How to Buy TikTok Ads

Running ads on TikTok is one of the fastest ways to get your brand in front of millions of engaged users, and it's not nearly as complicated as you might think. Unlike older platforms with clunky interfaces, TikTok’s Ads Manager is built to be straightforward. This guide will walk you through every step, from setting up your account to launching and monitoring your first campaign, giving you the practical advice you need to get started.

First Things First: Understanding the TikTok Ads Manager

The TikTok Ads Manager is your command center for all things advertising on the platform. If you've ever run ads on Facebook or Instagram, the structure will feel familiar. It’s broken down into three simple levels:

• Campaign: This is the top level where you set your main goal, or objective. Are you trying to drive traffic to your website, get more video views, or generate direct sales? You decide that here.
• Ad Group: At this level, you define your audience, placements, budget, and schedule. You can have multiple Ad Groups within a single Campaign, each one targeting a different group of people. For example, one ad group could target 18-24 year olds interested in sustainable fashion, while another targets 25-34 year olds who have visited your website.
• Ad: This is the fun part - the actual video creative, text, and call-to-action button that people will see in their feed. Each Ad Group can contain several different ads, allowing you to test which ones perform best.

Understanding this structure helps you keep your advertising efforts organized and makes it much easier to track what’s working and what isn’t.

Getting Started: How to Create Your TikTok Ads Account

Before launching a campaign, you need to set up a business account. It's a quick process that should only take a few minutes.

Step 1: Go to the TikTok for Business website.
Simply navigate to the TikTok for Business homepage and click "Create Now."

Step 2: Sign Up.
You can create an account using your email or phone number. After you enter your information and set a password, you'll need to agree to the terms and conditions.

Step 3: Provide Your Business Details.
TikTok will ask for some basic information about your company. You’ll need to input your business name, industry, region, currency, and time zone. Be sure to fill this out accurately, as the currency and time zone can’t be changed later.

Step 4: Set up Your Account Information.
Finally, you’ll be taken to the dashboard setup. Here, you'll choose a business name for your account (this is what users will see), and you have the option to add your website URL and upload a profile picture. After this, you'll need to add your payment information - a credit or debit card - to launch any ads. That's it! Your account is ready to go.

How to Launch Your First TikTok Ad Campaign (Step-by-Step)

Once your account is set up, it’s time to build your first campaign. The Ads Manager guides you through this process with a simple workflow. Just follow these steps.

Step 1: Choose Your Campaign Objective

Log in to your TikTok Ads Manager and click the big blue "Create" button. The first thing you'll be asked to do is choose an objective. This is the single most important decision you'll make, as it tells TikTok's algorithm what you want to achieve.

Your options are organized into familiar marketing funnels:

• Awareness: The goal here is Reach. Choose this if you want to show your ad to the maximum number of people within your budget, purely to build brand recognition.
• Consideration:
  • Traffic: Send users to a specific URL, like a landing page or a blog post.
  • Video Views: Optimize your ad to be shown to people most likely to watch it for at least 6 seconds.
  • App Promotion: Drive installs for your mobile app.
  • Lead Generation: Collect leads directly on TikTok with a pre-filled form, making it easy for users to give you their contact information.
  • Community Interaction: Get more likes on your TikTok profile or more likes and comments on your video.
• Conversion:
  • Website Conversions: Encourage users to take a specific action on your website, like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or adding an item to their cart. This requires you to install the TikTok Pixel on your site first.

For your first campaign, Traffic or Video Views are great starting points if you're not ready for conversions. They help you get a feel for the platform without needing a complex setup like the pixel.

Step 2: Set Up Your Campaign Details

After choosing your objective, you'll stay on the same screen to configure your campaign settings.

• Campaign Name: Name your campaign something descriptive so you can easily identify it later. A good format is [Objective] - [Product/Service] - [Date]. For example: Traffic - Summer T-Shirt Sale - June 2024.
• Campaign Budget: You can set a budget at the campaign level or later at the ad group level. If you set it here (known as Campaign Budget Optimization or CBO), TikTok will automatically distribute your spend across your ad groups to get the best results. You can choose a Daily budget or a Lifetime budget. For beginners, a Daily budget is often easier to manage. You must set a minimum of $50 per day at the campaign level.

Once you’ve named your campaign and set a budget preference, click "Continue."

Step 3: Configure Your Ad Group Settings

This is where you'll tell TikTok who you want to see your ads and how much you're willing to pay.

Placements
You can choose "Automatic Placements" to let TikTok show your ad across its entire family of apps (including Pangle and other partners) or "Select Placements" to choose only TikTok itself. Sticking with just TikTok is a safe bet for your first go-around.

Targeting
This is where the magic happens. TikTok offers powerful tools to reach your ideal customer.

• Audiences: If you've been running your business for a while, you can create a Custom Audience by uploading a list of customer emails or phone numbers, or an audience based on website traffic (if you have the pixel installed). Later, you can create a Lookalike Audience to find new users who are similar to your existing customers.
• Demographics: Set the basics like Location, Gender, Age, and Language.
• Interests &, Behaviors: This is where you can get really specific.
  • Interests: Target users based on the types of video content categories they like to watch, such as "pets," "beauty &, personal care," or "apparel &, accessories."
  • Behaviors: This is even more powerful. You can target users based on their actions within the app over the last 7 or 15 days. Are they watching videos to the end? Liking, commenting, or sharing? You can even target based on the video categories they interact with. For example, a makeup brand could target users who have watched, liked, or commented on videos in the "Beauty" category in the last week.

Start broad with your targeting first. Don't layer on too many interests and behaviors at once, or your audience size will be too small.

Device
You can target by operating system (iOS, Android), specific OS versions, connection type, or even device price. This is an advanced option you can likely ignore for now.

Budget &, Schedule
If you didn't set a budget at the campaign level, you'll set it here for your ad group. A minimum of $20 per day is required. You'll also set the start and end dates for your campaign. You can also use "Dayparting" to run ads only during specific hours of the day if you know when your audience is most active.

Bidding &, Optimization
Your optimization goal is what you want TikTok to get you for your money. It will automatically align with your campaign objective (e.g., clicks if you chose 'Traffic'). You can then set your bid strategy. Lowest Cost is the best option for beginners, as it tells TikTok to get the most results possible for your budget without you needing to set a specific bid amount.

Step 4: Create Your Ad Creative

Now you get to create the actual ad. The golden rule on this platform is: "Don't make ads. Make TikToks." Your creative should look and feel like a native, organic post on the For You Page.

• Ad Format: You'll only have one choice: a video ad.
• Upload Your Video: Select a video from your computer or use one from your TikTok profile via Spark Ads. Spark Ads allow you to use one of your own TikTok posts or collaborate with another creator to use their post as the ad creative. It's highly effective for an authentic look and feel.
• Ad Details:
  • Display Name and Text: Add your brand name and a short caption. Keep the text brief and engaging.
  • Call to Action (CTA): Choose a CTA button that matches your goal. TikTok offers dynamic CTAs, but it's often better to choose a specific one like "Shop Now," "Learn More," or "Sign Up."
  • URL: Add the link to your website, product page, or landing page.

What makes a good TikTok ad creative?

• It’s Vertical: Always use a 9:16 aspect ratio.
• It has Sound: Use trending audio or a clear voiceover. Ads without sound perform poorly on a sound-on platform.
• It's Fast-Paced: Capture attention in the first 1-3 seconds. The ideal length is between 15 and 30 seconds.
• It Feels Real: Avoid overly produced, polished corporate videos. A simple video shot on a phone often performs best.

Step 5: Monitor and Optimize Your Campaign

Your work isn't done once the ad is live. Let your campaign run for at least 3-5 days for the algorithm to gather data and stabilize. After that, look at your results and ask yourself some questions:

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): A good CTR is typically above 1%. If your CTR is low, it might mean your creative isn't engaging enough or your video is not compelling within the first 3 seconds. A hook is everything.
• Cost Per Click (CPC): How much are you paying for each click? Keep an eye on this to see if it aligns with your budget and goals.
• Cost Per Action (CPA) / Cost per Conversion: If you're running a conversion campaign, this is the most important metric. How much does it cost you to get a sale or a lead?

Don't be afraid to turn off underperforming ads. Duplicate your best-performing ad group and try testing ONE new variable - a different video, a new headline, or a slightly adjusted audience group. Constant testing and learning are what will lead to long-term success with TikTok advertising.

Final Thoughts

Buying ads on TikTok might seem intimidating at first, but it boils down to a logical process: set a goal, define your audience, create compelling content, and then analyze your results. By following the steps outlined above, you have a solid framework for launching campaigns that can genuinely connect with users and grow your business.

Of course, the foundation of every great ad campaign is great creative. Before we even think about running ads, we use Postbase to plan and schedule all our organic TikTok videos on a visual calendar. It gives us a clear view of our content strategy and helps us test out different video concepts organically. When we find an organic video that an audience genuinely loves, it's already validated a creative route worth promoting. What more can happen when you put an ad-spend behind something you already know resonates with an audience? That's how high-performing ads are born.