In recent years, TikTok has transformed from a social media platform used by Gen Z to create short-form video content into a robust platform for business growth and customer acquisition. With more than 1 billion monthly active users and 3 billion app installs worldwide, TikTok ads present a big opportunity for your business.

While ads are often marked with a “Sponsored” tag, it’s very unlikely to get noticed if your video feels, looks, and sounds like an organic TikTok video. 

The real challenge when it comes to TikTok: capturing attention. It takes users just one swipe to move on from your TikTok ad the moment they lose interest. 

Creating relevant content means a higher ROI. This is true for most marketing campaigns, but it’s especially important for TikTok marketing.

In this article, we’ll cover what you need to know before you create your first TikTok ad campaign, the types of ads you can create on TikTok, and a few tips on how you can find your target audience on TikTok.

What Is TikTok Advertising?

TikTok advertising is exactly what it sounds like: brands advertising on TikTok! However, there are two main types of TikTok advertising strategies:

1. Brands pay creators to share sponsored content. Since this is a type of influencer marketing, it often comes across as more organic.
2. Brands run the advertisements themselves. This strategy allows brands to control their advertisements in-house and is available for brands that either don’t have the budget to pay creators or simply want more creative control of their campaigns.

For this blog post, we’ll mainly focus on the types of TikTok ads your brand can create in-house.

What Types of Ads Can You Make on TikTok?

To access ad formats, you need to have a TikTok for Business account. Note that these accounts are only available in certain countries and may only be accessible for partnering brands. Make sure you understand what’s available to you before you begin. 

Each type of TikTok ad presents unique opportunities for your business to reach and engage with potential clients.

• In-Feed Ads: These are sponsored TikTok videos that play in between user content on the “For You” page. It acts just like an organic TikTok video. You can create up to 60 seconds of content, and people can share and like your content which drives engagement. You can add a call to action below the title to guide users through the next steps.

• Spark Ads: Unlike other types of ads in this list, you can create Spark ads from your personal account. It acts like In-Feed ads, without the availability of a CTA and other business-focused features. Unlike in-feed ads, your video stays up even after you stop paying to promote your videos.

• TopView Ads: This appears as a video ad that appears instantly when a user opens the app on their “For You” page. Since it plays as soon as the TikTok app opens, this ad type offers massive visibility.

• Brand Takeover Ads: These are full-screen ad creatives that appear when a user opens TikTok. It appears as a 3-second image or a 5-second video, and they’re highly effective for immediate and broad reach. It’s more expensive, but each user can only see one brand takeover a day so there will be less competition if you use this ad placement.

• Branded Hashtag Challenge: This type of ad uses TikTok’s community to drive your brand’s reach. It invites people to create challenge videos, a longstanding trend on TikTok, and serves as organic content for your brand.

• Branded Effect: Just like the branded hashtag challenge, this type of ad allows brands to expand their reach by encouraging user-generated content. You can create unique filters and special effects for your brand and encourage users to use these filters to improve your brand awareness. Branded effects are better used in influencer marketing campaigns, as there needs to be someone to set the trend.

4 Ways to Discover Your Target Audience on TikTok

To leverage TikTok advertising effectively, you need to know who your target audience is on the platform. Here are four strategies to help you understand and connect with your ideal clients on TikTok.

Monitor TikTok Analytics

TikTok ad manager has a robust analytics dashboard.

As you create and share content, it’s crucial to keep a close eye on the metrics on your TikTok ad account. This data will reveal who typically views and interacts with your content.

The native analytics in your business account provide a demographic breakdown of your audience, which is a fundamental component in shaping your content strategy. When you know who your viewers are, you can craft content that genuinely speaks to their interests, needs, and behaviors.

Make sure that you’re also keeping an eye on your campaign objectives, and find metrics that can inform you of your success rate. With success measurements in mind, you can optimize future ad groups accordingly. Doing controlled tests with set KPIs, a daily budget, and an experimental mindset can help you iterate your marketing plan as you go.

You can also analyze which type of content your ideal audience engages the most with and create more of it. For example, if they’re interested in more educational content, you can create content that satisfies their curiosity or collaborate with TikTok influencers they might follow. If they like seeing behind-the-scenes videos, you can create videos that show how your small business makes products or unique customer stories that you have experienced—as long as you’re protecting their privacy, of course.

Connect With Your Audience 

Building a connection is not a one-way street. Active engagement is important to foster the interest you’ve sparked with your initial video. People love seeing brands interact with other creators or other brands.

Replying to comments, whether that’s in your video or someone else’s, makes your brand more ‌human, creates a sense of community, and builds trust.

On top of just building credibility, connecting with your audience also act as market research for your digital marketing team. It gives you a clear picture of your audience’s interests and needs, giving you insights to refine your marketing strategy.

Your audience is much more likely to engage with a brand they trust and feel connected to. This is why active, authentic, and consistent engagement is so crucial in building a strong TikTok presence.

Create a Posting Schedule

Consistency is key in social media marketing. It keeps your brand top-of-mind and provides more opportunities to identify who is most interested in your content. The more regularly you post, the easier it will be to track and understand your audience. 

Additionally, posting when your target audience is online can significantly enhance your content visibility. Experiment with various posting times to identify when your posts receive the most engagement. Posting when your target audience is most active on TikTok can significantly boost your content’s visibility and engagement. 

The more content you post, the more data points you generate, allowing you to assess and determine who is truly interested in your content. This regularity not only maintains your brand’s presence in your audience’s mind but also presents more opportunities to analyze their behavior, interests, and engagement trends.

Don’t Forget About Hashtags

Hashtags are a big part of TikTok, and there are two ways you can use them.

The first is that you can use hashtags to find out what’s trending at the moment. Keeping tabs on trending hashtags using the search bar can give you insights into what your audience is interested in. This can provide valuable insights into the themes and content that are resonating with users‌. 

You can also use the search bar to delve deeper into specific topics related to your brand or industry. Look for trending content under relevant hashtags to understand the types of conversations and content formats that are engaging your potential audience.

Remember: It’s not just about being seen. It’s about being seen by the right people: The ones who are truly interested in what your business has to offer.

The second way is to join the trend. Incorporating these trending and relevant hashtags into your posts can help increase your content’s reach and visibility, putting your brand in front of the right eyes. Participating in these trends can make your content more TikTok-friendly, as your ads are in a format your audience is familiar with.

Gain Insights on Your TikTok Audience With Deep Sync

TikTok’s popularity has transformed it into a powerful platform for business growth and customer acquisition, offering various ad types for different needs. These include: 

• In-Feed Ads
• Spark Ads
• TopView Ads
• Brand Takeover Ads
• Branded Hashtag Challenges
• Branded Effects

However, effective advertising on TikTok involves more than just creating ads—understanding your target audience is key.

Deep Sync gives access to high-quality datasets that maximize the ROI of your ad campaigns. Find your perfect audience segment for free on the Deep Sync One platform, and deliver it straight to your TikTok ad account.