The Simple Way to a TikTok Advertising Strategy

TikTok has actually been around longer than most people realize, but with a different name. The earliest prototype of the app, Musical.ly, was released in 2014. While TikTok has undergone consolidation and rebranding since then, the basic formula is the same: short, selfie-style videos with a background soundtrack.

Social media networks have grown exponentially over the past few years. TikTok has already started focusing on monetization. They borrowed a lot of tricks from other social media platforms to set up their TikTok ad product. You'll learn the basics of Facebook Business Manager: organize campaigns by goals, create custom audiences, use pixels to track ad results, and more.

The combination of innovative content and established advertising practices has been very successful. Recently, TikTok beat Google to become the No. 1 web traffic in the United States. Other social media platforms have responded to the competition by turning to short videos and investing hundreds of millions of dollars in creator funds. But for now, TikTok still has an edge as a fresh, young platform.

Most people think of TikTok as a teen app. They're not wrong... TikTok's population does tend to be younger.

However, that may be about to change. The fastest-growing demographic on the TikTok platform right now is those in their 30s. Millennials, Generation X, and even baby boomers are joining social networks.

Advertisers will take a while to catch up. Many brands are not using TikTok for marketing. This is especially true for brands that focus on older age groups. So now is a good time to start running TikTok ads with less competition.

TikTok marketing campaigns provide more reach for less

This is another argument in favor of TikTok, and it's very convincing.

Currently, TikTok ads are much cheaper than any ad on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Every social media marketer knows that Facebook ad costs have skyrocketed, while targeting and returns on ad spend has gotten weaker.

On average, a TikTok ad campaign delivers roughly half the cost per lead of Facebook. It doesn't have a higher conversion rate, but your net sales will look healthier on TikTok since ad inventory is much cheaper.

If you see good results from your Facebook ads, then TikTok will further amplify your social results. But a word to the wise: you can't run the same content on TikTok that you run on Facebook. A successful TikTok marketing strategy requires different content and a different approach to targeting.

let's start.

TikTok's ad platform is complex, so you don't have to worry about choosing placements, time of day, and targeting parameters. Auto-suggestions usually work just fine.

Instead, you need to focus on creating content. Lots of content. Then set up the system to optimize for minimum CPV or CPE and see which TikTok videos perform best.

Minimum spend on TikTok ads per campaign day is $20. However, you can spread that $20 among many TikTok videos. Each campaign can contain multiple ad groups, which contain multiple ads. Your goal is to cost about 1 to 5 cents per view. See which videos are getting the best results and try to figure out what makes them work.

What should your video look like?

When you create an ad on TikTok, you can play a video for up to 3 minutes. Recently, the platform has been experimenting with hour-long videos.

But you really don't need to make content that long. Keep your videos under 30 seconds so you can maintain a high video completion rate. This is one of the key metrics TikTok uses to evaluate your content. You want people to watch the whole thing.

Do you think it's too short? don’t worry. The trick is to include a lot of content in each clip. If people end up looping the video to get more out of it, that's better news for your video completion rate.

The best-performing videos on TikTok are short, witty, and down-to-earth. Connect with your audience using selfie-style angles, jokes, and popular audio.

You can use editing tools to clip different clips together or add effects. However, try doing most of your editing in TikTok. The algorithm rewards users for in-app editing...but penalizes them for repurposed or non-native content.

How TikTok Ad Targeting Works

TikTok offers less targeting accuracy than most other social marketing platforms. Until recently, you could only target audiences at the national level.

But that's not the problem. Why? Because TikTok found the algorithm to be very powerful.

TikTok is very, very good at delivering content based on people’s interests. It also uses some more advanced techniques, such as AI for background recognition. This means that if you include local landmarks in your video, your content will be shown to more people near you.

So you don't need to worry about location targeting or the best time to post, just focus on the content. Create and share videos relevant to your brand, industry and audience interests. The TikTok algorithm pretty much does the rest for you.

Which type of ad should you use?

There are several different ad types on TikTok.

For now, we'll focus on the two most useful ad types: spark ads and lead ads.

• Spark ads are great for extending reach, handling user-generated content, and increasing brand awareness.

• Lead ads are great for converting views into leads and sales.

The two types work very differently. As we'll see, for some ads, you might not even need to create content at all...

Spark ads are a bit like tweets on Facebook. You identify a video that performs well and put an ad on it to reach a wider audience.

What's special about these ads is that you can do this with any video. Even if it's from a TikTok profile unrelated to your brand, or if you don't have a TikTok profile yourself and just set up a TikTok ad account.

This makes spark ads a great solution for brands of all sizes. Small businesses are sometimes intimidated by producing content. Large companies and institutions sometimes struggle to handle small-scale content like short videos. But with spark ads, you don't have to create anything yourself unless you want to.

According to TikTok, Spark ads now account for 70% of all ad spend on the platform. Brands are using this ad format because it’s an effective, low-effort way to reach more people.

How do Spark ads work?

To turn other people's content into spark ads, you need their consent.

Here's how it works:

1. You contact the creator and get their permission to promote their post.

   
   

2. Next, they need to opt-in to spark ads by turning on the ad authorization toggle in their privacy settings.

   
   

3. Once activated, creators can generate unique codes for related videos.

   
   

4. You use the code to import your posts into the TikTok Ads Manager, where you can set your ad spend and choose whether to add a call to action.

After boosting your post with spark ads, there will be a small "Sponsored" tab at the bottom of the screen. The original organic content will not be altered in any other way.

How to choose a video for a Spark ad

You can get content for use in Spark ads in a number of different ways.

• Social listening. Search for key terms related to your brand and industry, then connect with people with relevant content. You can also use TikTok's analytics to find any creators who mention you.

  
  

• TikTok creator marketplace. This search tool from TikTok aims to connect creators with businesses. However, creators in the market tend to favor older audiences and charge more. This is not for every brand.

• Create your own content. You can also use spark ads to boost videos from your own TikTok account. If you're just starting out, use spark ads to expand your reach and see which videos perform best. Once you are more mature, you can be more selective and only promote the most successful videos.

When you look for videos posted by other TikTok users, look out for some key characteristics:

• Instant hook. Does the video immediately appeal to you? If it doesn't get immediate attention, it probably won't be successful as an ad.

• not too long. Remember, you want to keep your video completion rate high. Clips under 30 seconds work best.

• Authentic style. The whole point of spark ads is that they don't look like ads. You're looking for real organic content, not high yield value.

Many creators will be happy to work with you. After all, spark ads also mean more attention to their content. You can offer free gifts or gift cards as an added bonus. However, be wary of creators asking for high fees. Employees with few real customers or followers often make a bigger impact than expensive influencers.

How to Edit and Use Spark Ads Videos

Spark ads require minimal editing because the content has already been created. Since your target audience created the video themselves, targeting has already been handled. It doesn't get more precise than this.

However, you do need to be aware of copyright. You will not be able to boost posts that use copyrighted audio in the background. Fortunately, TikTok gives you the option to toggle the audio. You can replace copyrighted music with audio from TikTok's free advertising sound library. Alternatively, go into the post's sound settings, then turn down the music and turn up the original audio.

Once your post is ready...what is your goal?

Spark ads are generally best for top-of-funnel marketing. They're great for brand awareness and word of mouth, but not so good for conversions. The metrics you really want to focus on are views and video completion rates.

When you boost your post with spark ads, you have the option to add a call to action and landing page link. This works well for e-commerce businesses. However, if you focus on lead generation or work with B2B companies, lead ads will be a more useful conversion tool.

Once again, most social media marketers will be familiar with Facebook's lead ads. TikTok's lead ads work similarly, but they have to convince users to click on a short video of a few seconds.

How does lead advertising work on TikTok?

TikTok introductory ads include a link at the end of the video. When users click on it, they're taken to a form pre-filled with personal data they've shared with TikTok. You can then pull that data into your CRM to start developing leads.

Your cost per lead on TikTok can be around $3 to $4. That's well above the average CPV, but it still compares favorably to other professional service lead sources.

How to Make a Video for a TikTok Lead Ad

Your most important job in your ad video is to show people that the ad is relevant to them. If it's a location-based offer, state the location in the video and use visual cues. If this is a time-sensitive quote, use audio and text to emphasize this.

Even in short video clips, you can tell a story that is relevant to your target audience. Show them your work and their experience with you.

For example, a chiropractor might edit clips of the initial consultation, adjustments, and results together. Subscription box services may show the process of packing, delivering, and unboxing at home.

You can then take people to the lead form and encourage them to experience what they see with their own eyes.

TikTok offers a range of cost-effective advertising options that reach a broad audience. While some social media marketers are intimidated by using TikTok for digital marketing, creating ads couldn't be easier, especially since you don't even have to create your own content!

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