How to Advertise on TikTok?

TikTok Ads has delivered incredible success for countless businesses since it rose to prominence. However, to attract your audience, you need to have an in-depth understanding of the platform’s remarkable strengths.

Don’t create a rudimentary campaign that fails to achieve your goals. Instead, develop a clear understanding of the types of TikTok ads available and how to use them to your advantage to ensure you experience a stellar return on investment. 

Here, we’ve put together a basic guide to TikTok Ads to help you create a strategy that captures your target market’s attention and gets them to complete your most desired action.

The 5 Types of TikTok Ads 

TikTok is all about following viral trends and producing relatable content to enhance brand awareness, loyalty, and sales. Check out the five major types of TikTok Ads to discover how each helps your business achieve its goals.

In-Feed Ads

Graphical representation of tiktok in feed ads
Image courtesy of business.Tiktok

Shown on the For You page, users will see In-Feed Ads appear between organic posts on their feed. With these ads appearing much like Instagram Stories, they can run for up to 60 seconds, although it’s recommended to keep them under 15 seconds.

Alongside a brief description and a call-to-action button, these ads are outstanding for showcasing a new product or service. Meanwhile, users can like and comment on these ads, offering brands striking ways to engage potential customers.

Considering you only have a few seconds to convey your message before someone scrolls past, front-load your video with a fascinating concept to ensure they hang around for its compelling call-to-action.

Brand Takeover Ads

Graphical respresentation of Tiktok brand take over ads
Image courtesy of business.Tiktok

Brand Takeover Ads are unique to TikTok. As soon as users open the TikTok app on their smartphone, they’re presented with a full-screen video ad that plays for up to five seconds.

By using this TikTok advertising format to target your audience, you have the potential to generate massive brand awareness. Supported by a clickable call-to-action, you can drive users to a landing page that accomplishes your business goals.

However, know that TikTok users only see one Brand Takeover Ad per day. Plus, they come at a high cost, so only businesses with large budgets will have the resources to embark on these campaigns.

TopView Ads

graphical representation of tiktok top view ads
Image courtesy of business.Tiktok

While TikTok’s TopView Ads have many similarities to Brand Takeover Ads, some distinct differences make them an attractive alternative. 

Where the latter runs as soon as the user opens the app for the first time, TopView Ads appear when the user visits the For You page. Alongside a video lasting up to 60 seconds, this can link to your TikTok Shopping page, ensuring customers can instantly explore and buy your products.

Appearing in the app’s most popular section, an engaging video presented in this high-traffic area can deliver insane results for your TikTok marketing strategy.

Branded Hashtag Challenge

screenshots of tiktok branded hashtag
Image courtesy of business.Tiktok

Engage your ideal target market by creating a Branded Hashtag Challenge. Backed by a hashtag that invites users to respond to your challenge, a successful campaign can deliver incredible reach.

So, how do you get started? According to TikTok, 75% of people use the platform for entertainment, so you need to develop a fun concept that also showcases what’s special about your product.

With these ads displayed at the top of the Discovery page, users can easily see what others are creating by visiting the landing page that collects all the videos featuring your hashtag in one convenient place.

Branded Effects

screenshot of tiktok branded effect
Image courtesy of business.Tiktok

TikTok users love to express their creativity, so an exciting Branded Effects campaign can produce remarkable growth when conceived correctly. Like Snapchat, this sees brands create augmented reality (AR) filters and lenses that showcase your fun side.

With users able to use these filters however they like, a Branded Effects strategy that stands out delivers exceptional engagement and spreads brand awareness to a targeted user base. 

For example, a shoe company might let users overlay their latest sneakers on a post. Perhaps a series of dance moves unlocks a special AR effect. Get creative with Branded Effects to attract and maintain consumer attention.

TikTok Advertising Best Practices

Once you’ve determined the best type of TikTok Ad for your business goals, you need to apply some advertising best practices to generate superior results. Consider these tips to ensure your campaign gets off to a great start.

Know Your Audience

group of people looking at their phones in the library

TikTok is well-known for its young audience, with 25% of US-based users aged 25% aged from 10 to 19. However, TikTok is increasingly popular amongst older users, with almost 22% of users aged 30 to 39. 

By researching your audience and understanding their core demographics, such as age, gender, location, interests, and behaviors, you can develop an advertising campaign that capitalizes on these facts.

Your audience might prefer videos that provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into your operation. Alternatively, they might just want a super fun hashtag challenge. Always get to know your audience before launching an advertising campaign.

Define Campaign Objectives

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You need to know your audience to plan and execute ‌content. However, you also need to decide on what equals success for your campaign. Do you want to increase your follower count or attract impressive traffic to your website’s product pages? 

These objectives define your campaign and its direction. Plus, they ensure you achieve something that makes a difference to your company’s performance.

You must also consider your TikTok Ads budget alongside these objectives. While brands with smaller budgets won’t have the luxury to approach their goals from numerous angles, a targeted approach can still deliver powerful results.

Track Your Results

fingers poitning to laptop screen

Although you can carefully plan every detail of your TikTok marketing campaign, you won’t know how it performs until it goes live. By carefully analyzing your results, you can determine the success of your strategy and work to enhance your outcomes.

For example, you might decide to launch the same In-Feed Ads, but with a different call-to-action to see if it delivers improved results. Perhaps a new hashtag for your Branded Hashtag Challenge will convince more people to get involved.

When you start a new TikTok advertising campaign, always consider specific metrics to track and how fine-tuning these aspects can help your business hit its targets.

Boost Growth with TikTok Ads

Take your growth to the next level with a personalized TikTok Ads campaign from the experts at First Page. With our team working closely with the world’s leading brands, we know what it takes to manage a campaign that delivers outstanding engagement for an unmatched ROI.

Get in touch with our TikTok specialists to find out we’ll develop a research-driven strategy that attracts your specific target audience while highlighting what makes your business different. Backed by a wealth of experience, we’ll deliver your brand attention over its biggest rivals.