How to run TikTok ads

How to run TikTok ads

1. 1

   Define the conversion that would justify the spend

   Decide what a useful response looks like before you open Ads Manager: a purchase, an install that reaches a meaningful first action, a subscription, an enrolment. Write down what makes that response valuable to you, including what it is worth and what it costs you to fulfil. A cheap click and a profitable customer are different outcomes, and TikTok's optimisation can only work toward the event you actually define.

2. 2

   Check tracking before you launch

   Confirm the full path works: the landing page loads on mobile, the purchase or signup completes, and the conversion event is recorded and attributed. If you use the TikTok Pixel, the Events API or an app SDK, verify events are arriving and deduplicated, and follow the consent requirements that apply to you. Walk the path yourself on a phone. Do not raise spend to compensate for tracking you have not verified.

3. 3

   Choose the campaign settings and audience

   In TikTok Ads Manager, select the objective and optimisation event that match the conversion you defined, and check the placements, geography and audience controls available in your account. Confirm your product category is eligible and that your creative and landing page meet TikTok's advertising policies before you build the campaign around them. Broad interest targeting is not the same as reaching people who will buy; treat any audience assumption as untested until your own data says otherwise.

4. 4

   Set a spending limit and your review criteria

   Choose an amount you can afford to spend without learning anything, and set the limit in the account so it is enforced rather than remembered. Then write down, before launch, what result would justify continuing, what would justify changing the creative, and what would justify stopping. Record the offer, the conversion event and the review window so the numbers stay interpretable later. No single daily budget or cost-per-result figure applies to every product.

5. 5

   Prepare creative for a vertical, sound-on feed

   Write for full-screen vertical video where audio is part of the message. Give each concept one clear idea, show the product early and legibly, and make the on-screen text readable at phone size and clear of the interface elements that overlay the edges. Captions help viewers watching muted. Check that every claim is supported and that the landing page repeats the same promise. Native-feeling, straightforward footage is a reasonable starting point; polished brand film is not automatically the right register here. Preview each placement you have selected rather than assuming one crop works everywhere.

6. 6

   Publish, then review what happened

   Before publishing, check the destination URL, the tracking, the spending limit and every creative in the ad group. After launch, leave the settings alone long enough to produce a readable result, then review conversions and their quality against the criteria you wrote down — not against a benchmark from someone else's account. Change one thing at a time: the offer, the audience or the creative. If the campaign is not working, a weak angle is a more common cause than a settings mistake.