A business owner’s guide to advertising on TikTok

TikTok has spent the last few years evolving from a trendy social platform into an advertising powerhouse. With over a billion active users, the platform has emerged from its cocoon and is rapidly changing how brands connect with their audiences and how businesses approach advertising.

The days of TikTok as a site for sharing new dance trends and lip syncs are long gone. In its place stands one of the most powerful advertising hubs in the world, giving brands the opportunity to engage with a highly active audience pretty much 24/7.

Are you interested in learning how to advertise on TikTok? Today, we’re going to help run you through everything you need to know, including a step-by-step guide on how to launch successful ad campaigns on TikTok. We’ll help your brand stand out and give you the tools to navigate TikTok’s Ad Manager platform with ease.

TikTok ad formats

TikTok has a number of unique ad formats which, granted, can be a little challenging to understand. Here’s a quick run-through with an explanation of how to use each to engage your audience:

In-Feed ads

In-feed ads are ads that appear directly in users’ “for you” feeds. TikTok users will come across in-feed ads while swiping through content, meaning they’re a genuinely natural method of increasing brand visibility.

These ads can be around 60 seconds long, interactive (likes, comments, and shares), and have the option of a call to action (CTA) button, which you can personalise with a short (20 characters) “shop now” or “learn more” message. Use in-feed ads to show off your product or service, tell your brand’s story, or highlight customer testimonials.

TopView ads

TopView ads are the first piece of content a user will see when they open TikTok. While expensive, they guarantee that users will see your brand, ensuring maximum visibility and impressions. TopView ads play fullscreen for 3 seconds when the app opens, and users either have to wait or tap the skip button in the top right before they can begin scrolling through their feed.

The video can be up to 60 seconds, but those first three seconds are what really matters - so make sure your message is clear and impactful from the very start. TikTok claims users are 1.5 times more likely to remember a brand from TopView ads compared to other ad formats.

Branded hashtag challenges

One of the most popular ways to promote a brand, branded hashtag challenges are ads turned interactive trends, where users are invited to join in on a content-creating spree. Think of it as creating a viral trend with your brand at the centre.

Alongside a custom event hashtag, users are encouraged to create and share their own videos, driving up brand engagement. It’s a great method to boost user-generated content (UGC) and grow brand awareness through organic content - which consumers are more likely to trust.

We recently used branded hashtags in our campaign with The INKEY List, and it resulted in almost 2 billion impressions - proving how effective TikTok can be.

Branded effects

Branded effects let users interact with your brand through custom AR (augmented reality) filters and stickers, making your content more fun and shareable. They boost brand visibility and engagement and drive traffic to your account.

Businesses often combine these effects with hashtag challenges to create an all-round, more immersive ad experience. Another positive is that branded effects come with a guaranteed spot in TikTok’s trending section for ten days, which is great for boosting visibility.

Spark ads

Spark ads let brands amplify posts from their own TikTok account or use content from other creators (with their permission). It’s a simple way to turn organic UGC into ads, giving brands the chance to boost what’s already performing well and connecting with a wider audience without creating new content from scratch.

Understanding how to advertise on TikTok’s Ad Manager

Creating a successful TikTok ad campaign can be fairly straightforward, provided you break it down into manageable steps - which is what we’ll cover here:

How to set up a TikTok Ads Manager account

Setting up a TikTok ads account is super simple; just follow these quick steps:

1. Visit TikTok’s advertising page and click Sign-up
2. Create your login using your email or phone number
3. Verify your account with the code sent to your email/phone
4. Enter your business details:

• Country/region
• Industry
• Legal business name
• Time zone
• Contact number
• Preferred currency

5. Accept TikTok’s terms and click “Register”
6. Add your billing address and tax information
7. Select your payment method (check available options for your region)
8. Click “Go to Ads Manager” to start creating campaigns

It’s important to note that your TikTok Ads Manager account has to be submitted for approval, a process that typically takes less than 24 hours. You’re allowed to create new ad campaigns on the platform during that waiting period, but you’ll be unable to actually run them.

Defining campaign objectives

The next step is to define your campaign objectives, which will shape every aspect of your ad strategy. TikTok lets you choose from three objective categories: awareness for brand exposure, consideration for engagement and traffic, and conversion for direct response actions.

Whether your goal is to build brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, increase app installs, or boost conversions, selecting the right objective will ensure that your ads are tailored to achieve the specific results you’re aiming for.

Selecting target audiences

Once your goals are clear, you’ll need to select your target audience. While you can aim for broad demographics, one of the biggest appeals of advertising on TikTok is its incredible granular targeting options.

You can target audiences based on:

• Demographics: age, gender, language and location
• Interests and behaviours: categories like fashion, fitness, etc, and user behaviours in the app, like viewing specific TikTok creators
• Device and network: target users by device type (iOS or Android) or network carrier
• Custom and lookalike audiences: upload customer data (likes, follows, user interactions) to create custom audiences or target new users who resemble your existing ones with lookalike audiences
• Engagement: reach users who have previously interacted with your ads, videos, or TikTok profile

There are A LOT of options to choose from, but don’t be deterred. Choosing the right target audience will be crucial in driving sales and improving brand visibility. It’s something we at Campfire used to great success in our campaign working alongside St. Tropez. We targeted specific audiences, ultimately generating over 44 million views on our content and propelling St. Tropez to the trending category across multiple retailers.

Crafting the perfect ad

Now comes the fun part - creating the perfect ad. TikTok is all about being creative and authentic, and TikTok users can tell when something isn’t. They’re drawn to content that feels real, and your ads should naturally blend into their feed rather than sticking out like a sore thumb.

A strong visual hook in the first three seconds will help stop users scrolling past, but make sure to use trending music alongside interesting text overlays to keep the user interested. If you’re unsure what’s trending at the moment, our SPARK tool can give you all the information you need.

Details matter, so make sure to check your product (if there is one) for smudges, and make sure the lighting is good and any backgrounds are clean. Keep your video short and snappy to match the fast pace of TikTok, and use quick, dynamic edits and high-quality visuals to keep your audience interested. These small things can make a big difference to how your ad feels.

Measuring and optimising campaign performance

Once your campaign is live, you can track its performance in real-time using TikTok’s analytic tools. Keep an eye on metrics like reach, click-through rate, return on ad spend, and conversion rate to measure how well your campaign is performing.

It’s also useful to see cost per conversion, cost per mile, and cost per 1000 people reached, as these metrics are important when you’re evaluating the efficiency of your ad spend. Optimising your budget in the right areas will allow your business to get the most value for its investment and help you work out the best advertising approach.

Learning how to advertise in TikTok can help your brand connect with an entirely new audience, but why not let our TikTok marketing experts handle it and save yourself the headache? Our team can help boost your brand’s presence on TikTok, driving conversions and boosting sales. Contact Campfire online now for more information!