TikTok explains how its ad campaigns and tools work in a free corporate course that comes with multiple videos and downloadable guides.
The new course, called TikTok Tactics, is divided into four core sections:
- Attribution (Web + Apps)
- Targeting, bidding and optimization
- product list
- Advertising creative
TikTok’s easy-to-follow guidelines are a universal set of best practices to help all businesses succeed, regardless of their advertising goals.
Before reviewing the strategies included in the course, let’s review what makes TikTok audiences unique compared to users on other social media platforms.
TikTok audience
TikTok provides the following statistics to help businesses understand who their TikTok audience is and what they want from using the platform.
- 75% of TikTok users want to be entertained
- 42% of TikTok users discover new things on the platform
- 68% of TikTok users are inspired by what they see
- 91% of TikTok users take some action based on what they see
- 25% of TikTok users researched/buy products they saw advertised for
- 61% of TikTok users think its ads are unique compared to other top social platforms
- 45% of ‘heavy’ TikTok users feel ads blend in with other content
TikTok advertising strategy
TikTok Ads Manager
TikTok ads from TikTok Ads Manager, a self-service platform that drives results across the funnel for your business.
In TikTok Ads Manager, businesses can take advantage of four tactics to achieve their marketing goals.
Every tactic has three levels Unlock additional advertising features.
Below is more information about each strategy and the different levels within it.
1. Attribution (Web + App)
Attribution means knowing where your conversions are coming from so you can make informed decisions about your campaigns.
Building your business on a solid attribution foundation is the first requirement for building a successful advertising strategy on TikTok.
TikTok offers several ways to attribute events on your website to your TikTok ads.
First, you need to implement a web attribution tool – either Douyin Pixel or Event API.
When using this strategy, you start at the first level and unlock additional features as you move up.
- Level 1: Pixel standard mode for basic conversion tracking (best for businesses without a dedicated web development team).
- secondary: Pixel developer mode (a more advanced solution for businesses with dedicated development teams).
- Level 3:Events API — A server-to-server integration that lets you share website events directly with TikTok.
2. Targeting, bidding and optimization
This strategy is about analyzing and adjusting campaign parameters to achieve your goals.
Targeting, bidding, and optimization are three layers in one that work harmoniously together. Unlike other layered advertising strategies,
TikTok emphasizes the importance of having resources dedicated to the day-to-day running of ad campaigns.
This is because the TikTok advertising platform has grown rapidly and is always introducing new tools to improve campaign performance.
Having dedicated resources in-house or through an agency can help you stay up to date.
3. Product Catalog
This strategy is specifically aimed at businesses that sell products because it focuses on a set of tools that can help expose those products to the right audience.
A catalog strategy helps your business create ads at scale.
Say you have three products and three audiences. It’s easy to go into the TikTok Ads Manager and create nine ads, one for every combination of product and audience.
On the other hand, if you have more than 100 or 1000 products, it’s not so easy to create ads manually.
Instead, you can let TikTok’s platform use your product catalog to dynamically create ads for you.
All you have to do is upload your product catalog and choose the level that suits your business in a three-step system.
- Level 1: Manually upload products
- secondary: Upload product catalog from CSV template
- Level 3: Upload directory feed
Again, this is a hierarchy. As you level up, you’ll unlock additional ad formats.
Therefore, uploading a catalog feed will give you access to the largest number of ad formats available.
4. Advertising creative
Every TikTok video is a full-screen, immersive experience with sound. This also includes TikTok ads.
Greater immersion translates into higher engagement and richer interactions.
But it also means that the brand message has to be constantly kept fresh in order to maintain a high level of performance.
Businesses are advised to supply a steady stream of new ad creatives to their account, ideally once a week.
Below are three levels of TikTok creativity, each unlocking more ad features.
- Level 1 – Repurpose creatives: Creative tools available in Ads Manager allow you to reuse existing inventory.
- Level 2 – Dedicated TikTok Ads: At this level, you can interact with creators directly or through the TikTok marketplace to create a steady stream of spark ads (TikTok’s native ad display format).
- Level 3 – Creative Partner Ecosystem: At this level, you’ll have a TikTok Ideas API Partner that provides you with five to ten new ideas every week.
TikTok Advertising Best Practices
Now that you’re familiar with the four TikTok advertising strategies, and you can learn more in the company’s full guide, let’s quickly review some best practices.
- high resolution: Target 720p or higher video resolution.
- use audio: Experiment with sounds and learn about emerging music trends.
- Fit the screen: Use the 9:16 aspect ratio to make your video fit the screen perfectly.
- Let creativity be the focus: Make sure important information is not overwritten within the app.
- mobile firt: – Create the ad in a vertical video format to ensure key visuals are in the frame.
- call to action: Use a clear CTA at the end of each ad to inspire action.
- keep it short: The ideal length of a TikTok video ad is 21 to 34 seconds
source: TikTok strategy
Featured image: Miguel Lagoa/Shutterstock
