A guide to PPC TikTok advertising

TikTok isn’t just a place for dance trends and viral challenges anymore; it’s become a serious player in the world of PPC advertising. Brands across the globe are taking advantage of the platform’s highly engaged audience, using TikTok’s famous feed to reach potential customers in a way that feels entertaining, organic and, most importantly, effective.

Unlike traditional PPC platforms, where ads can feel intrusive, TikTok’s ad formats blend seamlessly with the content users already love. But TikTok, like any new advertising platform, comes with its own set of challenges, strategies and best practices. 

This guide breaks down everything you need to know, from setting up your first campaign to optimising and scaling efficiently. Let’s dive in.

• Why advertise on TikTok - brief summary
• TikTok Ads Manager
• TikTok PPC Ad Formats
• Targeting and optimisation
• Best practices
• Measuring and scaling TikTok ad campaigns

Why advertise on TikTok - brief summary

The rise of TikTok as a paid advertising platform
TikTok has grown into a dominant force in digital marketing, now competing with established PPC platforms like Facebook and Google Ads.

Digital marketers can use TikTok’s advertising tools to reach engaged audiences through innovative short-form video content that makes the most of TikTok’s engaged user base, and pairs it with conventional PPC practices.

The platform’s unique algorithm prioritises discoverability, meaning even small brands can achieve high visibility with the right strategy.

TikTok vs traditional PPC
TikTok is having a huge impact on the internet and Search landscape for both users and marketers alike. The platform boasts over 900 million daily active users worldwide, with particularly high engagement among Gen Z and Millennials.

Unlike traditional PPC platforms, TikTok’s ad content blends seamlessly with organic posts, leading to higher engagement rates.

What’s more, their users spend an average of55.8 minutes per day on the platform, making it ideal for your next marketing campaign if you’re looking to get a fresh audience’s perspective on your brand.

TikTok Ads Manager

Overview of TikTok’s PPC ad platform
TikTok Ads Manager is the self-serve platform that allows businesses to create, manage, and optimise their ad campaigns.

It provides advanced targeting options, bidding strategies, and performance tracking tools.

Campaign structure: campaigns, ad groups and ads
The platform’s PPC elements are structured in a very similar way to Google’s PPC platform, meaning you can optimise your ads with a conventional approach.

• Campaign level: Define objectives such as traffic, conversions, or app installs.

• Ad group level: Set audience targeting, budget, placements, and bid strategies.

• Ad level: Upload creatives, add copy, and define call-to-actions.

Budgeting and bid strategies
There are a few key options for setting your bidding strategy to benefit your next campaign.

• Daily vs lifetime budgets: Choose between setting a daily spend limit or a total budget for the campaign duration.

• Bidding strategies: Options include Cost Cap (CPC-based), Lowest Cost (automatic bidding), and Bid Cap (manual control).

TikTok PPC Ad Formats 

So what are the different ads available on TikTok, and how can you use them to your advantage? Here’s everything you need to know.

In-Feed Ads

These appear in the For You feed, and are best for engagement and conversions. You’ve also got the Top Feed Ad format that places your ads at the very top of a user’s feed, which is ideal for key branding moments in your overall strategy.

TopView Ads

Full-screen ads that appear when users open the app. We find these are great for brand awareness, as they’re the first video that users see. As TikTok state, “TikTok users are 1.5x more likely to recall a brand from TopView than other ad types.”

Spark Ads

These are ads that promote organic posts to reach a wider audience while keeping a native feel. It’s a great opportunity to boost your brand’s profile through adding organic TikTok pages and posts that are already doing well.

Branded Mission Challenges

These encourage user-generated content, ideal for boosting brand interaction. You create a call for creators on TikTok to join your brand in creating UGC. Then it is up to the individual creators to join you on your mission, boosting your brand in the process.

Branded Effects

Custom filters and stickers can be aligned to your brand, allowing users to engage with your brand in a fun and memorable way.

Targeting and optimisation

Once you’ve set up your new campaigns, it’s vital that your ads reach the right audience at the right time. Here are the targeting options and bidding features found in TikTok ads.

Interest and behaviour-based targeting
TikTok has a lot of data on its user’s preferences, which you can use to target users based on their past interactions, interests, and behaviours on the app.

Select relevant categories such as fashion, gaming, or beauty to refine your audience reach and really dig into your niche.

Lookalike audiences and retargeting

• Lookalike Audiences: Target users similar to your existing customers for higher conversion potential. It’s a great way to explore new subsections of your audience base.

• Retargeting: Show ads to users who have engaged with your brand before, such as website visitors or past customers. This is a useful element of PPC carried over from Google and numerous other digital marketing platforms.

Bidding in TikTok ads
You can bid using 4 different strategies:

CPM (Cost per thousand impressions)

You pick the price you’re happy to pay for every one thousand impressions for your campaign.

oCPM (optimised Cost per thousand impressions)

The default bidding method in TikTok, this selects an audience for you based on the demographics you believe are going to be the most useful to your brand. It selects who is most likely to engage with your ad, then you set the price for every one thousand impressions.

CPV (Cost per view)

Views are vital in TikTok, so why pay for less useful interactions? This strategy allows you to pay only when a user watches your video for at least 6 seconds, or they interact with your ad. Whichever comes first.

CPC (Cost per click)

This is a classic, one that drives engagement with your ad, where TikTok’s algorithm serves up your ad to audiences they feel are most likely to click. All you have to do is set the price.

Best practices

Forget information overload. Here are a few quick tips to instantly elevate your campaigns.

Engaging, high-converting ad creatives

• Keep videos short, dynamic, and visually engaging.

• Use strong hooks in the first 3 seconds to capture attention.

• Add subtitles and captions for accessibility and higher retention.

TikTok trends and content style

• Make your ads entertaining! The most important thing you can do with any content on TikTok is create something that is fun, entertaining and memorable.

• Use trending sounds, effects, and challenges to increase engagement.

• Avoid overly polished content. TikTok users prefer authentic, raw videos.

Testing

• Run A/B tests on different creatives, copy, and call-to-actions to see what works best.

• Test different audience segments to refine targeting.

Measuring and scaling TikTok ad campaigns

As with any digital marketing campaign, your ads are only as good as the results they bring in for your brand. Here’s what to check in on to keep your analysis streamlined.

Key metrics

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures how many users click on your ad.

• Cost Per Mille (CPM): The cost for 1,000 impressions.

• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): The cost of acquiring a customer.

• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Revenue generated per pound spent on ads.

Analysing campaign data
Monitor engagement rates and conversion data to assess how each ad is performing. With the data you’ve gathered, identify high-performing ad variations and audience segments..

Then you can take the best performing copy and optimise your underperforming campaigns to reflect what your audience is already engaging with. Finally, take the best performing audience segments and craft bespoke campaigns exclusively with them in mind.

How to scale successful campaigns without audience fatigue
Ad fatigue is real, especially on a platform like TikTok. So be mindful of this, and introduce creative variations to keep your content fresh.

Rotate your ad placements and explore new audience segments so that you don’t accidentally over-advertise to your key demographics. Being memorable for the right reasons is a surefire way to stay front of mind.

Over-targeting vs broad reach; finding balance
Avoid overly narrow audience settings, as these can limit the reach of your campaigns, and increase costs along the way.

Balance your more precise targeting with broader audiences to maximise campaign efficiency. This way you’re casting a wider net, whilst still remaining relevant.

In Summary

TikTok’s PPC advertising is fast, dynamic, and full of potential, but only if you know how to work with the platform, not against it. The key to engaged viewers and strong ROI lies in understanding the details of TikTok Ads. The ad formats, the targeting options, and just how powerful investing in a strong creative team can be for such a visual platform.

Trends move at lightning speed. So once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll have to stay flexible in the ever-changing landscape of viral paid social advertising. Our opinion? TIkTok is one of the best platforms to engage with new audiences in a way that is totally fresh, modern and memorable.

Back to insights