How to Buy TikTok Promotion

Thinking about putting some money behind your TikTok videos to get more views, followers, or website clicks? You’re in the right place. Paying to promote your content can be a powerful way to accelerate your growth, but figuring out the best method can feel a bit overwhelming. This guide breaks down exactly how to buy TikTok promotion, from the simple in-app Promote button to the more powerful Ads Manager, so you can choose the right strategy for your goals and budget.

Understanding Your Options: The Three Main Ways to Buy Promotion

Before you spend a single dollar, it's important to know the different tools available to you. Each one serves a different purpose, and picking the right one from the start will save you time and money.

• TikTok Promote: This is the simplest option, built directly into the app. It's fantastic for beginners or for anyone who wants to quickly boost a single video without leaving the TikTok interface. Think of it as the easy button for getting more views or followers on content that's already performing well.
• TikTok Ads Manager: This is the professional-grade platform for running serious advertising campaigns. It offers far more control over targeting, formats, and objectives, like driving sales or capturing leads. If you plan to make paid advertising a core part of your marketing strategy, this is the tool you'll want to master.
• Influencer Marketing: This involves paying a TikTok creator to feature your brand, product, or sound in their content. Instead of paying TikTok directly, you're paying for access to an influencer's creativity and their established, trusting audience. It’s an indirect but often highly effective form of promotion.

We'll walk through how to use each of these, starting with the simplest method.

The Beginner-Friendly Path: A Step-by-Step Guide to TikTok Promote

The "Promote" feature is perfect when you have a video that's starting to get some organic traction and you want to pour a little fuel on the fire. It’s accessible, straightforward, and you can get a campaign running in just a few minutes.

Step 1: Choose the Right Video to Promote

You can use Promote on any of your public videos. To get started, navigate to your profile, open the video you want to boost, tap the three dots (...) on the right side of the screen, and then select the "Promote" icon (it looks like a flame).

Pro Tip: Don't promote a video with zero views. It's much more effective to boost a video that is already showing good engagement (likes, comments, shares). This signals to the algorithm that people enjoy the content, making your promotional spend go much further.

Step 2: Select Your Goal

TikTok will ask you what you want to achieve with your promotion. Your choices are typically:

• More video views: This is a great choice if your main goal is awareness. TikTok will show your video to as many people as possible who are likely to watch it.
• More website visits: If you want to drive traffic to your online store, blog, or booking page, this is the option for you. You'll be able to add a call-to-action (CTA) button like "Learn More" or "Shop Now" to your video.
• More followers: This goal optimizes your campaign to reach users who are most likely to follow your account after seeing your video. It adds a "Follow" button to your promoted video.

Step 3: Define Your Audience

Next, you’ll decide who sees your video. You have two main options here:

• Automatic: You can let TikTok's algorithm decide who to show your video to. It will try to find users similar to your current followers. This is a good hands-off option if you're just starting.
• Custom: This choice gives you more control. You can build your own audience by selecting specific genders, age ranges, and interests. For example, if you run a local bakery, you could target people aged 25-45 who are interested in "Food & Beverage" and "DIY & Crafts."

Step 4: Set Your Budget and Duration

Now it’s time to decide how much you want to spend and for how long. You'll set a total budget for the campaign and choose the number of days you want it to run. TikTok will then divide your total budget by the number of days to get a daily spend.

For example, if you set a budget of $50 over 5 days, TikTok will aim to spend about $10 per day. As you adjust the budget and duration, the platform will give you an estimated number of video views you can expect. This helps you understand the potential reach of your investment.

Step 5: Review and Start Your Promotion

Finally, you’ll see a summary screen showing your selected video, goal, audience, budget, and payment information. Give everything a quick once-over, and if it all looks good, hit "Start promotion." Your video will be submitted for a quick review, and once approved, it will start being shown to a wider audience.

The Professional Approach: How to Get Started with TikTok Ads Manager

When you're ready to move beyond simple boosts and run more strategic campaigns, TikTok Ads Manager is your best friend. It offers a suite of tools that gives you precise control over every aspect of your advertising, from creative formats to granular audience targeting.

When to Use Ads Manager Instead of Promote

Switch to Ads Manager when you need to:

• Achieve specific business goals, like website conversions or lead generation.
• Access advanced targeting options, such as creating audiences from your website visitors (retargeting) or finding people similar to your best customers (lookalike audiences).
• Run different types of ad formats beyond standard in-feed videos.
• A/B test different ad creatives, audiences, or CTAs to find what works best.
• Get detailed analytics and reporting to fully understand your return on investment.

A Quick Workflow Overview

While a full Ads Manager tutorial could be its own series, here’s a simplified breakdown of the process to get you oriented.

1. Choose Your Campaign Objective

The first step in creating a campaign is choosing an objective that aligns with your business goals. These are broken into three stages of the marketing funnel:

• Awareness: The goal here is simply Reach - to show your ad to the maximum number of people.
• Consideration: These objectives encourage people to engage with your brand. Options include Traffic (to your website), Video Views, Lead Generation (collecting emails), and Community Interaction (getting more followers or profile visits).
• Conversion: These are focused on driving specific actions. This is where you’ll find objectives for App Promotions and Website Conversions (like a purchase or a sign-up). Choosing the right objective is critical, as TikTok’s algorithm will optimize your campaign to find users most likely to perform that specific action.

2. Define Your Ad Group and Audience

Here’s where the power of Ads Manager really shines. Your “Ad Group” is where you define who you want to see your ads, where they’ll see them, and your budget.

In addition to basic demographics like age, location, and gender, you can create incredibly specific audiences based on:

• Interests: Target people based on their long-term interests shown by their engagement, like "Skincare," "Indie Games," or "Financial Services."
• Behaviors: Target people based on their recent actions on TikTok, such as users who have watched videos to the end, liked, commented, or shared videos within specific categories (e.g., "Food").
• Creator Interactions: Target users who have followed or viewed profiles of creators in certain categories.
• Custom Audiences: You can upload your own customer lists (like an email list) or create audiences from people who have visited your website or engaged with your past ads. This is perfect for retargeting campaigns.

3. Create Your Ad Content

The golden rule for TikTok ads is: don't make ads, make TikToks. The best-performing ads blend in seamlessly with the For You Page. They feel native, authentic, and fun, not like a polished corporate commercial. Use trending sounds, on-screen text, and styles that feel genuine to the platform.

4. Set a Budget and Bid

Similar to the Promote feature, you can set a daily or a lifetime budget. You can also get into different bidding strategies that tell TikTok how much you're willing to pay for a particular result (like a click or a conversion). For beginners, it's often best to start with the lowest-cost bidding option and let TikTok manage it for you.

Beyond Official Tools: Using Influencer Marketing for Promotion

Sometimes the best way to promote on TikTok isn't through an ad, but through a recommendation from a trusted creator. Influencer marketing taps into the power of authenticity and social proof.

Here’s a quick overview:

• Find the Right Creators: Look for influencers whose content and audience align perfectly with your brand. Don't just look at follower count, focus on engagement rate (likes and comments relative to followers) and the quality of their community. Often, micro-influencers (10k-100k followers) can deliver amazing results with highly engaged, niche audiences.
• Reach Out and Collaborate: Many creators list a business email in their bio for partnership inquiries. You can also use TikTok's official Creator Marketplace to find and connect with vetted influencers. Be clear about your proposal, whether it's paying a flat fee for a video, sending free product in exchange for a review, or setting up an affiliate partnership.
• Give Creative Freedom and Follow the Rules: The magic of influencer marketing happens when you let the creator do what they do best - make great content for their audience. Provide guidelines and key messages, but don't script every word. Also, always make sure the creator clearly discloses that the content is sponsored (e.g., using #ad or #sponsored) to comply with advertising regulations.

Final Thoughts

Buying promotion on TikTok offers a trio of powerful pathways to grow your brand. You can start small and simple with the in-app Promote feature, graduate to strategic campaigns in the Ads Manager, or leverage the authenticity of creators through influencer marketing. The best approach is often a mix, where you use paid ads to amplify organic content and influencer collaborations that are already performing well.

Once your paid promotions begin bringing in new viewers and followers, managing a steady stream of engaging organic content becomes your top priority. This is where planning ahead is essential. At Postbase, we built our visual calendar to give you a clear, bird's-eye view of your entire content strategy across all platforms, including TikTok. By seeing your scheduled organic and paid posts in one place, you can plan cohesive campaigns, spot gaps in your schedule, and ensure you're consistently showing up for your growing audience without the chaos. Postbase helps you stay organized so you can focus on creating content your new followers will love.