February 17, 2025
Last update
2.17.2025
09 MIN.
Get started with creating your own TikTok ad campaign: a very effective way to bring awareness to your brand, increase leads, and generate revenue!
Marvellous
While Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn have long dominated the social media advertising landscape, it’s time to shift your focus to a platform that no longer needs to prove itself: TikTok!
With millions of TikTok users scrolling through their feeds daily, now is the perfect moment to dive into TikTok advertising and stand out from the crowd!
Our ultimate guide will equip you with everything you need to know to create captivating campaigns that not only grab attention but also drive real results. From innovative ad formats to strategic targeting, we’ll show you how to leverage TikTok’s dynamic environment to elevate your brand.
Don’t get left behind—embrace the TikTok revolution and unlock a world of advertising possibilities! Let’s get started!
TikTok Ads are a powerful advertising solution that enables brands to connect with the platform's vibrant user base through creative and immersive content.
These sponsored short-form mobile videos and photos are designed to reach a larger audience, making them an effective tool for increasing brand exposure, driving website traffic, and generating new leads.
TikTok Ads come in various engaging formats, such as In-Feed Ads that seamlessly blend into users' feeds and eye-catching TopView Ads that capture attention right from the start.
With TikTok's smart targeting options, you can connect with the right audience eager to discover your brand.
Many brands have turned their attention to TikTok Ads. It's easy to see why, when you look at a few figures:
These stats show the value that TikTok can bring to your brand. If you haven't added TikTok to your social marketing strategy, then you should!
This is an important question to ask. Before investing in TikTok ads, you want to make sure that it's the best move for your business.
Depending on your audience demographic, TikTok might not be the best platform for you. TikTok has a more youthful audience than most social media platforms. If your business provides services for individuals aged 50+, the app might not be the best option for you. TikTok ads work best if your audience is composed of young adults.
According to Statista, 36.2% of users are aged between 18 and 24, then 33.9% are aged between 25 and 34. Only 15.8% of TikTok users are aged between 35 and 44 and 7.9% are aged between 45 and 54, and just 6.2% are 55+.
The gender gap on the platform is minimal. 54.8% of TikTok users are male and 45.2% are female.
💡 Good to know: TikTok allows you to set your ad targeting using demographic components like age, gender, location, interests, and device type.
When it comes to TikTok Ads, the costs can vary quite a bit depending on what you’re looking to achieve.
Here’s a quick rundown to help you get a sense of what to expect:
TikTok has 5 ad formats:
Let's look into how each type works.
In-Feed ads are similar to the ads you see while scrolling through your Instagram feed. In-Feed Ads appear as the user scrolls through the For You section on TikTok’s homepage.
In-Feed video ads can be 9 to 15 seconds long. You can also add a call-to-action to increase your conversions.
The call-to-action can be a link to your website (to help you increase website traffic), a link to your online shop (to increase sales), or a link to a landing page (to help increase subscriptions to your service). The sky's the limit when it comes to call-to-actions! You can even include multiple calls-to-action if you want.
Another feature of TikTok In-Feed Ads is that users can like, comment, share, and interact with the videos, like an organic TikTok posted at the right time to generate engagement. So, if you want to increase engagement with your followers, In-Feed Ads are a suitable option.
TopView ads are full-screen video ads that appear as the first thing users see when they open the TikTok app. It is also TikTok’s longest video ad format. TopView videos can be as long as 60 seconds. The videos are full-screen with sound and auto-play. The ad allows you to add links to internal or external pages.
They capture maximum attention and are ideal for brand awareness and high-impact campaigns.
Balenciaga used the TopView ad format to drive traffic to their shopping pages.
The ad showed a beautiful full-screen video of their product overlaid with bold text to draw attention. They added a call-to-action to send people to their shopping page.
The ad had over 23 million impressions across the UK, France, and Italy. The average CTR of the ad was around 18%.
Top Feed ads are positioned at the top of the "For You" feed, ensuring high visibility. These ads blend seamlessly into the user experience while still standing out, making them effective for driving engagement.
Standard Feed ads appears within the regular scrolling experience of the "For You" feed. They are native ads that allow users to interact with the content, making them suitable for driving traffic and conversions.
Branded Mission encourages user participation by inviting them to create content around a specific theme or challenge. This format fosters community engagement and brand interaction, leveraging user-generated content.
Spark Ads allow brands to promote organic content from their own TikTok accounts or from other users' content that features their brand. This format enhances authenticity and encourages engagement by showcasing real user experiences.
The TikTok Pulse Suite is a premium advertising solution that places ads alongside trending content in the TikTok ecosystem. It targets high-engagement moments, ensuring brands reach users when they are most receptive to content.
Similar to In-Feed Video Ads, these ads incorporate interactive elements that encourage user engagement. They can include features like polls, quizzes, or clickable buttons that lead to landing pages. This format is designed to create a more immersive experience and boost user interaction.
Playable Ads are interactive videos designed to give users a sneak peek of your app before they decide to download it. When viewers watch your video, they can engage with your ad in a full-screen, playable format, allowing them to explore your app by tapping or swiping directly on the ad. You can also prompt users to download your app at any time with a simple button or gesture.
Carousel Ads are a specific type of In-Feed Interactive Ad that allows brands to showcase multiple images (2 to 35 images) within a single ad unit. Users can swipe through the carousel to view different pieces of content, making it an effective way to highlight various products, features, or messages. This format encourages exploration and can lead to higher engagement rates, as users can interact with multiple visuals in one ad.
These ads appear outside of the standard feed, such as on the TikTok Discover page or as banner ads. They are designed to capture attention in high-visibility areas of the app, making them effective for brand awareness and reaching a broader audience.
There are 5 off-feed placements.
Automatic Search Placement allows advertisers to have their ads automatically displayed in relevant search results on TikTok. This format leverages TikTok's algorithm to determine the best placements based on user search behavior and interests. It helps brands reach users who are actively looking for content related to their products or services, increasing visibility and engagement.
Search Ads Campaigns enable brands to create ads that appear when users search for specific keywords on TikTok. This format is designed to capture the attention of users who are already interested in related topics, making it an effective way to drive traffic and conversions. Advertisers can choose relevant keywords to target, ensuring their ads reach the right audience at the right time.
Messaging Ads are designed to facilitate direct communication between brands and users. These ads can prompt users to initiate a conversation with the brand through TikTok's messaging features. This format is particularly useful for customer engagement, allowing brands to answer questions, provide support, or share personalized offers directly with potential customers.
The Global App Bundle is an advertising solution that allows app developers to promote multiple apps within a single ad unit. This format is ideal for brands with a suite of apps, as it enables them to showcase their offerings to users in a cohesive manner. Users can explore different apps and choose to download the ones that interest them, increasing the chances of conversions across the app portfolio.
Pangle is TikTok's advertising platform that extends beyond TikTok itself, allowing brands to reach audiences across a network of partner apps and websites. This format provides advertisers with additional reach and visibility, enabling them to connect with users outside of TikTok while still leveraging the platform's targeting capabilities. Pangle helps brands maximize their advertising efforts by tapping into a broader ecosystem.
With Interactive add-ons or Branded effects, you can add interactive features to your existing video content.
For example, brands can include AR filters, lenses, branded shareable stickers, clickable links, or effects that encourage users to engage with the ad. You can also create a custom filter directly on the app. This enhances the viewing experience and can lead to higher engagement rates.
TikTok offers tailored advertising solutions for specific industries, such as retail, entertainment, and travel. These solutions include customized ad formats and strategies designed to meet the unique needs of each industry, helping brands effectively reach their target audiences.
Here are the steps to follow in setting up your effective TikTok Ads campaign.
The first step is to visit the TikTok Ads home page and click on the "Get started" button to create a TikTok ads manager account (if you don't already have one).
You must enter your email address and a password to create your account.
When you open the TikTok Ads dashboard, you will see four tabs - Dashboard, Campaign, Tools, and Analytics. Click on the Campaign tab and click the Create button to get started.
Next, you choose your advertising objective. The advertising objective will be the goal of your ad. The options you can choose from are:
Awareness objectives focus on enhancing brand visibility and recall.
Consideration objectives motivate potential customers to explore more about your business.
Conversion objectives are designed to drive specific actions, such as purchases or app installations.
Depending on your chosen objective, you'll be able to:
After you have set up your advertising objective and budget, you’ll need to create an Ad group. This is where you set up your ad placement, details, targeting, schedule, bidding method, and delivery type.
Set up your ad placements: This is the point where you choose where your ads will show up. You can either choose Automatic Placements or set it up manually.
Set up targeting: This section allows you to define who sees your ads. The parameters you set include the audience, gender, location, age, languages, interests and behaviors, anddevice.
Set up a budget and schedule: Next, you set your campaign budget and schedule. You can either choose a Daily Budget or a Lifetime Budget.
Next, you schedule how long you want the ad to run for. After choosing the dates you want the ad to run over, you can take it further by specifying the times of the day the ad will be shown.
Depending on your chosen objective, you'll have access to a Bidding and optimization tab.
TikTok has with some fantastic creative advertising tools that make creating and sharing your ads a breeze!
There are several strategies you can use to advertise and market your brand on TikTok. Apart from using TikTok’s paid advertising program, you can advertise your brand in the following ways.
You can partner with influencers to promote your brand. This is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your brand on TikTok! Influencer marketing is very effective in generating brand awareness.
In fact, working with social media influencers can increase your business ROI by up to 11%. Another report showed that businesses make an average of $6.50 per $1 that is spent on influencer marketing.
CashApp used a song to go viral and promote their brand on the app after partnering with influencers.
It is important that you choose the right influencers to partner with. Don't just choose an influencer because they have a high number of views or followers. The best practice is to choose influencers who post content that is relevant to your brand and goals.
Choose influencers who are directly related to your niche or industry. For example, if you are a fitness brand, it would make more sense to work with an influencer in the health niche than a tech influencer.
Also, look at their engagement rates. Influencers with consistent engagement rates usually have audiences that trust their content. The point of your campaign is for users to engage with your brands. The more trusted an influencer is on the platform, the more engagement they receive.
You can use influencer marketing platforms to easily find the best influencers to work with. These platforms would do all the work in finding influencers that best suit your brand, product, or service.
TIP: To encourage influencers to continue to promote your brand, use commission-based payment instead of a one-time payment. Similar to affiliate marketing where the influencers get paid per lead.
You can increase the reach of your TikTok content by posting on other marketing channels. You can post your TikTok videos to other social media platforms, your brand website, YouTube, etc.
TikTok videos are very popular on YouTube and Twitter. In fact, half of the viral videos I see on my Twitter feed are from TikTok.
Sharing your content on other channels would increase your brand’s visibility and reach. If you have a small marketing team with a tight budget, you can use this strategy to increase your brand’s awareness instead of spending a ton of money on paid ads.
If your brand’s demographic is active on TikTok, you should consider creating a TikTok channel. This would help you connect with your target audience and foster a relationship with them.
The key is to deliver value and entertainment via your TikTok channel. You can then promote your TikTok channel using paid ads or influencer marketing. Remember that TikTok users come to the app to get entertained and have fun. If you are showing ads that only promote your product or service, you will get little engagement.
The more interesting your videos are, the more engagement you will receive. Users have a short attention span. You have to create videos that trigger curiosity or they’ll move on to the next video in the feed.
Challenges are the most popular video format on the platform. Viral challenges on the app usually receive millions of interactions. Running a challenge campaign is one of the best ways to market your brand on TikTok.
Here are some examples of brands using TikTok challenges to increase their brand awareness.
OPPO
When OPPO launched its new F11 Pro device in 2019, they created a hashtag challenge titled #LightUpF11Pro to create mass awareness for the device in Malaysia. Participants of the hashtag challenge had to create a dance video while illustrating a “taking a photo” gesture with their hands. Winners of the challenge were gifted a new F11 Pro device and cash prizes.
The result of the challenge was over 7,000 user-generated videos, 6 million video views, and 326,000 likes during the 6-day campaign period.
REXONA
Rexona started the #RexonaChallenge to create awareness for their new summer line of products targeted at teens. They first launched the challenge with a top influencer, Kate. She created pop music for the challenge and shared a video of her dancing to the music in her own unique way.
Rexona then offered prizes to participants who shared their own unique interpretation of the music video. The result of the challenge was approximately 93 million views during the 6-day campaign period. Rexona also gained 14,000 followers on their TikTok account.
We have already detailed how TikTok’s paid advertising program works. Earlier in this article, we saw the different ad formats that TikTok offers and also how to set up your TikTok Ads campaign.
In 2024, TikTok is expected to generate nearly $18.5 billion in advertising revenue worldwide.
Good TikTok ad conversions can vary depending on several factors: your industry, campaign objectives, target audience, specific actions you want users to take... However, here's a benchmark to consider when evaluating successful conversions on TikTok: a good CTR for TikTok ads typically ranges from 1% to 3%. Higher CTRs indicate that your ad is engaging and relevant to your audience.
When it comes to Cost Per Click (CPC) for TikTok ads, a sweet spot is usually around $0.10 to $1.00. Of course, this can vary depending on your industry and how competitive your campaign is. If you create engaging and well-targeted ads, you might even see lower CPCs!
For Cost Per Mille (CPM), which is the cost for every 1,000 impressions, a good range to aim for is about $5 to $15. Just like with CPC, this can change based on your ad format and audience. If you can keep your CPM low while still getting great engagement, you’re definitely on the right track!
According to TikTok, most TikTok Ads are typically reviewed within 24 hours.
The main factors TikTok uses in ranking ads are relevance, ad quality, and bidding. While bid price is important, high quality and relevant ads are given priority because they get more engagement and make the platform more money. Ad buyers say that TikTok also considers engagement factors like shares, comments, and likes.
TikTok is most likely using watch time and watch loops (how many times a user watches an ad) to determine its relevance. So to increase your watch time, you need to consistently create quality videos for your ads.
Using TikTok ads is a very effective way to bring awareness to your brand, increase leads, and generate sales for your online shop. The key is toand upload video ads that capture the attention of users.
This article should help you get started with creating your own ad campaign!
And don't forget, once launched, regularly monitor your ads' TikTok analytics to see what's working and what's not, so you can replicate your success.
Hi! I'm Marvellous, huge fan of Iconosquare as a product, and determined to help experienced social media marketers thrive in the various aspects of their career.
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