A Complete Beginner’s Guide

Running ads on TikTok is a powerful way to reach a massive and engaged audience, but the platform’s unique culture and ad manager can feel a bit intimidating. This guide breaks down everything you need to know to launch your first successful TikTok ad campaign, from setting up your account to crafting high-performing creative.

Step 1: Get Your TikTok For Business Account

Before you can run a single ad, you need to create a TikTok For Business account. This is a centralized hub for all your advertising activities, separate from your personal TikTok profile.

• Go to the TikTok Ads Manager signup page.

• Sign up with your email or phone number and create a password.

• Provide your business information, including your legal business name, country, industry, time zone, and currency.

Once your account is approved (which usually takes less than 24 hours), you can start creating campaigns.

Step 2: Understand the Ad Campaign Structure

TikTok’s ad structure is organized into three levels:

• Campaign: This is the highest level, where you set your overall advertising objective (e.g., brand awareness, traffic, conversions).

• Ad Group: Within a campaign, ad groups are where you define your target audience, set your budget and schedule, and choose your placements. You can have multiple ad groups in one campaign to test different audiences or settings.

• Ad: This is the creative itself—the video or image that your audience sees. You can have multiple ads within an ad group to test different creatives.

Step 3: Define Your Campaign Objective

Your objective is the goal of your ad campaign. TikTok offers a range of objectives that fall into three main categories:

• Awareness: Objectives like “Reach” are for showing your ad to the maximum number of people to build brand visibility.

• Consideration: This category includes objectives like “Traffic,” “Video Views,” and “Lead Generation,” designed to get users to think about and engage with your brand.

Conversion: For driving specific actions, such as “Conversions” (e.g., purchases, sign-ups) or “App Promotion” (app installs).

Step 4: Set Up Your Ad Group: Targeting, Budget, and Bidding

This is where you tell TikTok who to show your ads to and how much you want to spend.

• Audience Targeting: TikTok offers robust targeting options:

  • Demographics: Target by age, gender, location, and language.

  • Interests: Target users based on their interactions with specific content categories like “Food & Beverage” or “Fashion & Style.”

  • Behaviors: Target users based on recent in-app behavior, such as who has watched, liked, or commented on videos in a certain category.

  • Custom Audiences: Retarget users who have visited your website (via the TikTok Pixel) or engaged with your content.

  • Lookalike Audiences: Reach new users who have similar characteristics to your existing customers or most engaged followers.

• Budget and Bidding: You can set a daily or lifetime budget for your ad group. TikTok’s bidding strategies, such as “Cost Cap” and “Maximum Delivery,” help you optimize your spend based on your goals. The minimum daily budget for an ad group is $20.

Step 5: Create Your Ad Creative

This is the most critical part of TikTok advertising. Your ad must feel native to the platform to be successful.

• Embrace Authenticity: TikTok users value genuine, user-generated content (UGC). Your ad shouldn’t look like a polished, traditional commercial. A “DIY” or unpolished style often performs better.

• Hook Your Audience Instantly: The first 3-6 seconds are the most important. Grab attention immediately with a bold statement, a surprising visual, or a relatable scenario.

• Use Trending Sounds and Effects: Sound is a core component of TikTok. Use popular music from the Commercial Music Library or trending audio clips to make your ad more engaging and discoverable.

• Keep it Short and Engaging: While TikTok videos can be up to 60 seconds, the sweet spot for ads is often 9-15 seconds. Use quick cuts, text overlays, and interactive elements like stickers to keep the energy high.

Include a Clear Call to Action (CTA): Tell your audience exactly what to do next with a clear and concise CTA like “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” or “Sign Up.”

Step 6: Launch and Optimize Your Campaign

Once you’ve set up your campaign, ad groups, and creative, you can submit your ad for review. TikTok will approve it, and your campaign will go live.

• Monitor Performance: Regularly check your TikTok Ads Manager dashboard to track key metrics like impressions, clicks, video views, and conversions.

• A/B Test Everything: Don’t assume you know what works. Test different creatives, headlines, CTAs, and targeting options to see what resonates best with your audience.

• Refresh Your Creative: Users can quickly experience “ad fatigue.” Proactively refresh your ad creative to keep your campaigns performing well.