TikTok is getting people hooked to it like never before. Most of the millennials enjoy creating TikTok videos and watching videos on TikTok.
If you sell products and services and your target is a younger audience, then you must leverage TikTok. In this blog post, we share some tips about how to advertise on TikTok. Keep reading.
Firstly, you need to understand why TikTok is right for your business. Here is the answer.
Are TikTok Ads Right for Your Business?
The visual app has more than 500 million active users across the globe. TikTok has surpassed Twitter and Snapchat in popularity. Interestingly, it is less saturated with ads compared to its counterparts. The biggest advantage of TikTok is that it allows users to edit and share 15 seconds of videos with built-in features like effects, filters, and music. These TikTok features make TikTok really appealing for advertisers and you must leverage it to promote your products and services.
After it launched a beta version of its ads, big names like Nike, Fenty, Grubhub, and Apple Music have leveraged TikTok ads to promote their products in a visually compelling way. Additionally, TikTok Ads platform offers unique ad creation and advanced targeting features unlike many of its predecessors. If used effectively, TikTok Advertising can help you target the most lucrative users.
Let’s get started!
1. Create TikTok Ads Account
Visit the TikTok Ads home page and click on the Create an Ad button to create your campaign. TikTok Ads are still in beta and so it does not allow you to set up the ads online entirely yet.
Once you submit the details a representative will help you set up your TikTok account. It may take around 48 hours to get your account. However, once you do, the process to create ads is fairly simple.
2. Create your TikTok Ad Campaign
Go to the TikTok Ads dashboard, click on the Campaign tab and then click on the Create button.
Next, choose a campaign objective. As can be seen here, you can choose from three options: Conversions, Traffic and App Install.
You can then set your budget by either selecting the Daily Budget or Total Budget under the settings option. Regardless of what you choose, there is a minimum budget that you need to set.
3. Set Your TikTok Ad Placements, Details and Targeting
After creating your ad and setting the budget, the next step is to create an ad group and choose your targeting and placements.
Interestingly, TikTok Ads dashboard allows you to select the exact platforms you would like to run your ads on. You can choose from among BuzzVideo, News Republic, Vigo Video(India only) and others. Additionally, TikTok has an option for automatic placements which determines where your ad can produce the best results and places it accordingly.
After selecting your preferred placements, follow the prompts and enter all the necessary details such as display names, relevant URLs , categories and images and start running your ads. You can also select up to 20 keywords to describe your app or website. The description can help match your products with the right audience.
Under the targeting section, you can define the target audience for your ads by setting the location, age, gender, interest, language, device, etc.
You can also create a custom audience by uploading the IDs of existing TikTok users if you have a specific group of people to target. You can upload the IDs as a TXT, CSV or ZIP file.
4. Select TikTok Ad Budget, Goals & Duration
In the Budget & Schedule section, you can set the budget for your ad. You may choose either a daily budget or a total budget.
Note: There is a minimum budget quoted by TikTok which you will have to spend irrespective of the type of budget you select.
You can also schedule the duration of your ads here. The Dayparting option allows you to select specific times of the day or week that you want your ad to run.
Next, you need to set the pacing of your budget. It determines how fast your budget will be spent. While the Standard delivery option spreads your budget evenly across the duration of your campaign, the Accelerate option spends the budget much faster during the scheduled time.
After setting the budget, you can select your optimization goal. It will reflect certain metrics you are hoping to achieve with your campaign. You can optimize your ad group for Click, Conversion or Impression. Your bidding will be optimized according to the goals you select.
For instance, if you choose Conversion as your goal, your ad will be shown to an audience that is more likely to buy your products or service. To track all the actions such as app downloads or form submissions, that signifies conversion, you can create conversion events by clicking the Library and selecting Conversions.
You can then decide if you want to set up conversion tracking for app installs or certain elements of your landing page through pixel.
To create an app install conversion, first type in a name for your conversion event and enter the link to your app in Google Play or the App Store, then select a tracking partner to start measuring your ad conversions.
To price the Conversion goals, oCPC (optimization cost per click) bidding is used which makes sure to display your ads to users who are more likely to perform your expected actions. The best part about oCPC is that it lets you bid on the individual conversion cost you expect but allows you to pay by CPC. TikTok ads automatically adjust the bids based on your settings and keep the cost of your campaign close to your target price.
If you choose Click as your goal, you will pay on CPC basis with your ad being optimized for maximum number of clicks.
If you choose impressions as your goal, you will pay on CPM (cost per mille) basis which is basically the price of a thousand impressions.
Finally, TikTok provides you with a Smart Optimization option which allows your bidding to be adjusted and optimized automatically to increase conversions if enabled. However, if you select Click or Impression as your goal, it is recommended to switch off Smart Optimization.
5. Use Video Creation Kit to Design Your TikTok Ads
Designing in TikTok is fairly straightforward and ads can be vertical, horizontal, or square images and videos.
TikTok offers Video Creation Kit which provides you with image and video templates that can be customized using your existing images. It also offers you over 300 options for free background music.
Currently, TikTok offers the following Ad types;
Brand takeovers: This ad will appear as soon as a user opens TikTok. Brand Takeover ad can be redirected to either another video on TikTok or an external website or app. However, this ad type is limited to one ad per day.
In-feed ads: These ads are native ads that are placed either at the bottom of organic TikTok videos or in feed, depending on your product type. In-feed ads can be redirected to an internal or external link. In-feed ads are a more affordable option than Brand Takeover ads as they cost $10 per CPM on an average.
Hashtag challenges: To create a sponsored Hashtag Challenge, you will have to partner with TikTok’s marketing team. These challenges encourage users to share the content on TikTok on your behalf. Typically, Hashtag challenges last for 6 days.
6. Optimize Your TikTok Ads
Make sure to use high- resolution images when creating in-app display ads or a brand takeover as these ads will occupy the users’ entire screen and are highly visible.
Try to have one clear call-to-action (CTA) to make the most of your redirect link.For instance, if you ask users to download your app and access a coupon via your website, you may confuse some viewers and redirect them to your app’s download screen instead.
TikTok offers only 80 characters for Ad descriptions to explain anything with words. So, if you have complex products or services, it is best to Video Creation Kit to convert your words into display. As the ad descriptions appear at the bottom of the screen, it is recommended to place your key creative elements in the middle of the screen.
Like any other ad formats, it is best if you experiment with several creative elements and targeting options before zeroing in on the most suitable ad combination that works for you.
Suggestion: In addition to Video Creation Kit, you can leverage other built-in tools such as Automated Creative Optimization tool or the landing page to video tool.
Final Words
TikTok offers several automation tools and designs making it relatively easier to create ads and master them. Hopefully the TikTok tips mentioned above will help you navigate the interface and get you started!