How To Use TikTok Advertising For Your BusinessBy Emma

Set up an Organic TikTok page

Your first step towards advertising on TikTok is to make sure you have an organic page to advertise from. You’ll need this to create an ad account. It's also a great way to test content and find out what performs best organically. That way you can ensure you are using top-performing content in your advertising strategy.

Set yourself up on the TikTok Business Centre

Once you’re all set up with an organic page, and ready to get going with ads, you’ll need to create a business centre account. If you’re familiar with Facebook advertising, this works in a similar fashion to the Facebook Business Manager.

Your TikTok Business Centre account houses your assets in one easy to find place:

• TikTok Ads Manager
• Advertising Audiences
• Partner Access for your agency

You can link your organic TikTok page through the business settings area in the Business Centre.

Link a TikTok ads manager account to your Business Centre

Once you’re all set up and verified, head to the assets section of your Business Centre account. You’ll need to select the “Request Access” option, this is where you paste your ads manager ID.

If your ads manager and business centre accounts are set up through the same email then your ads manager will automatically appear. Make sure you remember to add yourself as an admin under the member tab, then you’re all set!

Create and add your TikTok pixel

You’ll need to create a TikTok pixel and add it to your website. This is a great tool for building custom audiences, whether you’re wanting to retarget or advertise to a cold audience through lookalikes.

You can do this through the assets tab in your ads manager account. You’ll be able to track events that occur on your website and even on your app if your brand has one.

The easiest way to add the pixel is to send the instructions to your developer! But if you have access through a CMS then the internet is full of guides, check the specific instructions for your provider through their website or a quick google search.

Choose your TikTok advertising objective

Now you’ve got all the back end bits set up for your account you can start advertising! So you need to decide which objective is best for what you’re trying to achieve. Some of the different options available to you include:

• Reach
• Traffic
• App Installs
• Video Views
• Lead Generation
• Community Interaction
• Conversions

Set your TikTok advertising budget

TikTok has its own minimum ad budgets which you’ll need to meet:

• £50 per day minimum (if using campaign level budget optimisation)
• £20 per day minimum (if using ad set level budgets)

But you will also need to consider your own levels of spend for the platform, based on what you’re trying to achieve. We put together a handy template to help you work this out.

Choose a relevant target audience

This is where you can get creative with your targeting. Add in those custom audiences you’ve built using your pixel, or select behaviours and interests that are most relevant for your target audience. This includes targeting people who have interacted with particular creators or hashtags which is quite a powerful tool. You can also filter your audience based on age, gender and location.

In the beginning, it’s best to keep your targeting broad, this gives you a bit of testing time to understand who is interacting most with your ads as you might find the results surprising. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

“Don’t make ads, make TikToks”

This is the TikTok advertising mantra. Content that performs well on the platform blends into the “for you page” seamlessly. This isn’t a new idea, you will often find the creatives that don’t feel like ads perform better. We put this down to people’s mindset, you’ll find better results if you prove the worth of the product or service authentically. You should keep this idea front of mind when creating your assets for TikTok ads.

There are a few different formats you can try:

• Single video ads
• Collection ads
• Spark ads - these are a great new addition which basically means you can promote content from your organic page.

What other advertising options are available on TikTok?

In-feed advertisements aren’t the only option available to you with TikTok, that’s what makes this channel so unique. Outside of the ads manager parameters, through the use of an account manager, you can access some more immersive and unique ad formats. These are usually reserved for brands with larger budgets, as minimum spend is considerably more. These formats include: Top View, Brand Takeover, Hashtag Challenge and Branded Lenses.