A beginners guide to TikTok advertising

What are TikTok Ads and why do they matter?

TikTok is everywhere. All at once. People can’t stop talking about it. At Fourth Floor we spend a lot of time watching, thinking, talking and creating campaigns with TikTok and TikTokkers. But what about advertising on TikTok? What is it, how does it work and does it matter? 

For advertising, TikTok is an intriguing platform. It relies almost entirely on the ‘For You Page’, which puts an unending list of videos TikTok thinks you’ll like (based on what you’ve watched before) for you to scroll through. The more you scroll, the better the content becomes (for a quick rundown of how this looks you can take a look at this video). 

As a result, TikTok audiences are extremely well-engaged, as evidenced by the App Annie State of Mobile report, which concluded that ‘the average monthly time spent by users grows faster than nearly every other app analysed’. To cut through to audiences on TikTok requires a tailored approach. It’s all about natural or ‘native’ content. As the TikTok message to advertisers goes, ‘Don’t make ads. Make TikToks’.

Get this right and people using TikTok are more likely to engage with the ads they come across, which are well-targeted and allow audiences to like, comment, share and reuse sounds from an ad to create their own content. This format has captured the Gen-Z audience, the fastest-growing consumer segment, with 18-24-year-olds making up over 43% of the platform’s entire audience. In fact, TikTok has been so successful that it’s making Instagram, Facebook and YouTube all copy their moves. 

This fast growth and increasing ubiquity with young audiences mean understanding how TikTok advertising works is important. Luckily for you, we are more than familiar with the platform (some of us are even a little obsessed with it). So here is our guide to TikTok Ads and what you need to know.

What are the main formats? 

In Feed

In-Feed ads are displayed directly on the For You page. They appear ‘natively’, meaning at first glance they don’t necessarily appear to be an advertisement. This makes it possible for users to swipe past, but if the ad is instantly engaging, it can be a great way to reach your audience. The below example from Tiffany & Co features Jay-Z and Beyonce in the backseat of a New York taxi, using a black and white film noir aesthetic to shift focus onto the iconic teal of the Tiffany logo. 

The ever-captivating couple is spellbinding, offering a sneak peek into their love life. Their status and visibility in the public eye means, as a TikTok ad, the In-Feed format works well. The playful caption “Pizza and champagne, anyone?” lets pure star power do the talking. It’s as though Tiffany is beckoning the viewer: “We dare you to scroll past us”.  

Brand Takeover

Brand Takeover ads appear when the app is opened and take over a user’s feed for a few seconds. This format isn’t as easy to scroll past as the skip function only appears as a small button at the top right of the screen. While In-Feed ads are about trying to catch attention, Brand Takeover ads demand it. They rely on the effectiveness of TikTok’s tailored algorithm, allowing brands to get a message across in a quick burst. This can be a perfect way to announce launches for recognisable products or brands, such as this example ad from Fortnite. 

Fortnite’s free-to-play model made it a household name, and while they often release longer-form promotional video content, sometimes simplicity is best. For a game this recognisable, the release of new skins, updates or offers is enough to drive awareness and retain its global audience. It’s just a question of impactful graphics and compelling copy. 

Top View Ads

Top View ads provide the benefits of both Brand Takeover and In-Feed, dominating the screen when TikTok is first opened and seamlessly transitioning to an In-Feed format (for up to 60 seconds of content). This format grabs the users’ attention and allows for an ad that can be commented on, liked or shared. 

This clever Top View ad for Amazon Prime uses the notion of a ‘good deal’ to suggest a consumer feels like a “big deal” once they’ve been given early access to their sale. They use the transition from full screen to in-feed, beginning with a frame based in a quirky setting, with a man noticing his face plastered across a media board, walking out of his house onto a red carpet. 

The transition reveals the crux of the ad: the man stands confused on the red carpet as a celebrity clutching an Amazon Prime box. The crucial element here is the move to in-feed, ensuring the ad can be commented on and shared, encouraging consumer interaction. 

Branded Hashtag Ads

Branded Hashtag ads ask users to create content involving a challenge or trend and post using a unique hashtag. These videos appear at the top of the For You page, encouraging consumer interaction with the trend, challenge or sound. Luxury fashion brand Fendi launched a hashtag campaign “#FisforFendi”, featuring five separate ads that correspond to five values that define the brand: family, fearless, freedom, friendship and future. 

The ads featured content creators from across TikTok and drove audiences to the main Fendi account, which gained 15,000 new followers and over four million views. The magic of this campaign is the element of identity, similar to Calvin Klein’s iconic #MyCalvin ad, presenting a canvas for both the brand and the content creators to define themselves under the hashtag. The power of TikTok is that, while Calvin Klein needed a tapestry of celebrities, supermodels and musicians with big budgets and special effects, this was about gathering five native TikTok starlets and allowing them to express themselves, shedding new light on Fendi for a youthful audience.

Branded Effect Ads

Branded Effects make use of customisable filters available on the platform. Brands can create filters that reference their branding and may correspond with key dates, seasonal holidays or product launches throughout the year. The filters are available for up to ten days and are a great way to create a personal connection with the audience, who can create their own content featuring the filter. 

Sports Direct used a Branded Effect in their campaign for PUMA’s new ‘Future’ series football boot, a boot synonymous with the golden boy of Brazilian football, Neymar Jr. Football advertising has often played into the audience’s desire to step into the shoes of a footballer. This was the crux of Nike’s viral The Switch commercial featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, which saw a young boy switch lives with the Portuguese superstar.  

PUMA played on this theme, using TikTok’s capacity to create trends to challenge users to show off their best skills and use the hashtag #FlashofFuture to participate. They also created a branded effect of the ‘Flash Pack’ boot that allowed users to stand out in feeds, displaying the ‘Future Flash’ electric blue to show they were stepping up to the challenge. The result was resounding: the videos created with the hashtag gathered a total of 154 million views.  

Are there any other Tik Tok ad types or enhancements?

There are a few and to be honest TikTok is constantly innovating and testing and bringing new ad formats to the platform. They occasionally test new formats in specific territories before rolling out to the wider platfom so you may have access to some things that businesses in other countries don’t. The ad formats that we find perform the best currently are Interactive ad-ons and Spark Ads. The latter aren’t so new but to get the best from them you need to understand creator and content marketing.

What are Interactive Add-Ons, and how do they work?

A key component of TikTok advertising is the ability to like, share and comment on ads. Interactive Add-Ons were launched in April 2022 with the aim of shifting further into this interactive approach. They provide a range of engagement features that allow users to take action in an ad, inviting them into the experience. 

On the Ad Manager page, there is an optional button titled “Interactive Add-Ons”. Once enabled, a company can choose to add Voting, Gift Code or Countdown Stickers to their content, there is also a premium level that allows you to create product showcases encouraging viewers to swipe or click on the ads and boosting brand recall. They’re a clever tool, offering a plethora of customisable ways to breathe life into simple in-feed video advertising. 

All interactions can be reported on and TikTok allows you the flexibility to optimise in real-time those elements of the ads that are best resonating with your audience.

How do Spark Ads work?

Spark Ads enable brands to amplify existing organic videos that fit their campaign objectives, doubling down on the Don’t Make Ads, Make TikToks ethos. These ads appear on the For You page, but rather than showing the logo of the brand/advertiser as the profile picture, they show the original profile of a content creator. The below example is an ad for The Google App, in collaboration with content creator Kyron Hamilton. This is a great example of how the best TikTok ads are often platform-native: they don’t deviate too much from the aesthetics of a usual TikTok. It’s not always necessary to feature glossy or high-budget ads, as users may not relate to the content. 

The key is to build ads that don’t feel like ads, and Spark Ads raise this potential even higher. In this example there isn’t a Google logo in sight, it’s simply Kyron’s usual comedic content, tapping into the rawness of user-generated content. The user profile picture on the right shows up as Kyron, and aside from a small “Ad” logo in the caption, it looks incredibly organic. 

How much should I spend on TikTok Ads?

The all-important question. There is, unfortunately, no simple answer to this. Some will recommend a CPM (cost per 1000 ads) of around $10 but the truth is that if you create great content and remain user focussed you can get good results for budgets as low as $3 - $5 CPM. 

Like any ad platform AdWords, Facebook or Amazon you get out what you put in and if you are lazy about your ad buying you will pay more. If however you continually measure and optimise your ad content and audience segments you will find that the results can be compelling and when you combine the power of branded content and spark ads the results can be staggering. 

So What do I do Next?

TikTok is a community-driven platform and given enough time and knowledge you can build great engagement and get impressive results. If however you need a little help or advice on how to get there or you want to learn from our own experience of the platform then please get in touch and we’d be happy to help.

If you are not ready to chat just yet then we will keep posting regular TikTok guides and news here to help you keep up to speed with this fast-moving platform.