As of July 2021, TikTok is the first non-Meta app to hit 3 billion downloads. It is not surprising since it has about 50 million daily users in the US alone, and most of it is the Gen Z. Considering these facts, it makes sense that TikTok is a worthwhile investment, especially if you want to reach the young crowd. 66% of TikTok’s users are younger than 30.
Even though it is new, TikTok ads are expensive. Many big-name brands such as Disney, Nike, GrubHub, and even Apple have advertised on TikTok.
If you want to join those big brands and advertise on TikTok, here’s how you get started.
How to set up a TikTok ad campaign
Advertising on TicToc is a relatively new program but innovative. On the downside, the process isn't as independent or self-sufficient, for want of a better word.
Create a TikTok Account
To set up a campaign, go to TikTok Ads Manager and create an account (if you do not have one yet).
Go to the Ads Manager homepage and click the Get Started button. You will get a form asking for information to set up your account. Fill and submit it; Wait for the TikTok representative to contact and let you know that your business qualifies for a TikTok Ads account.
Create a Campaign
TikTok categorizes its ads in three levels: Campaign, Ad Groups, and Ads. A campaign is a parent activity with Ad Groups and Ads as separate functions underneath the campaign.
Once you are in the Ads Manager dashboard, go to Campaign (tab)>> Create Campaign. Next, choose the primary advertising objective, which is the goal of your ad. As of now, you can choose between, Traffic, Conversions, and App Install.
Now choose the campaign budget. Unless you have bottomless pockets, you have to choose a budget for your ad. If budget’s not an issue, choose No Limit on your campaign budget.
Otherwise, choose between Daily Budget or Total Budget to set your budget to the campaign level. Keep in mind that the budget must be at least $500.
Set Up an Ad Group
The next step is to choose the placements and targeting by creating an Ad Group. You can have multiple Ad groups aimed at different audiences.
Advertising on TikTok gives access to a host of different applications depending on your country. In addition, you can also choose to limit your ads to TikTok alone.
The next step in creating an ad group is to select Placement Types. Again, you have two options, the first of which is the Automatic placements. In this case, TikTok will place the ad where it is best suited and will get good results.
Else, you can manually choose placements for your Ad Group. The availability of the placement differs depending on the location.
Once you have chosen your placements, follow the prompts and enter all the information to get your Ad Campaign up and running. The best part of all is the keywords, where you can choose up to 20 keywords that best suit your business. TikTok Ads Manager then uses it to match your ad with the right audience.
Finally comes the Targeting section, where you define the audience for your ads with the help of parameters such as gender, location, age, language, interests, and devices, to name a few.
Set Up the Campaign Budget and Schedule
Once you create the target audience, you need to set the budget, schedule, and goal for your TikTok ads.
Go to the Budget and Schedule section, and set the budget you want to arrange for the ad group. You can choose a daily budget where you select how much you want to spend in a day. Or a total budget which is how much you are willing to pay for the entire ad campaign.
Next, select the dates and times you want the campaign to be active. The “Dayparting” option allows you to a specific time of the day when you want ads to run. You can also choose to show your ads on certain days of the week.
In addition, you can choose how fast you want the budget to be spent. The options include Standard (distributes the funding evenly in the campaign’s duration) and Accelerate (which utilizes the budget as soon as possible).
Set Your Optimization Goal
Select between Conversion, Click, and Impressions for your optimization goal.
Conversion: Your ad is shown to people who are most likely to buy your product or service.
Click: Your ad is optimized to draw as many clicks as possible. Moreover, it is also based on the cost-per-click payment model.
Impression: Your ad is optimized to appear as many times as possible. Hence, it has a cost-per-thousand payment model.
Design Your Ad
When it comes to designing the ads, the process is pretty straightforward. The ads can be images or videos in three formats: horizontal, vertical, or square. The best part about advertising with TikTok is the Video Creation Kit. It has templates for videos and images, which you can customize as you see fit. In addition, you can also use any one of their free background music options.
Another helpful tool TikTok provides for advertisers is Automated Creative Optimization, where you upload up to 10 images, five videos, five ads, and one CTA. The tool then combines them to create multiple ads, test them out and use the most efficient combination.