How to advertise on TikTok: 10 steps
Before creating an ad, ensure you’re using a business account and proceed to the TikTok Ads Manager. Keep in mind that if you want to manage multiple accounts running ads and have more than one person access your campaigns, you’ll need to use TikTok Business Center.
Once you’ve set up your account, follow these steps to get started on your first TikTok ad:
1. Create a new campaign
Navigate to the TikTok Ads Manager, click the “Campaign” button from the top menu and tap “Create.”
2. Define a campaign objective
TikTok provides three objectives to help you reach your marketing goals: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. Here’s a breakdown to help you choose which suits your needs most:
- Awareness: If you choose this option, TikTok will show your ad to as many people as possible to increase initial brand awareness.
- Consideration: Consideration’s goal is to reach potential buyers. It drives traffic to specific URLs to generate leads for your business.
- Conversion: With conversion, the ad’s goal is to increase total conversation, whether you’re seeking app installs or website sales.
3. Give your campaign a name
Choose a fitting name for your campaign and select whether or not it fits into a special ad category, such as housing, employment or credit. This helps you abide by TikTok’s special ad category policy.
4. Specify your budget
So, how much does it cost to advertise on TikTok? The minimum for ad groups is $20 per day, and for campaigns, it’s $50 per day. You can choose to define the budget yourself or have TikTok optimize your budget across all ads.
If you select “Campaign budget optimization,” TikTok will optimize your budget for each ad group in your campaign rather than specifying each individually. But don’t worry about spending too much – you can cap your total budget to ensure all ads and groups within your campaign fit your financial needs.
5. Name the ad group
Now that you have everything set up within your campaign, you can specify individual ad groups. Name your ad group, then click “Advanced settings” under “Placements.” Here, you can toggle options to decide whether users can comment on, download and share your ad. TikTok recommends leaving user comments on to improve your ad’s engagement and impressions.
6. Define your target
Fill in the details under “Targeting” to ensure your ad reaches the desired audience. Define the demographics by entering locations, age groups and languages.
7. Choose content exclusions
Inform TikTok what content it can show alongside your ads: full, standard or limited inventory. Each of these tiers has specific exclusions that determine whether or not the videos TikTok shows alongside your ad include mature content. Limited inventory has no mature content, full has some, and limited has content that’s appropriate for most brands (but not all).
8. Create your Ad Group’s daily budget and schedule
Set a daily budget for the maximum spend you’re willing to pay each day and schedule when your ad will run. Here, you can decide whether you want your ad to run all day or within specific time periods.
9. Bidding and optimization
Decide how much you’ll pay per metric by setting your bidding and optimization preferences. Your bidding cost correlates with your optimization goal. If your ad’s optimization goal is video views, your metric will be cost per focused view (CPV). This way, you’ll pay your bid price when users hit your defined CPV.
You can also leave the bid control section blank for the lowest-cost bidding strategy. However, TikTok recommends a minimum bid to maximize your campaign’s performance.
10. Submit the ad
Once you’ve filled in every technical detail, you can upload your content and submit your ad. At this point, you’ll also choose the destination page, which is wherever you want to lead traffic. This could be a specific product page, your brand’s website or an app install page.
After pressing “Submit,” TikTok will review the ad to ensure it follows the platform’s Community Guidelines. The review process is typically less than 24 hours, so leave enough time for a review when creating new ads.
TikTok ads best practices and tips
The nature of TikTok’s snappy short-form videos pushes creators to refine their storytelling to capture attention quickly – and the same goes for advertising. If you’re trying to attract sponsorships or promote a product to boost sales, your success relies on reaching the right audience and sparking their interest fast.
Here are a few tips to ensure your TikTok ad is a hit:
- Keep content engaging from the start to capture your audience’s attention in the first three seconds
- Place essential elements such as text and imagery in the middle of the screen to ensure your viewers hone in on your ad’s main message
- Craft your ad in the correct technical specs to ensure it’s at its highest resolution
- Get creative and switch up your ads every week to give viewers new and refreshing content.
Here’s an example of what a great TikTok ad looks like:
