Look, we’re just gonna be real: TikTok is coming for you, Google. And that’s fr fr. While, yeah, basically every popular song, dance, and trend springs from its content well, smart brands should embrace the fact that advertising on social media is not only the future, but also how they’ll exponentially grow their brands.
The app is the fastest-growing social media platform in the world. There’s no shortage of Millennials, especially Gen Z, adopting the platform as their prime source of videos of people eating Nashville hot chicken and a place to get answers to questions, learn things, and keep your finger on the pulse of pop culture. If you want to advertise to Millennials and Gen Z, TikTok has the serious brand awareness firepower you need. But – the one thing you need to remember is that content drives everything on the platform.
TikTok’s growth is a testament to its addictive content. With fans spanning across 150 countries globally, TikTok has more active users than LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Reddit. (That’s banana town.)
Peep these stats:
- In the United States, over 60% of TikTok users are between 16 & 24.
- More than 50% of TikTok users have an annual income of $75,000+
Like our other blog series based on the power of Mighty TikTok, we connected with Manychat’s social media guru, Mel. (She’s knocking on the door of a million followers, so we listen to her.) Mel dropped some science on what we should be doing in the ever-evolving world of online content.
Why you should advertise on TikTok
Because of TikTok’s partnership with Shopify, the platform celebrates shoppable video content on the TikTok app. Users buy directly from video ads with a click. If the content is good, the engagement goes high, and those virtual cash registers ring.
TikTok offers several different formats for paid ads, all of which have high click-through and engagement rates. TopView ads can see click-through rates as high as 16%, while a Take Over ad format boasts up to 10% CTR.
From The Desk of Mel: “Creators LOVE sharing shoppable content because it performs better (hello, the platform itself benefits from people shopping directly in the app). So working with creators to generate shoppable + relatable content and putting some ad spend behind it is a win-win for both sides.”
The fastest-growing user base
According to SEO.AI, TikTok is popular, like, super popular.“TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users globally, with 150 million in the United States. The average daily time spent on TikTok has more than doubled from 27 minutes and 24 seconds in 2019 to 58 minutes and 24 seconds in 2024.” And the folks at Backlinko say, “More than half (55%) of TikTok weekly active users in the US are between 18 and 34 years old. Only 14% of TikTok weekly users are 55 and older.” As time passes, more people will come over to the app; no one likes to be left out of the pop culture party.
Types of TikTok ads
TikTok has automated advertising platform tools like the ones used for Facebook Ad Manager. TikTok’s advertising hub automates creating, delivering, and optimizing advertising content while providing insight into the ad campaigns’ performance.
Brands can choose from creative ad formats depending on what suits their target audience. Below are descriptions of TikTok’s five ad types and their best use cases:
TopView Ads
TopView appears on TikTok’s most valuable real estate — the top of the For You page — and here’s a big one: users aren’t clobbered with TopView Ads as soon as they open their app. The video ad appears as the first in-feed post three seconds after opening the app.
Brand Takeover
Brand Takeover Ads appear as soon as you open your TikTok app. Viewers see a full-screen video of the advertising message while their app is loading. Brand Takeover Ads are among the best ways to increase awareness and drive sales through TikTok. The ads can also appear as videos, GIFs, or still images on the For You page. You can even include a clickable link to send users to your landing page or an in-app Hashtag Challenge.
In-Feed Ad
In-feed ads appear between user videos on the For You page. The ads are similar to those that pop up when scrolling through Instagram stories. In-feed Ads have a tremendous advantage: they allow advertisers to include a CTA in their ad videos. But, like any other video on the For You page, users can scroll past it, only giving you three seconds or less to catch their attention. Remember what we said about the content needing to be good?
Branded hashtag challenge
If your brand has a following on TikTok, a branded hashtag challenge can be an awesome way to boost brand awareness. Branded challenges are kind of like regular hashtag challenges, but if your followers make content, other people who see the ads can join the trend, too.
When users click on a branded hashtag, they’re redirected to your landing page on TikTok. They’ll see the link to your business website and other popular TikTok video uploads with the same hashtag there. If you’ve got serious cash, you can fork up to $150,000 for space on TikTok’s Discover banner.
Branded Effect
TikTok’s Branded Effects allow advertisers to design custom AR filters, lenses, and shareable stickers on the TikTok app, which users can then share. The feature is quite similar to Snapchat’s branded lenses. Branded Effects can stay live for up to 10 days and are a valuable way to increase engagement.
How brands use TikTok ads for marketing
It’s critical to set up your marketing goals before advertising on TikTok. Think about what you’re trying to do with the platform and what you want for the long term. What are you hoping to land by spending the time creating videos? Specific objectives will inform your marketing strategy, and help you to measure campaign success using the right metrics for:
- Promoting new products
- Growing follower count
- Promoting new updates
- Amassing new contacts for your email or SMS lists
- Going viral with TikTok challenges
How to create TikTok ads
So, how do you get started? It’s easy to start a TikTok ad account; it’s just a bit more work than a regular account.
Create a TikTok Ads Account
You’ll need an ad account to launch your first ad on TikTok. To create an account, visit the TikTok for Business landing page and complete the required details. Afterward, click Sign Up to register your ad account.
Create a TikTok campaign
TikTok has an ad structure that all advertisers must follow — first, create a campaign and ad group before building an ad.
To create a campaign, click Create on the Campaign tab on the Ads Manager page. Then, choose one of the three objectives that best align with your marketing goals.
Set Your TikTok Ad Placements, Details, and Targeting
TikTok automatically moves you into the ad group section. You’ll choose your targeting placement, promotion type, audience targets, and other details. If you’re a TikTok newb, we suggest using automatic placement to start. If you’re feeling like a baller, you can base your targeting on parameters such as location, age, gender, etc.
Control Your TikTok Ad Spend, Duration, and Goals
TikTok Ads can get hella expensive if you need to control your spending limit. You can choose a daily or lifetime budget, depending on how much you want to spend. Don’t go ham the first few times. See what’s working and what’s not before you go dropping a ton of money for ads that may not equal back to the spend.
Design Your Ad Using TikTok’s Video Creation Kit
TikTok has some powerful video creation tools that users can use to create the right content for their audience. Just remember that your images or videos must meet predetermined specifications before you can launch a campaign on the platform.
Optimize Your TikTok ads
TikTok’s automated creative optimization feature tests ads and measures their effectiveness. This feature is helpful if you’re just getting started with TikTok ads. You can also optimize your ads manually with the help of tools like the TikTok Pixel. The TikTok Pixel allows you to create a custom ad audience and examine customer behavior on your website.
How to analyze TikTok ad performance
Measuring performance is critical to the success of any ad campaign. TikTok offers an analytics feature that provides valuable data about your ad campaign’s performance. You need to switch to a Pro account before you can access TikTok Analytics, and your ad has to be live for at least seven days before you can access relevant data and insights on the Analytics Page.
Get more granular details on the Campaign Page
TikTok’s Campaign Page provides marketers all the relevant details they need to know about their ads’ performance. You’ll have access to key metrics such as engagement, views, and audience breakdowns. These statistics are crucial to optimizing and assessing performance.
Get the big picture on your TikTok Ads Dashboard
If you want to know what’s up with your performance metrics, this area is where everything will be broken down so you’ll see if you’re making an impact, but more importantly, if you’re not.
- The current state of your ad videos and overall campaign
- Important metrics include overall CPC, CPM, CPA, CTR, etc.
- Your current ad spend
You can also export the CSV file to closely examine your ad performance and manipulate the data. This is some deep level stuff so, if you’re considering a TikTok campaign, it could be super effective as you’re considering what ad type rocks the house.
Examples of great TikTok ads
Hundreds of large corporations and small businesses alike have used TikTok to market their brands. Below are several well-thought-out TikTok ads and what makes each of them outstanding:
Kroger’s #TransformUrDorm campaign
Kroger’s campaign targeted college students returning to school. The company promoted its shoppable ads, which allowed users to grab their dorm supplies directly from the app. It also made great use of influencers who had a large Gen Z following, and it sold a lot of bags of Doritos in the process.
@joeyklaasen My dorm lookin fire now 😝🔥 Thanks Kroger! #transformurdorm #ad #foryou #trend
♬ original sound – Joey Klaasen
Guess Jeans’ #InMyDenim
The #InMyDenim challenge remains one of the most iconic TikTok challenges to date. The brand took advantage of two ad types on TikTok: Hashtag Challenge and Brand Takeover. The Brand Takeover ad featured a clickable link that redirected users to the Hashtag Challenge to increase its reach. At the end of the campaign’s first week, the videos had racked up more than 10.5 million views, and Guess Jeans’ TikTok page gained over 12,000 new followers.
Our guess is they probably sold bookoo jeans.
@ourfire Don’t you wish getting ready was this easy? 😂❤️🔥 ##inmydenim ##sponsored @guess
♬ #inmydenim I’m a Mess – Bebe Rexha
Zalora’s Fashion Festival
Zalora is a major Australian fashion brand that used TikTok ads to increase brand awareness. The brand promoted its online shopping event through a TikTok challenge video that required participants to flash a “Z” signal before changing their outfits. The campaign’s goal was to drive new app installs. We wonder if the “Z” is as effective as the Bat-Signal, but who’s to say? Apparently, they sold a lot of items for the local Aussie fashionistas.
Too Faced’s video ads
Too Faced promoted its “Lip Injection Extreme” by creating a compelling five-second video featuring its signature bright colors and socially inclusive text. The video genuinely embodied the brand’s happy and colorful vibe, and the CTA (“Plump, fill, and lift like never before with our Lip Injection Lip Gloss”) was as straightforward as it gets. Video ads get a lot of love because the good ones do their job and people react to the simplicity via the true colors of the brand identity. 💅
@toofaced We’ll take one of every shade @laurieelle 🙋♀️ Plump, fill, and lift like never before with our Lip Injection Lip Gloss!! ##toofaced ##fyp ##beautytok
♬ MOMENTS IN LIFE – Turreekk
TikTok advertising best practices
Below are a few ways to increase the effectiveness of your TikTok marketing campaigns. TikTok advertising needs to be targeted toward the correct demographics. Because no one who’s got Sabrina Carpenter on repeat is looking for videos on how to clean their jazz trumpet. Well, maybe they are, but we’d bet that niche is very small.
Use influencers wisely
TikTok has two categories of influencers: verified and unverified. If you wish to create a viral ad campaign, having a verified influencer on your side can be a great asset. The unverified influencers can still be a big help if they strongly engage with their followers. You can access the list of TikTok influencers in your niche under Users.
Before starting a partnership with an influencer, research them to determine if they’ll fit your brand well. Then, follow them, improve their engagement, and check out their old videos. The right influencer who’s got the juice in your specific niche can have the power to take your social media presence to the next level. You need to make sure the fit is right, though.
“The real juice behind top performing creators is their engagement. How truly engaged their audience is will make a significant impact on whether or not your product/brand gets that ROI from influencer content.” – Mel
Use Smart Video
TikTok Smart Video is an AI-driven video editing tool that automatically analyzes videos, and chooses clips and background music to improve them. It is the way to go if you want a seamless (yet cost-effective) video editing experience. 🤔
Make use of remarketing campaigns
Remarketing is an effective way to drive better ROI because it ensures your prospects are constantly exposed to your ads, encouraging them to take action. It’s an excellent tactic for connecting and engaging with people who have already shown interest in your brand. TikTok allows you to remarket by creating custom audiences based on website traffic, engagement, app activity, and customer data files.
Use UTMs for tracking
If you’re running TikTok ads to acquire more website traffic, UTMs (Urchin Tracking Module) can tell you exactly how much traffic TikTok sends. Use the UTMs to track your campaign performance in Google Analytics and determine which campaigns need to be optimized. Using UTMs is crucial for getting accurate data because ad platforms are known to overstate their conversion figures.
TikTok Ads can be an effective way for you to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and earn more revenue for your brand. You must be super creative with your ads and Hashtag Challenges to get the best results. TikTok users are not easily impressed. Think outside of the box, and capture people’s imaginations with your TopView ads and your branded hashtags.
Marketers need to know that TikTok’s paid advertising platform does not come cheap. If your budget is under five to six figures, consider exploring influencer marketing or other social media advertising options. That being said, TikTok’s stratospheric growth and popularity with Gen Z users could be worth the investment for brands with deep pockets. TikTok marketing is a multi-headed beast — you can spend, but you can also be strategic and rise to the top of the content mountain if you’re paying attention to trends and what’s popping off online.
Social media is how we communicate, and the smartest brands invest in the now vs. what used to work. Ad campaigns have evolved, and it’s up to the companies who want to be impactful to stay on top of things like carousel ads and the brand takeover ad or they’ll get left behind. The market moves too fast these days.
We hope this is all helpful. A brand is up against a lot these days and everything counts in the race for customers.
To learn how ManyChat can help grow your brand, click the button below to get started with ManyChat for free!
