There are about a billion monthly active users on TikTok. 67% of them have made a purchase on the app because they were inspired by a specific video. A large portion regularly search TikTok for new products or interesting brands.
So much for the statistics. TikTok, an app for creating and sharing short videos, is undoubtedly one of the most important advertising channels on social media. Its popularity, especially among younger users, makes it an ideal place to promote products and services.
Advertising on this platform can bring great benefits to businesses, but it requires a well-thought-out strategy and proper setup. So we'll show you how to launch a TikTok ad campaign step by step, what the best practices are, the most common mistakes to avoid, and the benefits of advertising on TikTok.
To get started with TikTok advertising, you need to go through a few steps. Below you will find a detailed guide on how to do it.
The first step to launching an ad campaign on TikTok is to create an account in TikTok Ads Manager. This tool is used to manage ad campaigns on the platform. To create an account:
Once you’ve created your account, the next step is to enter details about your business. TikTok requires this information to better target ads to the right audience.
Go to the "Account Settings" section and select "Account Details." Then, fill in more detailed company information, which you can find in the "Business Information" and "Account Setup" modules. There, provide the following information about your brand:
Account verification is an important step that confirms the authenticity of the company. TikTok may ask you to send documents confirming the legality of your business, such as a tax identification number, registration documents, or an extract from the National Court Register. After sending the required documents and verifying them, the account will be activated. It usually takes less than 24 hours.
TikTok Pixel is a small piece of code that you place on your website. It lets you track the actions of users who visit your site after watching an ad. To upload a TikTok pixel:
You can do this manually or automatically:
Manual installation involves copying a piece of code to your page yourself. If you use WordPress or WooCommerce, you can use a plugin that will make installation easier.
Automatic installation allows you to add TikTok using a partner tool like Google Tag Manager.
After uploading the pixel, you need to configure the events you want to track. This could be adding a product to the cart, registering, making purchases, etc. Configuring events allows you to better analyze which user actions are the result of your advertising campaign.
There are two types of events available in TikTok Ads Manager: click event and URL-based event.
A click event is recorded every time a user clicks on a button you have selected on your page. A URL event tracks a specific address on your website, such as a product page or Thank You Page. An event will be recorded when someone visits that selected address.
Customizing your TikTok ads is very important to achieving your marketing goals. Well-configured campaigns allow you to reach the right audience, optimize your budget, and get better results in the form of increased traffic, increased sales, or building brand awareness.
The advertising objective defines what you want to achieve with your campaign. TikTok offers several options, such as increasing website traffic, increasing app downloads, building brand awareness, or generating leads. Choose the one that best suits your needs.
Choosing the right audience is one of the most important elements of an advertising campaign. TikTok allows for precise targeting based on location, demographics, interests, user behavior, and many other criteria.
There are two targeting options available: narrow and broad. In the case of narrow targeting, we define the criteria that the system will use to select recipients. If we decide on broad targeting, we do not have to specify detailed options – the algorithm will automatically find potential customers. Similar to Facebook's advertising system, TikTok Ads also allows us to exclude specific groups from our targeting.
Just like in Facebook Ads, here we also have the possibility to estimate the expected size of the selected group. This information will be displayed using an indicator, as you can see below:
Custom Audience on TikTok is a feature that allows you to precisely target your ads by reaching specific groups of users. It allows you to create your own audiences based on the data you already have about your customers. For example, by installing the TikTok pixel, you can create groups based on user actions on your site, such as visits, purchases, or newsletter sign-ups.
Lookalike Audience is a feature that lets you create groups that are similar to existing custom audiences. This involves selecting a specific custom audience and TikTok’s algorithm identifying and targeting new audiences that share similar characteristics and interests.
Lookalike Audiences can be used at every stage of your TikTok advertising efforts, allowing you to effectively reach new users who are similar to your current customers.
On TikTok, you can choose between two types of budgets: lifetime and daily.
Your lifetime budget is the maximum amount you plan to spend on your campaign or selected ad group over its entire lifespan. TikTok automatically distributes this budget, so there’s no guarantee it’ll be evenly distributed across each day. A daily budget, on the other hand, means that a certain amount is spent on your campaign or ad group every day.
It is worth remembering the minimum budget amounts:
The creative, or the content that will be displayed to users, is the most important element of the campaign. Here are the most popular types of ads on TikTok:
Do you already know which of these types is best suited for your business? Great! Once you have created a campaign and an ad group, you can safely move on to creating the first one (one group can contain 20 ads).
We start by entering a name and choosing the ad format (which is what we talked about above). Then we move on to adding media. You can import it from your computer, use materials used in previous campaigns, or use TikTok's dedicated tools for creating and editing advertising videos. After adding media, choose the appropriate thumbnail.
The next step is to develop engaging copy, choose a CTA button, and make final settings, such as adding tracking codes. Finally, you can preview the finished creative and that's it - your TikTok ad is ready to go live! It will now be reviewed by the TikTok team and, once approved, it can be displayed to users.
Regularly monitor campaign performance with analytics tools in TikTok Ads Manager. This allows you to optimize your campaign as it runs by adjusting your budget, audiences, and creatives.
On the Ads Manager dashboard, you will find the most important information about the current results of your campaign. However, if you want to dig deeper, click on the upper left corner of the panel and enter the name of the campaign you are looking for in the search box. Here you will find detailed information that you can filter by the time period of displayed statistics, conversion type or audience.
Now let's see what results a well-run advertising campaign on TIkTok can bring. As examples, we have prepared two companies for you: from the fashion and diet industries, which trusted us in the area of TikTok Ads. The numbers speak for themselves - see for yourself!
A fashion company that entrusted us with an advertising campaign on TikTok achieved a 14-fold increase in purchases in a year. The first campaign was launched at the end of 2022, during Blach Friday. The ads were targeted at women over 25, targeting them based on so-called shopping intentions (inclination to buy), and then narrowing them down to interest in fashion.
The result? In three weeks, the return on the campaign increased from 0 to 16.35. A year later, in the same period, it increased to 44.
You can read more about what this campaign looked like HERE .
Now let's take a look at the activities for a company offering dietary catering. The results were not long in coming, as the first sales appeared the very next day after the campaign was launched.
The costs of TikTok Ads for the dietetics company amounted to PLN 1,865.20 per week, which generated orders with a total value of PLN 28,553.58.
You can read more about the details of this campaign HERE .
The audience for TikTok ads is very diverse in terms of age, which is a huge advantage of this platform. TikTok attracts users from different age groups, from teenagers to adults and seniors.
TikTok campaigns are particularly effective in the fashion, cosmetics, entertainment, technology, furniture, and interior design industries, as well as for companies offering products aimed at youth and young adults.
TikTok advertising allows you to reach a rapidly growing group of users of all ages while offering innovative advertising formats and high engagement rates.
TikTok has specific specifications for its ads depending on the type of creative you choose. The simplest is Spark Ads, where practically the only requirement is the aspect ratio of the dimensions, which should be less than 2.2. For example, a 16:9 aspect ratio is a ratio of 1.7.
As for other types of Ads creatives, TikTok provides the following recommendations:
The cost of TikTok ads can vary depending on the campaign objective, audience, and industry competitiveness. Overall, however, TikTok offers competitive prices for views compared to other social media advertising platforms.
Well, who cares — us! At digitalk, we have been intensively training in the field of TikTok Ads for almost two years. We have tested it and explored it from the inside out, which has allowed us to develop effective strategies that translate into real sales results. Thanks to this, we can fully use the huge potential of TikTok to help you achieve your goals.
Want to learn more? You can find detailed information HERE .