Let’s Know all
About TikTok Ads
Thinking
about using TikTok Ads for your brand or business?
Whether you’re looking to make sales, drive traffic to your
website, or launch a new product, a creative and well-targeted TikTok campaign
can drive great (and huge!) results.
In this guide, discover everything you need to know about the
different creative TikTok Ads options.
Introducing TikTok Ads
With targeting, ad creation, insight reports, and ad management
tools, TikTok Ads offer a powerful, yet easy-to-use platform to help businesses
and brands advertise to millions of users across the globe.
While TikTok Ads aren’t as
popular as Facebook or Instagram ads (yet!), they’re an incredible opportunity
for brands looking to widen their reach. And now is the perfect time to start
using TikTok ads — since not many brands and businesses have caught on to their
potential.
Whether you’re a small business with a limited budget or you’re
running a 10-day campaign, TikTok Ads offers a number of unique tools to help
brands and businesses excel.Similar to Instagram Ad Manager, TikTok’s
advertising platform-tools automate the process of creating, delivering, and
optimizing your ads.
TikTok ads currently has two budgeting options: daily or
lifetime. With both options, your budget isn’t set in stone — you can adjust
your budget anytime throughout your campaign.
You can also target your audience by gender, location, age,
interests, and other unique variables.
Let’s get into what TikTok Ads actually look like. TikTok offers a variety of different creative ad
formats for brands and businesses to explore. You’ve likely seen most of the
different types on your daily TikTok scroll.
There are five
types of TikTok Ads:
- In-Feed
Ads
- Brand
Takeover
- TopView
- Branded
Hashtag Challenge
- Branded
Effects
With a variety of
different options to choose from, it’s hard to know which ad format is best for
your brand — which is why we dive into the different types of TikTok ads and
how they can work for your business below.
TikTok Ads: In-Feed Ads
In-Feed Ads are the video ads that appear in between user videos
as you scroll through your For You page. If you’re unfamiliar with TikTok and
the For You page, In-Feed Ads are very similar to the ads you’d see while
tapping through Instagram. You can get super creative with In-Feed Ads.
You can include multiple call-to-actions and make your video anywhere between 9
to 15 seconds.This opportunity to include a call-to-action is a huge advantage.
For example, you can encourage users to shop now, download your app, or visit
your website right from TikTok.
One thing to keep
in mind is that like any other video on your For You Page, In-Feed Ads can be
scrolled past or skipped pretty quickly. You only have about 2-3 seconds to
catch your audience’s eye before they keep scrolling.
In-Feed Ads should
be full screen and should be enticing enough to stop users from scrolling past
your content.
When it comes to
stopping the CEO of Cameras on TikTok, gave some sound advice on our “Talk the
Tok” Workshop:
TikTok Ads: Brand Takeover
Have you ever opened up TikTok and received an ad right away? If
so, those are Brand Takeover Ads.
Brand Takeover Ads appear upon opening the app — presenting a
full-screen video to your targeted audience.
They’re one of TikTok Ad’s best options for delivering mass
awareness and driving direct sales since you can place your messaging right in
front of your target audience.
Brand Takeover Ads are exclusive to their category, which means that
TikTok makes sure users don’t see more than one Brand Takeover per day. With
Brand Takeover Ads you can expect a lot of eyes on your content with little
competition.
If you’re just
starting out with TikTok Ads, Brand Takeovers may not be your first choice.
Because, while super effective, Brand Takeovers do come at a high cost.
If you’re a bigger
brand with a large marketing budget, they are a great option for fast growth
and reaching a large group of TikTok users.
How Much do TikTok Ads Cost?
TikTok Ads are new to the scene — brands and businesses are
still experimenting with the platform — so understanding the average spend or
return on investment (ROI) is difficult.
So, if you’re a small business and want to give TikTok ads a
try, don’t let the unknown scare you off right away — spending big bucks on
TikTok isn’t the only way to advertise on the popular app.
You can set up a free TikTok Ads account and create In-Feed ads
with your own set budget and schedule. Currently, TikTok’s minimum campaign
budget is $500 and the minimum ad group budget is $50.
However, it has also been reported that the cost of
advertising on TikTok can be anywhere from $50,000 to $120,000, depending
on the type and duration.
If these reported numbers are true, it would make sense as to
why we haven’t really seen smaller businesses advertising on TikTok just yet.
As more brands begin to engage and use TikTok Ads, it will
become more clear whether TikTok will follow a similar model to Instagram and
Facebook ads where (no budget is too small), or if they will continue to keep
certain ad types, like branded hashtag challenges, as elite spends.
Watch this space!
How to Create a TikTok Ad
Now that you’re familiar with TikTok’s creative advertising
options, it’s time to talk about the tools that help get your ads into action.
Before you can go ahead and create ads on TikTok, even In-Feed
ads, you have to be approved by TikTok. It’s not a difficult process, just an
extra step to keep in mind.
Here is how to request a TikTok Ads account:
#1: Head to the TikTok Ads homepage.
#2: Enter your
country and account type and press “Next”.
#3: TikTok Ads is
currently only available in certain regions. Fill out all of your contact
information and depending on if TikTok Ads self-serve is available in your
region, either press “Make a Reservation” or “Inform me of Future Updates”.
Note: TikTok
Ads Manage self service now available in the United States for businesses of
all sizes.
#4: Now it’s time to wait for TikTok to send more
information. Make sure to double-check all your email folders
(promotions, social, junk, etc)
TIP: If you know
you want to start advertising on TikTok in the future (even if it’s not for a
while!) create an account sooner than later to be sure you have it there when
you’re ready.
Once you get the
verification email, TikTok asks a number of questions about your business and
advertising goals. After you submit the questionnaire, a TikTok representative
will be in touch with you over email to help you complete the process.
Following that,
you’ll be able to enter and officially set up your account.
On TikTok’s
self-serve platform, you can create and run campaigns, easily define your
target audience, select bidding methods, and design your ad creative.
Note: As of
right now, it’s unclear whether you can login to the platform and create a
Branded Hashtag Challenge campaign or if you need to work directly with a
TikTok sales some advertising campaigns are managed and monitored by TikTok’s
own team.
And there you have
it, our quick guide to TikTok Ads.
By now, you should
have a clear understanding of TikTok’s creative advertising options and the
early steps on how you can put them into practice for your business.
