Advertising On TikTok: A Quick Tutorial

TikTok’s growth as a social media platform has been unprecedented.

It had just 133 million users when it launched internationally in 2017, almost all of them transferred over from the musical.ly app TikTok’s parent company had purchased. That number surpassed one million by 2020, and there are now more than two billion TikTok users.

Advertisers have taken notice, especially those who are trying to reach the coveted Gen Z and millennial audiences that are said to make up more than 75% of the platform’s user base. TikTok ad revenue was around $2 billion in 2020; it’s now more than $30 billion and expected to hit $54 billion by 2027.

That makes TikTok an important online advertising platform, and it’s easy for companies to purchase ads on the app. Here’s what you need to know if you’re thinking about getting in on the action.

Available Types of TikTok Ads

Small businesses can’t just purchase an ad or two on TikTok to see how it does, since there’s a minimum ad spend of $500 per campaign and the big-ticket items start at $50,000. (There’s one exception: TikTok’s Spark ad platform, which only lets you use rebrand existing content as an ad but allows you to start with an expenditure of just $20.)

There’s a wide range of ad choices available to TikTok advertisers.

• Native ads appear in users’ feeds and look much like ordinary TikTok posts, but with a call-to-action (CTA) link. Pricing is based on either CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per thousand ad views) models; CPC ads can cost between 25¢ and $4.00 per click depending on product category and other factors, and CPM ads average around $1.00 per 1,000 views.

Pricing for these other options depends on multiple factors, but campaigns cost between five- and six-figures to run.

• Top-view ads appear as the first post that users see when they scroll their feeds.
• Brand takeover ads run for a 24-hour period. Users are shown a three-second full-screen ad when the app is opened, and then a top-position ad in their feeds with many more bells-and-whistles than top-view ads offer.
• Branded hashtag challenges let advertisers associate themselves with one of the famous challenges that TikTok is known for.
• Branded lenses are video effects that advertisers can supply and sponsor as trending effects.

As you might guess, you don’t work with a personal account manager when you buy TikTok ads. It’s all done online in the TikTok Ad Manager.

How To Advertise on TikTok

Here’s the first thing to know: you need a business TikTok account to advertise on the app.

That’s because a personal account won’t allow you access to the platform’s Ad Manager. You can easily switch to a business account by going to your TikTok profile, opening the profile menu (three horizontal lines at the top right of the screen), and then going to Settings and privacy > Account > Switch to business account. Answer a few questions and you’re all set.

After that, here’s how to buy ads. We’re focusing on in-app native ads, since that’s what most advertisers purchase.

1. Visit the TikTok for Business website (you can’t buy ads on the app) at ads.tiktok.com, sign up, and log in.
2. Add a payment method (credit card, debit card, or PayPal) and choose between manual or automatic payment options.
3. Click on the “Campaigns” tab, where you’ll identify your campaign objective and target demographics.
4. Choose a daily ad budget (or a total budget for the full campaign). You must spend at least $20 per day and a total of at least $500 for a native ad campaign.
5. Pick a starting and ending date for the ads (or a specific schedule the ads should run on), and then choose between a CPC or a CPM campaign.
6. Identify the format for your ad (e.g., single video or carousel) and submit your proposed ad and other creative material (like a custom photo cover) for approval. You can create the ad directly in the Ad Manager, or submit one you’ve already created; all of the specifics for acceptable formats, sizes, etc. are listed in the Ad Manager.
7. You’ll be notified in the Ad Manager when your ad is accepted.

Good luck with your TikTok ads!