TLDR: TikTok advertising means putting paid spend behind video content, with goals ranging from awareness through to conversions and sales. Beyond standard in-feed ads, TikTok offers Spark Ads for boosting high-performing organic content, GMV Max for TikTok Shop sellers, and Smart+ for automated conversion campaigns.
What is TikTok Advertising and how do TikTok Ads work?
TikTok advertising is paid spend behind the same kind of videos you’d typically post organically on TikTok, with goals ranging from increased awareness and website visitors through to traffic and conversions on your shop.
It works on an auction basis, with campaigns running across the full funnel, from reach and awareness at the top through to sales and conversions at the bottom. You set up campaigns through TikTok’s Ads Manager, choosing your objective, audience and budget, with TikTok’s algorithm serving your ads to the people most likely to engage.
What are the different types of TikTok Ads?
TikTok offers a wider range of ad formats than many advertisers realise:
Spark Ads
The TikTok equivalent of boosting on Meta. These work best when you already have an organic post performing well or going viral. Rather than creating something new, you put spend behind content that’s already proving itself.
GMV Max
Built for brands with a TikTok Shop and a decent product range. TikTok states it can unlock around 20% of extra customers who wouldn’t convert anywhere else on the platform. GMV Max also manages your affiliate relationships, making the affiliate programme easier to run and giving access to more creator relationships.
Standard in-feed ads
These run through the Ads Manager, these cover everything from awareness campaigns through to conversion, whether you want to drive people to your website or push them to convert on your shop.
Smart+
A conversion-focused, automated campaign type, similar to Meta’s Advantage+.
Live ads
Also managed through GMV Max, these are often the most efficient format for brands already running GMV Max campaigns and can drive significant revenue.
Brand takeovers
Where a creator takes over your brand page for a day, posting as themselves on your behalf. It sits somewhere between affiliate marketing and paid social.
How to run TikTok Ads: A step-by-step guide
Here’s how to set up a native in-feed video ad, assuming your TikTok Ads Manager is already set up:
- Create your campaign. Go to the campaigns page in Ads Manager and select “Create.” Choose your objective, Reach for awareness, or Sales for conversions.
- Choose your campaign type. For reach campaigns, you’ll be prompted to pick between Auction Reach, Top Search (best suited to brands with larger budgets), Reach and Frequency, or TikTok Polls (both of which need to be reserved). Auction Reach is generally the most efficient starting point.
- Name your campaign properly. Use a naming convention you’ll understand when you look back on it. Don’t leave it as the default.
- Set your budget strategy. Decide between a campaign budget or an ad group budget. A daily campaign budget works well if you’re running one ad set with a streamlined audience and don’t need audience segmentation. You’ll need a minimum of £20 to run a campaign at all.
- Build your ad group. Name it clearly, then set your frequency cap. The general recommendation is to show your ad at least three times every seven days, anymore and it risks becoming annoying, any less and people won’t remember it. You can also set a target CPM; if you don’t have existing TikTok data, your average Meta CPM is a reasonable starting benchmark.
- Set your targeting. Cover the standard options, location, age, gender and language, then layer in custom audiences. For reach campaigns, exclude existing customers unless you’re running a promotional reach campaign, which can work well in the run-up to peak trading periods. Add relevant interests, behaviours and spending power targeting, particularly useful if you’re promoting a higher-value product.
- Create your ad. Under creative assets, upload existing content, use TikTok’s built-in video editor, or pull from your own published organic content. It’s generally best to create video outside the platform for stronger results.
- Add your CTA and destination. Pick your landing destination, a TikTok Instant Page, your website, or TikTok Shop, depending on your campaign type, and make sure the landing page is relevant to the ad.
- Apply automatic enhancements. Turn on options like video quality improvement, music refresh and image resizing for different placements.
- Check your event tracking. Make sure this is set up before launching, and if you have an app, confirm app events are tracked too.
- Publish with enough variety. Aim for at least 10 ads in a single ad group so your creative doesn’t fatigue too quickly.
How to make TikTok Ads that perform
Length and accessibility matter. Aim for 9 to 15 second videos, and always build in sound-off accessibility, captions and text overlays wherever people are speaking, in case volume is off.
Creative volume and freshness matter more on TikTok than almost any other platform. Refresh your creative weekly, if possible, bi-weekly at an absolute maximum. Running five creatives for a month simply won’t hold up.
Balance product and brand content. TikTok is an entertainment platform first. Relying solely on product-focused videos risks failing to catch users’ attention, so make space for brand storytelling alongside UGC and EGC, face-to-camera content.
Keep your TikTok Shop up to date. If you’re running TikTok Shop ads, make sure your shop listings are optimised, strong titles and enough imagery, so the ad doesn’t lead to a weak landing experience.
TikTok Ads Best Practices
If you already have organic content performing well, Spark Ads are the quickest way to build on that success rather than starting from scratch. For brands running a TikTok Shop with a solid product range and existing sales, GMV Max is worth considering too. Particularly for the incremental customers and easier affiliate management it brings.
Creative itself needs just as much attention as targeting. Refresh that creative weekly where possible, and no less than every two weeks, since TikTok’s audience moves through content faster than most other platforms. Mix product-led videos with brand storytelling, UGC and EGC. So the content feels native to the platform rather than like a straight product pitch.
Finally, make use of TikTok’s AI enhancements and new features as they launch, the platform evolves quickly and rewards advertisers who keep pace, and run campaigns across the full funnel rather than focusing on a single objective, so awareness, consideration and conversion are all working together.
How Modo25 can help with TikTok Ads and Paid Social
TikTok moves fast, new formats, new AI features and new opportunities launch constantly, and keeping a campaign properly resourced with fresh creative is a real undertaking on top of everything else in your marketing mix.
Modo25’s paid social specialists manage TikTok campaigns alongside Meta, Google and the rest of your paid activity, so your strategy stays joined up rather than siloed by platform. Whether you want full agency support or a supported in-house model. Our team can help you build, run and optimise TikTok ads.
Want support with your TikTok Ads and wider paid social strategy? Get in touch with our paid social team.
