TikTok users have an interest in an array of topics, particularly music, fashion and beauty – areas which often generate the highest user engagement – offering opportunities for music brands, fashion influencers and skincare companies alike.
Make sure the content you create caters to the interests of your target audience, such as using entertaining or innovative videos that resonate with people.
1. Choose Your Target Audience
Before creating a new ad, it’s essential to select an objective for your campaign. There are three primary options: Reach, Clicks and Conversions. Reach is ideal for raising brand awareness, generating leads and driving traffic back to your website/app (it can also drive video views).
Clicks are an effective way of driving conversions on products or services. By taking advantage of TikTok’s built-in conversion metrics and third-party tracking pixels, you can effectively monitor and optimize performance.
After selecting an objective, the next step should be selecting your target audience. You have two choices for doing this – either using the default option or creating custom audiences from customer data files and app activity such as pageviews and form submissions, respectively. Furthermore, other forms of targeting such as ad placement demographics and time of day may also be used. After making your selection and hitting submit, your ad should typically be reviewed within 24 hours.
2. Create Ads
TikTok ads are divided into campaigns, ad groups and individual ads. A campaign typically has an objective in terms of traffic, app installs or video views; after which an ad group within that campaign is formed where placement and targeting can be configured.
After creating and placing your ad within an ad group, an ad must be designed. This may take the form of video or image files. Furthermore, you must select a call-to-action and specify where it will lead.
Ads can be an invaluable marketing asset when they align with your overall business goals. Parade, a women’s clothing company, used TikTok ads to market its sustainable underwear and bralettes to millennial and Gen Z audiences using an original video branded content video with clear links back on the website– driving both awareness and online sales simultaneously, not to mention reinforcing its socially responsible brand’s ethos further bolstering effectiveness.
3. Optimize Your Ads
Monitoring ad performance over time is vitally important. Every wasted impression represents an opportunity lost for reaching and potentially converting new customers, which makes optimizing campaign targeting with relevant creatives even more critical for success.
Advertising on TikTok involves three distinct layers, including campaigns, ad groups and ads. At the campaign level, advertisers define what objectives their ad should aim to meet; such as app installs, reach, video views or traffic generation.
Lingerie brand Parade employs in-feed ads to drive brand recognition and product sales, employing smaller influencers as stars in order to make them seem authentic on TikTok.
Ad objectives, budget and usage options (to avoid discriminatory targeting). Finally, content exclusions allow you to decide whether TikTok displays your ads alongside mature themes that don’t violate community guidelines; or have the platform automatically optimize placements for you.
4. Monitor Your Ads
Once you have created an ad group, the next step in setting up your campaign should be creating your first ad. Set a daily budget and select how long your ads should run before naming and creating an ad (it’s best to keep this short!). Finally, ensure it complies with TikTok’s technical specifications.
Your ads can also be delivered faster during peak traffic periods by setting up accelerated delivery and tailoring them to specific demographics like age, gender and location as well as more advanced criteria like interests, behavior and device price / mobile carrier carrier. You have full control of how and when they reach their audience based on this feature.
TikTok provides advertisers with various ad formats, such as Brand Takeover ads that appear when users open the platform and change into In-feed video ads once engaged with. TikTok Hashtag Challenge ads allow your product or service to gain exposure by engaging users in viral challenges; and Branded Effects allow logos or other branded elements to be added directly into videos.
