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TikTok Ads

As the name indicates, In-Feed ads are displayed in the user’s main “For You” feed. These ads are in vertical native form, in full screen, can last a maximum of 60 seconds, and make use of interactive features (such as clickable links and call-to-action buttons). The user can comment and share this type of content.

These full-screen videos, limited to 60 seconds, are displayed as soon as the user opens the TikTok app. This format is both highly visible and eye-catching, making it one of the more tempting content types in terms of user engagement (and conversions). There is also a shorter version of this format called Brand Takeover ads, which can take a number of different forms: short videos (3 to 5 seconds long), static images, and GIFs.

Like any social network, hashtags are an essential tool for content referencing. These ads use hashtags (associated with your brand or your business domain) to encourage users to create fresh content associated with certain keywords in the form of a ‘challenge’. This is a great way of producing viral content and gaining visibility for your brand.

The first step is to choose the name of the ad group, and then configure its target audience. You can then set the target CPM bid.

This format allows you to transform organic posts into adverts to increase their visibility. This function doesn’t just apply to posts made by the brand in question, but to content posted by any user – with their prior permission – and is a great way to harness other users’ creativity. Additionally, these posts are not deleted once the campaign is over and will remain accessible on your profile.

First things first: you’ll need to create a professional account on TikTok for Business (if you haven’t already) by entering the necessary information about your business. Remember, the process becomes much simpler if you use an e-commerce dedicated CMS like Shopify. Once you’ve done that, log in to the Ads Manager platform.

In TikTok Ads Manager, click on the ‘Campaign’ button in the main menu, and then ‘Create’ in the management table that’ll appear. For your first campaign, you have two options to choose from: simplified mode (a fast, basic program), and custom mode (which offers more complex configurations). For this example, we’ll use custom mode, but the instructions are largely the same for both.

During this preliminary step, you’ll need to define the objectives of your TikTok Ads campaign, among one of the three categories offered: awareness, consideration, or conversion. Depending on the objective you’ve selected, the next settings will be more or less the same: the TikTok pixel and follow-up links are obligatory in order to bring traffic to your site.

Give a name to your ad group, then define your target audience. In simplified mode, the targeting options are limited (to help speed up the process). Custom mode allows you to be more specific and choose your target audience based on geography, gender, age range, language, household income, areas of interest, devices used, and behaviour. The TikTok pixel can help to refine your targeting by selecting a similar audience or through retargeting.

Next, you need to decide where you’d like your TikTok Ads to be displayed. In automatic mode, the algorithm will do the work for you, optimising where your ads are shown, including on apps and connected sites. In custom mode, it’s up to you to decide where your ads appear.

Now it’s time to allocate a budget to your campaign. You have two options: fix an overall budget for the entire campaign, allowing the platform to optimise how and where your ads appear in order to reach your objectives as soon as possible. The second option is to fix a daily budget, setting a daily number that cannot be surpassed and leaving it to yourself to set the duration and rhythm of your campaign. With this second option, your ads will stop being displayed once your daily budget has been reached.

TikTok offers four different auction modes (see more below). To optimise your budget, you can choose between two distinct strategies. In the first, the standard strategy, you can fix an average bid (this amount will always be below the overall or daily budget). There is no bid limit for the optimised strategy, which aims to maximise conversions, but it still won’t surpass the defined budget.

All that’s left is to create the ad itself by uploading the visual elements (up to 10 images and 5 short videos) and writing some text to go with it (the caption and call-to-action). Choose the landing page you want to direct your audience to or choose the “instant page” feature offered by the app, and integrate follow-up URLs or the TikTok pixel. All you need to do then is submit your campaign and await validation.