How to Advertise on TikTok: The Ultimate Guide 2022

TikTok has seen sudden app usage and popularity growth over the last few years. In quarter 1, 2022, TikTok had over 1 billion monthly active users, with 1.53 billion predicted by the end of 2023. It remains the world’s sixth most popular social media platform after Facebook, Youtube, Whatsapp, Instagram, and WeChat. From its launch in 2016 till these days, the app has seen a skyrocketing increase in the number of users:

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Although most TikTok users are between the ages of 19 and 29, the app is widely used by B2B and B2C businesses to promote their products and services. The secret lies in the fact that you don’t need millions of followers to go viral. Brands have huge potential to generate brand awareness and engagement with the help of TikTok advertising. So encapsulating this app into your advertising strategy can become a valuable tool to diversify your business and reach a wider audience. This article will guide you on how to make a TikTok ad and share the best advertising practices.

TikTok for Business

TikTok for Business is a tool for marketers that helps to advertise on TikTok. Instead of designing their strategy, the platform allows businesses to create ads, reach target audiences, set budgets, and analyze campaign data.

Types of TikTok Ads

TikTok provides brands with multiple opportunities to advertise on the platform. But, being a relatively new platform, you might be confused about the different types of TikTok ads, how to use them, and which of them suits your business the most. Let’s look at available formats and find out how each can be used to meet your campaign objectives.

In-Feed Ads

You can see these ads when you scroll through your “For You Page” (FYP). In-feed ads can be up to 60 seconds long. Users can engage with these ads with the help of comments, shares, and likes. When brands create this type of ad, they include a call-to-action button that links to a landing page. In-feed apps are a perfect fit for:

• CPQ brands selling physical products
• Businesses that want to blend their ads organically with a native content feed
• Anyone looking to go deeper into TikTok advertising

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Video Ads

These ads are available for TikTok and the TikTok family of new apps. They’re usually about 5-60 seconds videos in the user’s For You feed. The key components of video ads are an ad display image, a video, a brand or app name, and an ad text.

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Image Ads

Image ads run only in TikTok’s News Feed apps (Babe, TopBuzz, and BuzzVideo), including an image, brand name, and add text.

Spark Ads

With the help of spark ads, you can boost organic content from your account or other users. Like In-Feed ads, spark ads look like organic content because they pop up in-feed without interrupting the scrolling process. These ads are labeled as “Sponsored content” and include a CTA, account name, and audio. One of the great benefits is that it features all common engagement drivers like liking, sharing, and commenting. Also, spark ads can boast some cool functionalities. For example, non-Spark ads usually redirect users to the advertiser’s landing page. With Spark ads, users can click on the profile pic and nickname and swipe left. They’ll be redirected to the TikTok page, where they can follow the account. Only if they click on the CTA button or the video caption. Spark ads are perfect for businesses that:

• Are interested in increasing their brand awareness and audience
• Already have viral content that can be used as a TikTok advertisement
• Want to leverage social proof by partnering with creators with larger following

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Further reading: How to Create Ads that Acquire New Clients for You

Carousel Ads

These TikTok ads include up to 10 images and appear in TikTok’s news feed apps.

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Pangle Ads

Pangle’s video platform integrates with TikTok to offer native, banner, and video ads, but this feature is available only to specific countries.

TikTok Ad Formats Available to Managed Brands

1. Branded Hashtag Challenge

   This is a three-to-six-day TikTok ad campaign format in which user-generated content appears on the hashtag challenge page.



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2. TopView ads

   They’re video ads that look like a full-screen takeover for 5 to 60 seconds when users open the TikTok app.



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3. Branded Effects

   Branded Effects allow brands to create sharable filters, stickers, and special effects on TikTok for self-promotion. They’re perfect for increasing engagement and getting more UGC.



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4. Brand Takeover

   These are full-screen TikTok ads that appear first when a user opens TikTok. This format helps businesses to have a high reach and great performance due to the entire screen being clickable. Brand Takeover is either a 3-second image or a 3-5 second video that allows brands to direct traffic to an internal and external landing page.

   

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5. In-Feed Video Ad

   This format allows you to add a video ad that auto-plays within a user’s For You feed. In-Feed video ads are up to 60 seconds long and look like native content thanks to having the same interface as organic posts. They feature a clickable CTA button to drive traffic to app downloads, external landing pages, or your brand’s TikTok Business Account.

How to Set Up a TikTok Ad Campaign

Launching a TikTok ad campaign is relatively easy. Here’re the basic steps to set up ads on TikTok.

1. Create your TikTok ads account

   First, you must set up your business account from which you will build and manage your ads. Choose your billing country and select whether you use this account for a business or individual. Then enter your email address, password, and a verification code sent to your email. Confirm that you agree with the terms and conditions and sign up. Once your brand is approved, log in to your dashboard and complete the account setup instructions.





2. Install the TikTok Pixel

   Now it’s time to install the TikTok Pixel. This code snippet on your website collects information about website events. After selecting the “Standard Mode” or “Developer Mode,” you’ll create your Pixel by first setting up a “Web Event” in your TikTok Ads Manager. Review your cookie consent settings, download or copy the Pixel code, and paste it into your website header.

3. Create an Ad campaign

   Already inside the TikTok Ads dashboard? Click on the “Campaign” tab and the “Create” button.



4. Choose your objective

   At this stage, you can choose your TikTok campaign objective — whether you want to drive conversions, app installs, and traffic or generate leads for your brand.



5. Set up the Ad group

   Create an ad group to define your ads’ campaign budgets, audiences, and placements. Select either “App Install” or “Website” as your promotion type and choose the ad placement.

   Then turn on the “Automated Creative Optimization feature,” and TikTok will create variations of your content and test its engagement. Make sure to determine your target audience for your ad by selecting gender, location, and age group. You can also specify locations, add users with specific interests, and include those who have already interacted with your content.

   

   Next, select either standard or accelerated delivery. The first option guarantees that your ad will pop up during high-traffic times throughout your ad delivery period. The second option means that your ad budget is dedicated to getting your ad’s attention as quickly as possible.

6. Create a new ad

   TikTok ads include videos and images in horizontal, vertical, and square formats. Additionally, it offers a tool called Video Creation Kit, which includes video templates and images that can be customized with your images. The platform also offers more than 300 free background music options.Another useful tool is Automated Creative Optimization. It allows you to add up to 10 images, five videos, five ad texts, and one CTA. The system combines them, creates multiple ads, and tests them to use the most effective combinations.

   

   Once the app is created, you can preview it and understand how TikTok users will see it. You’ll also have a chance to choose different CTAs depending on your audience. You can ask them to “Contact us,” “Book now,” or “Learn more.” Then click on “Submit” to complete the ad creation process.

7. Monitor your ad performance

   This is one of the most important steps after launching your ad. You should always measure your performance to determine how the TikTok campaign pays off. TikTok provides native analytics that shows you how your ad performs regarding conversions, clicks, impressions, and more. You can test and compare the performance of different ad creatives to see what works best.

Further reading: Increase Your ROI by Running Effective Campaigns

TikTok Ads Cost

TikTok ads are based on a bid model, meaning you can control costs through daily and lifetime budgets for ad groups and campaigns. The minimum budgets are:

TikTok ads are based on a bid model, meaning you can control costs through daily and lifetime budgets for ad groups and campaigns. The minimum budgets are:

Campaign level

• Daily budget: $50
• Lifetime budget: $50

Ad group level

• Daily budget: $20
• Lifetime budget: calculated as daily budget multiplied by the number of days scheduled

TikTok Advertising Best Practices

You’re close to the finish line! Here’re a few tips for optimizing your ads and making them more engaging.

1. Focus on one CTA at a time, but not both at the same time
2. Include the most important text in the actual video, as the text space is limited to 80 characters
3. Use high-resolution images when launching an ad in the Brand Takeover format
4. Test different creative elements and targeting to enhance your advertising on TikTok
5. Look at TikTok’s inspiration section to see how brands achieve success

Three TikTok Ads Examples

1. Marc Jacobes — #PerfectAsIAm

   The #PerfectAsIAm challenge resulted in 10.1 billion video views worldwide as of March 2021.



2. Guess — #InMy Denim challenge

   TikTok reports that their campaign and Brand Takeovers had 10.5 million views and an extra 12,000 followers.



3. The Farmers’ Dog In-Feed TikTok ad

   The Farmer’s Dog conveyed their message: The most convenient dog owner’s choice for healthy living. For this campaign alone, they saw 33 million video views, all in just two months.

Should You Incorporate TikTok in Your Advertising Strategy?

TikTok remains one of the most popular platforms for many brands, as there are countless benefits to marketing your business there. You can create innovative advertisements that suit your marketing needs, test different ad creatives, and engage with the youngest audience. It’s one of the best ways to stay ahead of the marketing curve and infuse new ideas into your strategy. If you’re ready to show off your brand and creativity by advertising on TikTok, reach out to our team. We’ll be happy to find the right format to increase your brand awareness and craft the best advertising practices for your business. Let’s conquer TikTok together!

Further reading: Why Hire a Marketing Agency Over In-House Teams