TikTok is a popular short-form video app with over 1 billion monthly active users that has become a key platform for social media marketing. TikTok launched its advertising platform, TikTok Ads, in 2019, allowing businesses to promote their products and services to TikTok’s large and engaged user base.
TikTok’s ad platform provides a variety of ad formats, including in-feed video ads, TopView ads, Brand Takeovers, Hashtag Challenges, and more. Advertisers can target audiences by age, gender, interests, location and other demographics. TikTok also provides robust ad management, reporting and analytics tools within its self-serve TikTok Ads Manager.
With billions of video views daily and a huge range of targeting options, TikTok ads offer significant potential to drive brand awareness, engage Gen Z audiences, and generate conversions for businesses, brands and marketers. TikTok advertising can be an effective way to promote products, services, apps, websites and more to the platform’s highly engaged user base.
This guide will provide an overview of the top TikTok ad makers that can help businesses create, optimize and manage high-performing TikTok ad campaigns.
Most Popular TikTok Ad Makers
Based on market share and popularity, the top TikTok ad platforms include:
Meta Ads Manager
As TikTok’s exclusive third-party ad partner, Meta Ads Manager provides the most seamless ads creation experience. It offers robust targeting, budgeting, and performance analysis tools. Meta Ads Manager is directly integrated with TikTok’s ad API.
TikTok Ads Manager
TikTok’s owned and operated ad platform that allows you to create native video and image ads directly within the TikTok app. It provides intuitive creation tools and easy management of active ad campaigns. Useful for those wanting an ad experience fully native to TikTok.
Hootsuite Ads
Social media management platform Hootsuite allows you to create and manage TikTok ads as part of its integrated ad suite. It provides options to extend your organic TikTok presence into paid ads without leaving Hootsuite.
Other popular platforms include PromoRepublic, Firework, and Videoly, however the top three make up the majority of the market currently. Each provides unique benefits, but Meta Ads Manager leads in reach, targeting, and analytics.
Key Features of Top TikTok Ad Makers
TikTok’s ad offerings allow for a range of creative ad formats to engage users, including in-feed videos, branded lenses and filters, branded hashtags, and more. According to TikTok’s business site TikTok for Business | Marketing & Advertising on TikTok, key features of their ad platform include:
In-feed video ads that appear between other videos users are watching. These seamlessly fit into the experience.
Hashtag challenges that encourage user generated content and engagement around a brand’s campaign hashtag.
Branded lenses and filters that allow users to interact with branded AR effects.
Branded effects like stickers and emojis that can be added to content.
TopView ads that appear when the app is launched for added visibility.
Brand takeovers that display a branded video or image when the app is opened.
Branded AR lenses that use facial tracking to transform a user’s face.
Overall, TikTok offers robust options for creatively and authentically engaging users through different ad formats tailored to the platform experience. As a leading platform itself, TikTok brings expertise in optimizing such ads on their platform and targeting users. The ads integrate smoothly into the organic user experience while offering brands ways to showcase their personality.
Ad Creation and Management
One of the most important considerations when choosing a TikTok ad platform is how easy it is to create and optimize your ads. The best ad makers allow advertisers to quickly build engaging video creatives optimized for mobile and the TikTok platform. They also provide robust tools for managing and iterating on ad campaigns over time.
For example, AdEspresso (source) offers multi-format ad creation templates and an intuitive visual editor to assemble creatives optimized for TikTok’s vertical video style. You can easily add overlays, text, visual effects and more to make compelling videos. Their platform also allows A/B testing different creatives and ad variations to determine what resonates most with your target audience.
Other top platforms like Meta Ads Manager provide robust optimization tools as well, including flexible bidding strategies and the ability to edit placements, schedules, audiences and budgets on the fly. The key is finding a platform that makes it simple to make great looking TikTok ads, while providing advanced functionality to continually refine and improve campaign performance.
Audience Targeting Options
TikTok provides extensive options for targeting your ads to reach your ideal audience. You can target by location, demographics, interests, behaviors and more.
Some of the key targeting options include:
- Location – Target by country, region, city, even down to radius around a specific location.
- Age – Target specific age ranges.
- Gender – Target by male, female or all.
- Interests – Target based on interests like hobbies, entertainment, food and more. TikTok has an extensive interest targeting list.
- Behaviors – Target based on purchase behaviors, mobile device usage and more.
- Custom audiences – Create custom audiences to target based on your website traffic, app users, customer lists and more.
Using the right targeting combinations allows you to hone in on your ideal audience and improve ad performance. With so many options, it’s important to test different targeting approaches to optimize towards conversions or other goals.
Ad Performance and Analytics
Analytics and optimization capabilities are a major factor to consider when choosing a TikTok ad maker. The best platforms provide robust and user-friendly analytics dashboards to track campaign performance in detail. According to the TikTok Business Blog, TikTok’s built-in Attribution Analytics solution enables advertisers to track metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions, return on ad spend, and more. Key analytics features include:
- Multi-touch attribution modeling to see how ads impact the customer journey
- Cohort analysis to compare groups over time
- Demographics reporting on age, gender, location, interests, and more
- Conversion tracking across web and app
Robust analytics help optimize campaigns by identifying top-performing creatives, audiences, placements, and ad formats. According to the TikTok Ads Manager, advertisers can view performance data for campaigns, ad groups, and individual ads. Leading ad platforms also integrate with third-party analytics tools for expanded capabilities.
Budgeting and Bidding
TikTok offers different bidding types to optimize your ad spend based on your goals. The main bidding options are:
- Cost per impression (CPM) – You pay for every 1,000 impressions (views) your ad receives. Minimum budget is $50 per day.
- Cost per click (CPC) – You pay only when someone clicks your ad. Minimum budget is $10 per day.
- Cost per view (CPV) – You pay when someone views your video ad for at least 6 seconds. Minimum budget is $10 per day.
TikTok recommends a minimum daily budget of $50 to get started with their advertising platform. However, most experts suggest $100-200 per day is ideal for stable reach and conversions [1]. The more competitive your niche, the higher budget you may need to stand out.
Bidding starts at $0.01 per click or view. However, average costs range from $0.12-0.25 per click depending on your targeting, creative, and niche [2]. With CPM bidding, costs average $2-8 per 1,000 impressions.
It’s recommended to test both CPC and CPV bidding strategies to see which performs best for your ad objectives. TikTok’s algorithm will automatically optimize bids to get the most value from your daily budget.
Customer Support
The quality of customer support can vary significantly between different TikTok ad platforms. According to TikTok Ads Manager, they offer 24/7 chat, email, and phone support. Users can easily find help articles or contact an agent directly within Ads Manager. However, some advertisers have complained of slow response times.
TikTok’s direct support also provides email and chat options, along with a contact form. Direct support aims to respond within 1-2 business days. Phone support does not appear to be offered. Based on reviews, advertisers have had mixed experiences with long wait times but helpful agents.
Overall, TikTok’s customer service offers multiple contact methods but has room for improvement in response times. Directly contacting TikTok support, rather than going through a third-party platform, may provide the best results.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Based on the analysis, the top recommendations for the best TikTok ad maker are Meta Ads Manager and TikTok Ads Manager. They stand out for their robust ad creation and targeting capabilities, comprehensive analytics and reporting, and strong customer support.
Key factors that make Meta and TikTok Ads Manager the top choices include:
- Ability to create a wide variety of ad formats optimized for TikTok
- Powerful audience targeting and segmentation tools
- Real-time campaign monitoring and detailed performance analytics
- Flexible budgeting with automated bidding strategies
- Dedicated account management and customer service support
While other platforms like PromoteIQ, Firework, and Viral Nation also offer TikTok advertising services, Meta and TikTok Ads Manager lead for ad performance, data insights, and expertise with the TikTok platform. Their specialization in TikTok ads makes them the most recommended choices for both small and large advertisers.
FAQs
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about creating ads on TikTok:
How much do TikTok ads cost?
TikTok ads are auction-based, so costs vary depending on factors like targeting, engagement, and competition. On average, TikTok ad costs range from $0.04 – $0.18 per view for in-feed videos. For awareness campaigns, costs are around $10 per 1000 impressions (source).
What types of TikTok ads are there?
TikTok offers several ad formats including in-feed video ads, brand takeovers, branded lenses/filters, and TopView ads. Most advertisers focus on in-feed video ads which appear in users’ For You feeds (source).
How do I target audiences on TikTok?
You can target TikTok ads by location, device, gender, age, interests, behaviors like recently visited websites, and more. Lookalike audiences are also available based on your customer data. For brands, interest and behavioral targeting tend to work best (source).
Can I run TikTok ads without a business account?
No, you need a TikTok business account to run ads. Setting up a business account is free and easy to do in the TikTok app or web platform (source).
How do I measure my TikTok ad results?
TikTok provides robust analytics on ad performance including impressions, reach, clicks, conversions, video views, and more. You can view results in the TikTok Ads Manager or connect your account to analytics platforms like Google Analytics or AppsFlyer (source).
