization model.

Ad tags– Enlist keywords that describe your brand well. It will help the algorithm of the app to help make your ad reach the target audience. However, don’t exceed 20 tags.

User comment – You can enable this option to allow audiences to comment on your ads. 

5. Set ad creative and audience targeting

With TikTok’s Automated Creative Optimization feature, the app creates combinations of your creative assets such as images, interactive videos and ad copies automatically. 

Once you finish uploading your ad creative, you must set the target audience. You have several options to choose from when it comes to targeting to reach the desired audience. Just like Facebook, even TikTok lets you create or exclude a custom audience. You can target users based on their demographics and the devices they use. You can simply upload your file if you have a list to target.

6. Set your budget and schedule

Once you set the objective, you must move ahead and set the ad budget and schedule. 

Go to the budget and schedule tab and use daily budget or lifetime budget from the drop drop-down menu. 

Next, move on to setting ad duration by choosing the dates (and time) you want the ads to run. You can choose from 2 options – standard and accelerated delivery. In the standard delivery method, your budget is spread out evenly throughout your ad campaign. On the other hand, with the accelerated delivery method, the app spends your budget as soon as possible.

You can choose an optimization goal to help align bidding based on them. Optimization goals can be impressions, clicks & conversions. The biddling of each optimization is different. When you optimize for impressions, it is on CPM (cost per thousand) basis, whereas for clicks, the bidding is on CPC (cost per click) basis. Similarly, for conversions it is based on optimization cost per click.

So that was about how to run TikTok ads.

TikTok Ad Specs

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the specifications for TikTok ads will vary depending on the specific objectives of the campaign. However, there are a few key things to keep in mind when creating TikTok ads.

1. All ads must be in video format. That means you’ll need to create a short video that is creative and attention-grabbing. You also need to ensure that your video is less than 15 seconds long, as that is the maximum length for TikTok ads.
2. In terms of visuals, TikTok ads should be bright and colorful, emphasizing positive emotions. Your ad should be relevant to the TikTok community and should highlight your product or service in a positive light. 
3. It is important to use relevant hashtags and keywords to ensure that your ads are seen by the right people.
4. Remember that TikTok users are mostly young people, so your ad should appeal to that demographic. Finally, make sure your ad is well-produced and professional; poor-quality ads will not be well-received by the TikTok community.

Here are the specifications:

TikTok video ad specs

Aspect ratio: 9:16, 1:1, or 16:9. The most effective vertical videos have a 9:16 ratio.

540 x 960 pixels or 640 x 640 pixels is the minimum resolution. The most effective video resolution is 720 pixels.

File types:.avi,.mp4,.mov,.mpeg, or.3gp

Duration: 5 to 60 seconds. For the best performance, TikTok suggests 21–34 seconds.

Maximum file size is 500 MB.

Square image for the profile: not more than 50 KB

Name of the app or company: 2-20 characters (brand) or 4-40 characters (app)

Ad description: 1-100 characters, no emojis

Spark ad specs

Any aspect ratio

Minimum resolution: Any

Duration: Any

Maximum file size: Any

Emojis and account mentions are allowed. 

How Much Does It Cost To Run Ads On TikTok?

TikTok ads can cost you a minimum of $10 per CPM (cost per 1000 views). Additionally, you have to spend a minimum of $500 on a campaign. This means that TikTok ads are expensive compared to Facebook and Instagram ads. By all means, you can’t choose TikTok if you are looking for cheap marketing!

TikTok Advertising Best Practices

Here are some of the most effective tactics marketers can use to ensure their brands are portrayed well on TikTok and that their products are associated with positive content.

1. See how other businesses have succeeded on the platform by checking out TikTok’s inspiration section on their website.

2. Use of high-resolution photos is essential when launching an ad in the Brand Takeover style. Make sure you adhere to TikTok’s ad guidelines.

3. Remember that there are only 80 characters available, so do your best with copywriting. However, given that you only have a couple of seconds to capture your audience’s attention, we advise adding the most important text in the video.

4. Don’t focus on more than one call to action at a time. For example, you can either ask users to download your app or use the coupon, not both together.

5. As usual, always test. The best way to determine whether or not your tactics and resources are effective is through A/B testing various elements.

Get Ready To Run Ads On TikTok!

We have seen that TikTok mainly targets GenZ users, and if your target audience is in that age group, the platform can work for you. Moreover, you have different ad formats to choose from. Try to stick to the specifications mentioned and follow the best practices to get max results with TikTok advertising. We hope we answered your question – How to run ads on TikTok!

Here’s wishing you all the luck with running ads on TikTok and growing your business on social media.

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