The only TikTok advertising guide you’ll ever need

Are TikTok ads still worth it? The short answer is yes. The long answer (and argument for TikTok advertising) is below.

TikTok ads have the potential to reach any of its 1.92 billion users (projected to increase to 2 billion by the end of 2024). Worldwide, people love TikTok with abandon; it’s currently the most downloaded app in more than 40 countries and is offered in 150+ markets and 35+ languages. Those huge numbers make TikTok advertising a pretty lucrative bet.

And as if popularity wasn’t enough, TikTok is also spreading joy. 90% of users report that the app makes them happy. Aww. That’s good news for advertisers, who might have an easier time selling to a happy audience.

(Psst: Here are more TikTok stats useful for marketers.)

The takeaway? TikTok advertising can be a great way to invest in your business.

In this article, we’ll cover how TikTok ads work, plus ad types, specs, and best practices. Here’s how to make sure your ads are reaching their maximum potential.

Bonus: Download a free guide to social advertising and learn the 5 steps to building effective campaigns. No tricks or boring tips—just simple, easy-to-follow instructions that really work.

What are TikTok ads?

TikTok ads are promoted content (usually full-screen videos) that a brand or creator pays to show to a specified target audience.

Ads on TikTok are a form of social media marketing, and they usually aim to spread awareness about the advertiser or sell a particular product or service.

When it comes to TikTok ads, there are three levels of organization:

• TikTok Ad: A single advertisement (usually in the form of a video that promotes a product or service, or a special TikTok offer).
• TikTok Ad Group: A collection of TikTok ads.
• TikTok Campaign: A collection of TikTok ad groups.

For example, a clothing company might make a TikTok video ad for a pair of sneakers, which is one of many different sneaker marketing videos in an ad group, which might then fall under a campaign about a summer footwear sale.

How much does TikTok advertising cost?

The short answer? As much as you want it to.

TikTok uses an auction and bidding model for ads. That means you decide how much you pay per video view, click, or impression.

Keep in mind that while you can spend as much as you want per optimization goal, there is a minimum spend on both campaigns and ad groups.

How much does a TikTok ad cost, minimum? According to TikTok:

• ​Campaign level minimum budget. For campaigns, both daily budgets and total budgets must exceed 50 USD.
• ​Ad group level minimum budget. For ad groups, daily budgets must exceed 20 USD. Lifetime budgets will be calculated as the minimum daily budget (20 USD) × scheduled days.

There are several factors that affect pricing. These include:

• Ad format and placement. The more visible your ad is, the more it’s likely to cost. Different ad types can also vary in price.
• Target audience. Some demographics or locations can be more expensive to target than others.
• Campaign objectives. If your goals are more ambitious, you may need to up your budget.
• Seasonality and trends. Big events, like Black Friday or the Olympics, will cause ad prices to spike.
• Competition. Increased competition for the same audience means more advertisers bidding against each other and higher costs.
• Ad performance and engagement. TikTok may lower prices for ads that get lots of likes, shares, and comments, so make sure those ads are the best they can be!
• Economic factors. This is a bit more big-picture, but overall economic conditions, like inflation and consumer spending, can influence the cost of advertising overall.

TikTok bidding methods

TikTok has four bidding methods available:

CPV

CPV is cost per thousand views. A view counts when a user watches your video for more than 6 seconds or when a user interacts with your video in the first six seconds (whichever happens first).

CPM

CPM is cost per thousand impressions. Choosing this method means that the platform will push your ad to get as many impressions as possible, so it’s best if reach is your marketing goal.

oCPM

oCPM is optimized cost per thousand impressions. Your ads will be shown to people who are more likely to complete a conversion event, become a lead or install an app. It’s best if your goal is to gain followers, get app installs, or make sales.

CPC

CPC is cost per click. It’s best for selling products, app installs, conversion and profile visits.

If you’re new to TikTok ads, there’s a suggested bid feature that helps you determine which price you should set.

The higher your bid per action, the more likely you will be to beat out your competitors, and the faster you will hit both the ad group and campaign-level daily budgets.

TikTok Bidding Strategies

There are two main bidding strategies on TikTok:

Maximum delivery

When you use the maximum delivery bidding strategy, you don’t set a specific bid per action: you only set a total campaign budget. TikTok will automatically maximize the number of conversions you get on your ad.

Cost cap or bid cap

This strategy involves setting a specific bid price for your optimization goal. This is what TikTok has to say about this method of bidding:

“TikTok’s systems will … optimize delivery in a manner where the average CPA over the campaign is equal or close to the target CPA. This bid strategy helps cost-sensitive advertisers achieve predictable CPA outcomes on our platform, especially during competitive periods like the Holidays, Black Friday, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day when costs tend to be higher.”

Types of ads on TikTok

Ah, the age-old question: What’s your type? Read on for a list of the different kinds of advertising available on TikTok. By the way, not every type of TikTok ad is accessible in every country, so make sure to confirm your local availability.

Here are the types of TikTok ads you can choose from in your ads manager.

In-feed video ads

In-feed TikTok video ads look like regular TikTok videos but include a direct link or call-to-action (CTA) like Shop now. Any interaction with a video ad leads to a landing page or an app install. in other words, in-feed video ads link directly to whatever is being advertised.

This is one of the most common forms of TikTok advertising. Video ads are made by brands or creators and posted through a TikTok Ads Manager account.

Source: Silk & Snow on TikTok

Ad specs:

Descriptions: 1-100 Latin alphabet letters and 1-50 Asian characters (no emojis or special characters)

Video resolution: Minimum of 540x960px, 640x640px, or 960x540px

Aspect ratio: 9:16, 1:1, or 16:9

Ad composition: Video creative + ad display image + brand or app name (logo) + ad description + CTA button + audio (required)

File type: .mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp, or .avi

Length: Videos can be between 5-60 seconds, but the sweet spot is between 9-15 seconds

Bitrate: ≥516 kbps

File size: within 500MB

TopView Ads

TopView Ads are full-screen 3-second video ads that play with sound when users open TikTok.

Because they’re immediate and act as a video take-over, they’re great for showcasing your brand or announcing a new product launch.

Source: TikTok

Ad specs:

• Interactive add-ons: You can include Interactive Add-ons, like Shake Surprise (TopView-exclusive add-on format) and Super Like
• Ad formats: TopView ads can support Spark Ads and Non-Spark Ads formats
• Sound on: TopView ads play with the sound on

Branded Mission

Branded Mission connects brands with TikTok creators, encouraging the creators to publish authentic video content. In a Branded Mission campaign, creators will produce videos based on the brand’s requirements.

Creators get to decide which Branded Missions they want to make content for, and brands can pick and choose their favorite videos to amplify.

Source: TikTok

Ad specs:

• ​Advertiser name: Up to 24 English characters. ​Except for “&,” blank spaces, emojis, and special characters are not supported.
• Branded Mission Profile ​Picture size: 240 x 240px
• Video submission ratios: 9:16 aspect ratio, ≥720x1280px, and 100MB or less
• Bit rate for video submissions: Higher than 2,500 kbps
• Performers: Featured influencers or performers must be 18+
• Video submission format: MP4, MPEG, 3GP, AVI, MOV
• Length: 12-15 seconds (strongly recommended)

Branded Effect

Branded Effects are an advertising tool you can use to get more people interacting with your brand. You can create branded, customizable filters and special effects to encourage user-generated content.

Source: @sarah_wolak on TikTok

Ad specs:

• Recommended file size: 3 MB (5 MB limit)

Branded Effects have a widely diverse feature range, so we recommend downloading TikTok’s Branded Effect Design Brief Template.

Spark Ads

With Spark Ads, you can use your own posts or other creators’ posts (with permission, of course) and posts that mention your brand in your ads.

All the likes, views, shares, and comments on the boosted video are attributed to the organic post. This also means that the ad display name and text will match the chosen organic post and cannot be edited in TikTok Ads Manager.

This isn’t a workaround to get banned content published. If your post is banned, it will be rejected in Ads Manager.

Source: @TikTok for Business

Ad specs:

• No restrictions on video ratio, resolution, file type, duration, bitrate, or file size.
• Captions can be left blank.
• Account tagging, emojis, and hashtags are allowed in Spark Ads’ captions.
• Videos up to 10 minutes long can be sparked.
• An organic video must be unauthorized as a Spark Ad before it can be deleted from the account.

TikTok Promote

Boost your or other creators’ organic content right in the TikTok feed. TikTok Promote is a tool you can use to help make your video more visible.

Ad specs:

• Aspect ratio: 9:16, 1:1, or 16:9
• Minimum resolution: 540x960px, 640x640px, or 960x540px
• Video file type: .mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp, or .avi
• Video length: 5 to 60 seconds
• Video file size: 500MB maximum

Carousel Ads

TikTok Carousel ads let you upload 2-35 images in one post. Users can swipe through them at their own pace to see more details.

You can choose from two types of carousel ads:

• Standard Carousel. Great for driving traffic, web conversions, or app promotions.
• VSA Carousel. Perfect for product sales. Use your catalog images as in-feed ads, showing multiple product shots that users can slide through.

Source: TikTok

All carousels:

• Music is required (will loop)
• Duration: >=2s,
• Supported type: .mp3, .wav, .m4a, .flac
• Support both CML music and music upload (File size: Up to 10M; Music format: MP3)
• Only one ad caption and call-to-action for all images

Ad specs (Standard Carousel):

• Number of images: Between 2 and 35
• Format: JPG/.JPEG or .PNG
• File size: ≤100 KB suggested
• Dimensions: 1200x628px (Horizontal ), 640x640px (Square), or 720x1280px (Vertical)
• One URL for all images (Not powered by a feed/product catalog)

Ad specs (VSA Carousel):

• Number of images: Between 2 and 20
• Each product image can lead to a unique product link (powered by Catalog)

Playable Ads

Playable Ads are interactive ads that let users try your game or app in real-time before downloading it. This type of ad format is ideal for gaming companies.

Playable Ads often increase clickthrough rates (CTR) and conversion rates (CVR).

Ad specs:

• Format: .zip.
• Size: Must be smaller than 5MB (after compression).
• The main .html file in the first-level directory should be named index.html
• Your materials need to support several types of devices

Playable Ads have very specific requirements. For more information, we’d recommend reviewing TikTok’s guidelines.

LIVE Shopping Ads

The LIVE Shopping Ads feature is available to all TikTok Shops. These ads showcase shoppable products or sell directly through TikTok Live. The LIVE Shopping Ad shows up as a pin of your product in the corner of your screen during a LIVE stream

Source: TikTok

Ad specs:

• Your account must be set up as a TikTok Shop

TikTok image ads

Image Ads are still images with your brand or app name and text. They are available through specific placements.

Ad specs:

• File type: JPG, JPEG, PNG
• Image resolution: 720×1280 (Global App Bundle) or 1200x628px / 640x640px / 720x1280px (Pangle Image Ads)
• File size: within 100MB

How to set up a TikTok ad campaign

To create a TikTok ad campaign and set up your first ad, go to the TikTok Ads Manager. Make sure you’re using a TikTok for Business account (if you’re not, it’s free and easy to switch).

How to create TikTok ad campaigns

Creating a TikTok ad campaign isn’t hard! Just follow the steps below.

1. Start on the Campaign page and click Create 2. Choose your desired kind of ad

Today, I’m choosing Basic just to keep it simple. But if you wanted to, you could get much more specific with the Advanced option.

3. Decide on your advertising goal

Your options are:

• Traffic. Send more people to a destination on your website.
• Community interaction. Get more page follows or profile visits.
• Lead generation. Gather contact information from potential customers by adding contact forms to your ads.
• Website conversions. Drive valuable actions on your website.

4. Decide on your demographics

TikTok recommends a broad target to reach as many people as possible.

5. Choose your budget

Here’s where you decide how much you would like to spend.

6. Pick your type of creative

Will this be an image ad or a video ad campaign?

7. Upload your images or videos

You can upload more than one image or video here! Or create a video from images, or use previously uploaded assets.

8. Fill in all of the relevant information, like your CTA and URL 9. Click Submit

TikTok’s team will review your ad campaign to make sure it is in line with their terms and conditions. Once it’s ready, it’ll be approved!

6 best practices to build a TikTok ad strategy

You don’t want to waste valuable budget fumbling through your first few ad sets, so follow these best practices for an on-point TikTok ad strategy.

Capture attention in the first few seconds

Since TikTok users have the attention span of goldfish (not confirmed by scientists, but likely true) you’ll want to grab your audience’s interest, and fast. Cut to the chase or risk being scrolled into oblivion.

Abide by TikTok’s image and video specs

What makes a good TikTok ad? Quality content.

Content that is blurry or doesn’t quite fit the screen looks unprofessional, and users might dismiss your ad if it doesn’t look like it belongs on TikTok. Follow image and video specifications to set yourself up for success.

A/B test your ads

Testing different kinds of ads when you first start advertising on the platform will show you what’s working for your audience and what’s not. Be sure to keep an eye on your data as your source of truth.

Use TikTok’s Ad Library

The TikTok Creative Centre (AKA the home of the TikTok Ad Library) is an excellent resource for inspiration, discovering trends and getting insights on keywords, top hashtags and other valuable information.

Here are 9 ways you can use the Ad Library to make better advertisements on TikTok.

Put important info in the middle of the screen

There’s lots going on on both the Following and For You Page on TikTok: the account name, video caption, sound, as well as the like, follow, share and save buttons are all on display.

That means that some parts of your video (especially around the perimeter of the screen) might get cut off or hidden. To make sure that key info in your ad is communicated to your audience, keep important creative elements in the middle of the screen.

Localize your ad’s language

No matter how kickass your ad is, it’s not going to be very effective if the people watching it don’t understand it.

Make sure you target locations with people who speak the language that your ad creative is in (or translate your ad for use in other parts of the world).

4 great examples of TikTok advertising KOHO’s collaboration with the NBA

KOHO’s taking collaborations to the next level by partnering with the NBA for the playoffs. They’re giving out gift cards and generating sign-ups!

Source: KOHO Financial on TikTok

Mailchimp’s Clustomer Campaign

Mailchimp’s in-house agency Wink Creative, used a mix of generative AI, human brain power, and social media advertising to create and launch their Clustomer Campaign. The results speak for themselves.

Source: Mailchimp on TikTok

Funny Greetings use of dance

Funny Greetings is a joy to watch, and since the business’ business is dance videos, what better way to promote it than with in-feed ads showing dance videos on the dance video platform?

Source: Funny Greetings on TikTok

Funko Pop’s Pop! Yourself Branded Effect

Funko combined Branded Effects with IRL merchandising. The Pop! Yourself Effect lets people turn themselves into a Funko Pop and then order that Funko Pop to be created!

It’s a great way to use TikTok paid advertising to pay yourself in other ways.

Source: Funko Pop on TikTok

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With files from Alyssa Hirose.

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