A complete guide to TikTok Ads

TikTok’s evolution from a synchronized dance phenomenon to a diverse platform hosting trendsetting niche communities has turned it into an advertising powerhouse: in 2023, it reported $10.1 billion in ad revenue, trailing only Facebook and Instagram.

If all this momentum has you wanting to jump aboard the TikTok Ads train, copying and pasting ad campaigns from Facebook or Instagram won’t get you far. For your TikTok Ads to succeed, you’ll need to take time to understand what makes TikTok unique.

Here, I’ll share everything you need to know to get started with TikTok Ads, including ad formats, best practices, and optimization. I’ll also explain how to properly leverage trends, influencers, and user-generated content to get the most out of your TikTok advertising campaigns.

Table of contents:

Why advertise on TikTok?

TikTok was originally released in 2016, and it didn’t launch its ad platform until 2020—by which point it already had hundreds of millions of users. Today, TikTok has over 1.5 billion monthly active users, who, on average, use the app for an astonishing 58 minutes per day.

One reason advertisers are flocking to TikTok is that it’s uniquely suited to reaching younger demographics; 25% of users are between 18 and 24 years old. TikTok is also a growing force in the world of eCommerce advertising, especially since the launch of TikTok Shop in 2023, which allows users to browse products and purchase them directly from the app. 

But your brand doesn’t need to be a trendy Gen Z-focused eCommerce shop to succeed with TikTok. As of 2024, 45% of TikTok’s users were in the 35-55+ age bracket; meanwhile, a quick scroll through TikTok’s advertising database reveals ads from decidedly un-trendy industries like law, insurance, and logistics.

What is TikTok Ads Manager?

TikTok Ads Manager is the central hub for creating, managing, and analyzing TikTok campaigns. Like other social media ad platforms, TikTok Ads Manager allows you to target users based on demographics, interests, and behaviors; you can also view real-time analytics on your campaign’s performance. 

TikTok isn’t secretive about what it takes to succeed: it’s easy to use TikTok’s advertiser tools to find other ads for inspiration (including competitors’ ads). But TikTok goes a step further than other social platforms by transparently displaying the performance metrics and second-by-second engagement metrics for each ad.

TikTok also gives its business users plenty of hand-holding via the TikTok Creative Center, which features:

• Ad Inspiration: Endless examples of top ads, plus performance metrics, engagement metrics, and an AI-generated ad analysis.

• Trends: A dynamic list of trending hashtags, songs, videos, and creators.

• Creative Tools: TikTok’s creative suite—including tools like video templates and an AI ad creation assistant—simplifies the process of going from idea to campaign launch.

Types of TikTok Ads

TikTok offers a wide range of ad formats, each suited to different campaign objectives—and each requiring a unique creative approach. Here are the most prominent types of TikTok ads.

1. In-feed video ads

This is TikTok’s standard ad format. In-feed video ads appear in users’ For You feed, seamlessly blending with organic content. This ad format can be up to 60 seconds long, though 9-15 seconds is recommended for engagement.

Here’s an example of an in-feed video ad from an app called Scanner Pro, which manages to demonstrate the essence of the product in just 22 seconds.

2. TopView ads

TopView ads appear when a user first opens the TikTok app—they’re shown before any other video. At just three seconds long, TopView ads are short but effective for campaign goals like brand awareness. (TikTok found that TopView ads are 1.5x better at helping users recall a brand than other ad types.) TopView Ads are tailored for bigger brands due to their wide reach, and they aren’t available for all customers.

3. Branded hashtag challenges

If you want to boost engagement and brand awareness, a branded hashtag challenge is a great way to do it. The tricky part? Coming up with a genuinely viral challenge that ties into your brand.

Spotify provides helpful inspiration here. Its #HowDuoYouListen campaign, from 2020, invited two people to jump into different sides of a Spotify filter to indicate whether they liked a song or not. It was popular, eventually generating over 162,000 posts.

4. Branded effects

Branded Effects allow advertisers to create custom AR filters, stickers, and lenses that users can add into their own TikTok videos. This is great for creating pre-launch buzz: Project Power, a 2020 Netflix movie, managed to get over 100,000 people to post using its movie-themed filters.

The key to success is designing campaigns that users naturally want to share. Once you’ve found a formula that works, you can take some creative license in linking the campaign to your brand—as Cheetos did with the tarot card filter that promotes its Cajun Cheddar Cheetos flavor.

5. Spark Ads

TikTok Spark Ads help you turn user-generated content into paid ads. While brands can boost their own content with this method, the most authentic-feeling Spark Ads tend to use successful organic content from other creators. (Creators need to authorize the use of their content.)

For example, this German eCommerce store used TikTok Spark Ads to boost a simple, satisfying user-generated video demonstrating their product.

6. Shopping Ads

TikTok Shop makes it easy for users to buy stuff directly from TikTok. It also opens the door to a variety of ad formats that are made more valuable by the fact that they exist in an eCommerce context.

Key TikTok Shopping Ad formats include:

• Video Shopping Ads: Hyper-relevant videos placed on the TikTok Shop For You page to help new customers discover your products. (You can get started by simply connecting your existing product catalog.)

• LIVE Shopping Ads: This ad format drives traffic to TikTok’s LIVE shopping events, during which users can watch a representative of your brand interact with viewers, answer product questions, and demo your products.

Just as with standard in-feed video ads, Shopping Ads need to be entertaining and highly engaging. For example, this ad for a battery-powered water gun manages to demonstrate the product while keeping you hooked from the start.

7. Lead generation ads

TikTok’s lead generation ads can include an embedded call-to-action that opens an instant form, letting users submit information without leaving the app. It’s an ideal ad format for sellers of services or higher-cost products with a longer sales cycle.

TikTok’s instant forms are surprisingly robust: for example, you can add qualifying questions that, depending on how they’re answered, send users to different destinations. Most templates available on TikTok feature multiple questions on a single page, but there’s also a Card layout format that presents questions one at a time like Typeform.

8. Image ads and carousel ads

While TikTok is a video-centric platform, TikTok Ads also gives you a couple of image ad formats to work with:

• Image ads: Creating video ads takes time and can be expensive. Image ads are an easy way to test different strategies and launch a campaign quickly.

• Carousel ads: Upload 2-35 images that users can swipe through. These are good for getting users to engage, telling a story, and showcasing multiple products. (There’s also a Video Shopping Ads carousel format, which connects to your store and uses your product catalog images.)

How to run ads on TikTok

Now that you’ve got a sense for the types of ads available, let’s walk through the process of setting up your first TikTok ad campaign. Here’s how to run ads on TikTok.

1. Create a TikTok Ads Manager Account. Visit ads.tiktok.com and sign up for an account. (You’ll just need to provide some basic information about your business.)

2. Set up billing and payment details. Add a payment method. (I was able to skip this step and jump straight into creating a campaign, but you’ll need to come back to it before launching anything.)

3. Choose your campaign objectives. TikTok offers three broad campaign objectives—Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion—and more specific sub-objectives like App Installs, TikTok Shop, and Video Views.

4. Set up ad groups. You can create multiple ad groups, allowing you to see how variations of your campaign perform with different targeting or ad creative.

5. Define your target audience. TikTok’s younger demographics mean this section looks a little different than some other platforms: for example, you can target age groups as young as 13-17 years old. Other targeting options include Spending Power, Interests & Behaviors, and Lookalike Audiences.

6. Set a budget and schedule. You’ll need a daily budget of at least $50, though you can also set a lifetime budget for the campaign as a whole. This is where you set a start date and an end date, too.

7. Create ad content. You can upload a pre-edited video or use TikTok’s built-in tools (like its Video Creation Kit) to put your ad together. Keep a close eye on the specs your ad needs to meet; only certain video formats (MP4, MOV, MPEG, AVI, GIF) and aspect ratios (9:16, 1:1, 16:9) are accepted. Most important is your ad’s length: while your video can be up to 60 seconds, TikTok says 9-15-second videos perform best for most advertisers.

8. Measure and optimize: Start by adding a TikTok Pixel to your website, allowing you to track conversions, build custom audiences, and optimize your ad delivery. Then, use TikTok Ad Manager’s reporting suite to analyze your campaign performance. Look at metrics like Conversion Rate, Cost Per Action, and Return On Ad Spend. (Another helpful metric at the ad level is Remain, which tracks how long users stay engaged with your video ads.)

Automate your TikTok Ads

Once you have your TikTok Ads up and running, you can connect your TikTok leads and data with other apps using Zapier’s TikTok Lead Generation integration. For example, you can automatically send new TikTok leads to your email marketing tool, CRM, or even a spreadsheet. Learn more about how to automate TikTok ads, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Best practices for TikTok Ads

To understand how to approach your TikTok Ads, start by scrolling through your TikTok feed and noticing the content that comes up organically—or take a look at Zapier’s list of some great TikTok ad examples. You’ll notice that the best ads do the following things really well.

Be authentic

The highly-polished content that works well on platforms like Facebook and Instagram might not resonate with TikTok’s audience. According to TikTok creator Ola Nowak, “TikTok is a totally different audience that expects authenticity and doesn’t like pushy advertising.” Brands that get the most out of TikTok create platform-specific content rather than repurposing video from other platforms. Yes, more content means more work; but the good news is that TikTok’s users don’t expect high production value.

Marianna Hewitt, the co-founder of Summer Fridays, a skincare brand, said “It’s almost like the more unfiltered, and the more real it is, the better it performs. On other platforms you have to really invest in your content and have videographers, photographers, and models; on TikTok, you don’t, and I love that about the platform.”

Hook your audience early

The first three seconds of your video are the most critical. As a result, your most engaging content always goes first to hook users early. If your video ads underperform, start by taking a close look at the first few seconds.

Incorporate trends

Because TikTok is an algorithm-driven app, even content from small accounts has viral potential. That means popular trends are an easy way to boost engagement. Use them with care, though; trends that perform well with one audience can flop with another. And be careful not to arrive late to a trend.

TikTok has a Trend Discovery center that makes it easy to see what’s trending, including songs, hashtags, videos, and individual creators.

Use influencer partnerships and UGC

TikTok is the kind of platform where authentic, low-quality videos from consumers can easily outperform big-budget agency content. TikTok makes it easy to take advantage of this. The easiest way is to boost existing UGC using Spark Ads, but TikTok also provides a streamlined way to develop partnerships with influencers via the TikTok Creator Marketplace. Either option can build trust in your brand by leveraging the credibility of other creators.

You don’t need to partner with massive influencers to make an impact. TikTok’s nano-influencers—those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers—have a higher engagement rate than influencers with more followers.

Don’t make ads, make TikToks

Still not convinced of the power of TikTok? Just look at Crocs, the formerly-ridiculed foam clogs first released in 2002. Thanks to TikTok trendsetters, Crocs are now an unlikely fashion statement and even have a lively TikTok community. (It’s known, of course, as #CrocTok.) As a brand, Crocs regularly pokes fun at itself on TikTok and promotes quirky campaigns like the “Crocs Shoe Throwing Challenge.”

Despite massive platform growth, TikTok’s audience continues to value brands like Croc that are entertaining, unpolished, and authentic. As TikTok continues to grow over the next few years—it’s projected to reach 2.2 billion users by 2027—authentic, TikTok-first ads will continue to set the most successful brands apart.

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