We’ve advertised on here for a couple of brands, already spending thousands of dollars since 2020. However, I was not impressed with the platform. In recent months, it appears profitable ads in tandem to clear signs of drastically better customer support, innovation behind the tools, and even advertising inventory available are not only possible but the clear reason why Zucks is actually faced with a real competitor and threat to his business.
Before we dive into the ‘’how” of advertising on TikTok, I think it’s important to know some facts and context about TikTok as a platform. All to follow is relevant regardless if you’re wanting to run ads on TikTok in the Philippines, Singapore, USA, Australia or any other countries where TikTok is allowed. (Note, at the time of this writing, TikTok is not available in some places like HongKong.)
Fast facts about TikTok
- 47% of users have bought something they saw on TikTok.
- There are over 30+ million people over 35 years old. So this platform is not just for 13-18 year olds.
- The hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has over 4.2B views.
- If you’re an agency or planning to really grow your brand, I would suggest setting up a TikTok managed account. You can start that process here.
- You can run ads with net 60 terms with a million dollar line of credit with no personal guarantee. This can be done after advertising on the platform and gaining history with them and also using a credit card that also has an additional net 30 terms. (net 30 + net 30)
- You need to be aware that their terms and conditions are quite different than that of other platforms. For instance, give aways or free + shipping offers that were popularized 6 years ago are prohibited entirely on TikTok. Here is a link to the general policies for all things TikTok.
Content on TikTok
While content on every platform should be made native to the platform you are posting or advertising on, content on TikTok should be even more specialized and specific to the platform. Remember, regardless of which platform you advertise on, the users on there, which you are buying their attention from the platform, are on that platform and interacting with it for a specified reason, specific intent, and certain attention span.
When people go on Youtube they are typically seeking information or a pro-longed content consumption experience and have a longer period of time planned to spend on the platform. Inversely, you can’t just drop a 20-minute day-in-the-life vlog video that’s meant for YouTube on Instagram. Instagram is not widely used as a platform to consume 20+ minute content and thus should be more relevant to how users interact with the platform and the content they expect to be seeing on it.
When visiting TikTok on the other hand, people could spend 5 minutes perusing the platform and pass through 30 pieces of content easily. This is why pure disruption advertising will work 10x better on a platform like TikTok and thus your heavy lifting will be done by your creative.
- The average video length of top performing ads and videos are typically 21-34 seconds. So in most cases, aim to create content that is around that time range as a general rule of thumb. I personally would try to keep videos under 60 seconds where possible.
- We highly recommend 14-day content refreshes regardless if you work with us at Impremis or do this yourself. So while some videos may last longer and on Facebook they can last months, with TikTok we’re are seeing content dying off faster. This means you need to be prepared if you plan to advertise on the platform, to be vested into creating consistent and data driven content (i.e. content thats optimized based on previous results from the metrics you’re tracking your creatives against).
- 99.2% of ads feature multiple scenes. This means engaging content thats snappy, fast-paced, and engaging is more critical than it was on other platforms. It’s important to keep in mind platform specific content has and always will be important in advertising but for TikTok, if your content doesn’t feel the least bit native, you won’t stand a fighting chance for people’s attention on the platforms.
Content on TikTok
And if the above aren’t enough, you can even try out Spark ads which are similar to Facebook’s whitelisting and Post ID ads. In short, you can have an influencer or even a regular user create content from one of the options above or any other content strategy they may have in mind, and then leverage their exact content as an ad. It’s 10x simpler than doing it on Facebook in my opinion which is really cool!
Another key tip in creating your contingent is to be sure to use trending effects, hashtags and sounds. This is a key area where working with not necessarily an influencer but someone that uses TikTok regularly could be of real value in helping you know what’s “in” or trending.
And if you’re still having trouble finding ideas of ads for your brand, you can use a little hack that we use to get great ideas by visiting this page to see all of the top rated ads from TikTok.
Copywriting
Most people know TikTok for things like lip-syncing and dancing videos yet the app is surging in popularity and many brands and businesses are adding it to their social media content strategy because of it. In doing this, TikTok still has a small copywriting aspect to it and thus this should not fly under the radar. So now you’ve created an awesome ad and anyone who watches may find some interest in your product. That’s fantastic! Except… not everyone will stick around for the whole ad, even if it’s only 15 seconds. That’s where writing a concise, informative caption comes in to play. Your captions will help ensure that the viewer gets the gist of your ad, even if they don’t stick around to watch the whole thing.
Below, I’ve shared a list of 40 of the best headlines sent in by one of our clients for your perusal. There are hundreds more out there but these should help you get started and off in the right direction.
- My go-to X for X.
- Don’t buy that, buy this instead.
- I tried every X so you don’t have to and here are the results.
- X people stop scrolling.
- This is for X people, so if you’re not keep.
- 3 tips to get rid of X.
- 5 tips to get X.
- I promise you’ve never X.
- This risk-free X is something you need if you want to X.
- Stop scrolling if you want X.
- Wait! Don’t go anywhere, I wanna show you something.
- Are you X looking to get rid of X / looking to get X.
- This video is only for X people, so keep scrolling if that’s not you.
- X product is officially my go-to for X.
- Things TikTok made me buy.
- If you’re like me and do X, then this one is for you.
- What I order vs. what I got.
- (reply to comment with video).
- Best X products I’ve tried that actually work.
- I just got my X products and I’m so excited.
- Things I Wish I Knew About Sooner Part X.
- I keep seeing these X from X all over my feed so I had to try.
- I actually can’t believe this does X.
- I actually can’t believe this only costs X.
- I just found X that does X.
- I just found X that does not X.
- I just got my package from X.
- (Snap transition with text question).
- ASMR of product in use.
- X Product is the only one I use for X and I’m gonna show you why.
- Some days I don’t X and that’s why I use X.
- Come do X with me (show the product in use).
- This is why you need X.
- I got the best gift for my X.
- Doing X is like X (metaphor + greenscreens + voiceovers).
- POV (only text and video).
- Guys, this works so well and looks so beautiful (end results, then problem + pain).
- This is one of my favorite X brands for X (Unboxing + in use).
- Product on website vs. in real life.
- Instead of doing/using X do X.
Budgeting
Budgeting should never just be something that you just pull out of thin air and that’s why I’ve got a few recommendations on how to come up with your budget and what you should be thinking about before you consider moving forward with TikTok ads.
It’s important to keep in mind that your budget is relevant to your objective. For example, if your objective is to get sales or something lower down the funnel, you need to spend more per day versus if you were optimizing for someone to add to cart. This is relative to get out of the learning phase. TikTok’s learning phase is a bit different than that of Facebooks and if you cannot achieve 50 event fires for what you’re optimizing for within 7 days, then the ads will likely stop spending and thus you won’t be able to get out of the learning phase and start finding more people to get your ads in front of.
If you have a larger budget, I suggest setting your budget to follow this formula:
- (50x Average CPA)/7 → This daily budget formula is built around the idea of getting 50 event fires for what you’re looking to optimize for, your ideal CPA and then the presumption that you hit this within 7 days and thus are able to get out of the learning phase.
If you want to know more about TikTok ads or are ready to get started getting customer from a new channel with massive potential and scalability, reach out to us here.