TikTok Advertising 
Every TikTok media buyer has this one fear: your ads not delivering the results you (or your boss) wanted. If you’ve ever felt the dread of watching your ad spend go up while your results stay flat, you’re not alone. We’re here to help. In this blog, you’ll know six actionable strategies on how to optimize your TikTok ads right away.
Use the right targeting strategy
Every great TikTok ad begins with good targeting. Nail this from the start, and the other tactics will follow through:
Start with broad targeting
When in doubt, go broad for a start. Let TikTok Ads Manager use its intelligent system to find the best targets for your ads.
First, select just a few crucial Demographic targeting criteria (location, age, gender). Consider adding older demographics as there are 56,3% of users over 25 to over 55 years old on the platform.
To ensure broad reach, include at least 10 interest & behavior categories in your targeting. For example, Shopify merchants selling phone cases should select several categories related to Tech & Electronics, or segment by specific phone models like iPhone 15.
Also, look at TikTok’s Recommended Interests & Behaviors categories and apply them accordingly for better targeting.
You can use TikTok’s Smart targeting (Smart audience and Smart Interest & behavior) to use your precise targeting and then enhance performance by broadening the targeting for improved results.
Run broad targeting a few times and you can learn from TikTok’s algorithm who is engaging and purchasing from your campaign. This will give you insights into the demographics that actually click and convert for your stores.
Create custom and lookalike audiences
Upload your customer list to create a custom audience or use lookalike audiences to find users similar to your existing customers. Go to Tools > Audience Manager > Create Audience > Lookalike Audience.
For best results, ensure your source audience has at least 10,000 people and provide precise information.
Pay attention to ad groups
- Always include more than one ad group within a campaign to give the algorithm ample opportunity to optimize.
- If an ad group is underperforming, review the age breakdown and exclude the age groups that are not performing well.
- Consider creating a separate ad group for your best-performing interest/behavior tags and allocate a higher budget to this ad group.
- For easier optimization, Consider TikTok’s campaign budget optimization (CBO) to automatically optimize toward the best-performing ad group.
Craft engaging ads creatives
Once you’ve selected your audience, focus on crafting a creative they will love. TikTok thrives on creativity and authenticity, so your ads must be engaging and visually captivating.
Here are our top-pick tips to make your ad creatives unskippable for any TikTok user.
Make your ads stand out, not blend in
People consume social media completely zoned out so you need something striking to wake them up.
- Use quick cuts every two seconds, switch angles frequently, and incorporate diverse shots.
- Introduce attention-grabbing sound effects or brief B-rolls every 10-12 seconds.
- Invest in good camera equipment and shoot in at least 720p to 1080p and with cinematic mode.
- Try advanced techniques like depth of field and different lighting setups.
- Enhance your videos with vivid text, voiceovers, and visual effects.
However, avoid falling into the mindset of making your ad look and feel like an obvious ad. Aim for a high-quality video that makes people want to take action.
Use the 3T storytelling technique
To make your audience interested, storytelling is a must. There’s a simple 3-step formula for storytelling that will surely hook the audience. We call it the 3T technique.
Tease a secret > Tell a story > Turning point – your products.
Tease: Hook with a question like “Did you know there’s a secret way to get [desired results] in X amount of time?
Tell a story: Follow up with a mini-story that empathizes with your audience’s pain points
Turning point: Introduce your product as the solution.
If you want some references, check out our TikTok video ideas for business guide.
Avoid repetitive or similar creatives
Update your ads at least every 7 days to keep them fresh. Aim to create at least five different creatives per ad group to prevent ad fatigue.
If you have 10 or more creatives, use TikTok’s Automated Creative Optimization to test various combinations and find what works best.
Other tips on how to optimize your TikTok ads
- Remember to focus on CTA in-text, rather than in caption to boost conversions.
- Feature affordable products under $40 to encourage impulsive buys.
- Position key elements like your product or logo in the center of the screen to avoid being covered by buttons.
- Experiment with trending sounds, songs, and transitions.
- Use popular, relevant hashtags to boost visibility, but avoid overloading with unrelated tags.
Set up TikTok events tracking
Data is king. But it’s only helpful when it’s accurately corrected.
Optimize your TikTok ads by testing various conversion events. Begin with lower-level events, such as page views and add-to-cart, to gather data quickly. Higher-level events like checkout or purchase may take longer and provide less initial data.
Once your pixel has collected sufficient information, you can shift your focus to optimizing for purchases and checkouts.
To ensure everything is set up correctly, use the TikTok Pixel Helper to verify pixel installation and check for any website issues or implementation recommendations.
Optimize your bidding and budget
Effective bidding and budget management are crucial for e-commerce merchants to optimize TikTok ad performance and achieve higher ROAS, CPC, and CPA.
Here’s a walkthrough on optimizing your TikTok budgeting settings to over level 9000!
Identify the optimal budget
Choosing the right amount to spend should be first on everyone’s list. To determine your ad group’s daily budget, use the formula:
Lock in a suitable budget
To effectively optimize your TikTok ads, ensure you allocate enough budget to pass the learning phase and allow the system to optimize.
Start with a budget of 1.2 to 1.5 times your typical cost per acquisition (CPA) and adhere to TikTok’s suggested minimum bid to remain competitive.
If your daily CPA is consistently below your bid, consider increasing your budget to avoid underspending.
Try several bidding strategies
Test different bidding strategies by making changes within 20% of your current bid to avoid drastic fluctuations
After adjusting your budget, keep your ad group’s elements—such as creative and targeting—unchanged for at least 2 days.
Avoid testing during holidays to ensure accurate results.
Other tips on how to optimize your TikTok ads
- For App Install campaigns, use TikTok’s App Event Optimization (AEO) and set your bid to match your desired CPA.
- Remember, selecting the Accelerated delivery type speeds up your budget spend but does not affect the total budget consumption.
Do split test (A/B test) to optimize TikTok ads
We’re almost there. Lastly, Tik Tok’s A/B tests can help merchants determine which optimization strategies churn out the best ROAS for their TikTok ads.
Establish a clear hypothesis and test framework, then keep all variables constant except for the one you’re testing. Run the tests for at least two weeks to get reliable results.
Once you identify a winning ad group with a confidence level of 90% or higher, you can confidently use this result to optimize future campaigns.
Use an analytic tool for better optimization on TikTok
After all of your optimization efforts, it’s important to measure results and identify the touchpoints that could be further optimized for later TikTok campaigns.
Use TikTok Analytics to track key indicators like ROAS, CTR, and CPC to measure which ad creatives are racking in customers. Repurpose best-performing creatives for future campaigns and optimize poor-performance ad groups.
TikTok Business account offers advertisers a basic option to optimize ads, but to take your TikTok optimization game to the next level, try NestAds with its Creative Analysis feature. You can see an overview of every ad’s revenue, conversions, ROAS and gain valuable insights into effective creative tactics.
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