how to advertise on tiktok

 TikTok Advertising: Leveraging Custom Audiences Effectively

TikTok: A Game-Changer in Advertising

With over 800 million active users globally and nearly 50% aged 18-24, TikTok has emerged as a highly effective platform for reaching younger, trend-savvy audiences. Often compared to Instagram and Snapchat in its early days, TikTok offers marketers the opportunity to maximize execute a winning campaign  their return on ad spend (ROAS) with lower CPMs.

As advertising costs rise on platforms like Facebook, many brands are turning to TikTok to target similar demographics more cost-effectively. The raw authenticity of TikTok content, coupled with its potential for virality, requires creative strategies that differ from traditional social media approaches.

Why Advertise on TikTok?

1. Massive Scale

TikTok boasts over 1.5 billion downloads, providing ample opportunities to reach a vast audience. For advertisers targeting 18-34-year-olds, TikTok is a must-have in their media planning. However, (Hootsuite).   targeting precision is key to avoiding wasted ad spend.

2. Organic Engagement

Unlike other platforms, TikTok allows any post to go viral regardless of follower count. This unique feature, combined with its addictive content format, ensures high engagement for quality videos.

3. Lower Competition and Costs

TikTok’s relatively new ad platform means fewer advertisers and lower CPMs. While it lacks the advanced native targeting options of Facebook or LinkedIn, it allows marketers to upload custom audience data for precise targeting and remarketing.

4. Guaranteed Viewability

All TikTok ads enjoy 100% viewability, ensuring that users see your content even if only for a few seconds. These brief but impactful views can serve as subliminal advertising.

5. User-Generated Content

Brands can leverage content created by their customers or influencers, which brings authenticity and third-party credibility. User-generated content is cost-effective and often resonates more with audiences. Even simple, behind-the-scenes videos can captivate viewers.

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Building Custom Audiences on TikTok

TikTok provides several custom audience options:

1. Website Traffic: Use TikTok Pixel to retarget visitors based on their site interactions.
2. Engagement: Segment users who interact with your TikTok account.
3. App Activity: Target users based on in-app events.
4. Customer File: Upload customer lists for precise targeting.

Best Practices for Custom Audiences

• App Campaigns: Use IDFA or GAID data to align with the operating system of your target audience. Ensure data comes from the same geographical location as your campaign.
• Website Traffic Audiences: Expect smaller audience sizes due to reduced availability of IDFAs and other identifiers. Use TikTok Pixel for better targeting.
• Customer Exclusions: Avoid advertising to existing customers by uploading exclusion lists.

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Recommendations for Advertisers

1. Continue uploading customer files with GAIDs and create Lookalike Audiences for broader reach.
2. Use App Activity Audiences cautiously as audience sizes may shrink with decreased IDFA usage.
3. Leverage Website Traffic Audiences but prepare for limited audience sizes due to reduced data availability.

By adapting strategies to TikTok’s unique ecosystem and leveraging custom audiences, advertisers can tap into its immense potential while staying ahead of rising CPMs.