3 mistakes to avoid when launching a TikTok Ads campaign

In 2019, TikTok decides to open its advertising platform: it is the launch of TikTok Ads in France. To seduce brands that want to be known on the application, TikTok offers two categories of ads.

The first is in the form of self-service auctions like on Facebook Ads. This is the In-Feed format: that is, a video integrated into the users' "For You" feed. Like other TikTokeurs, you have up to 60 seconds of video to present your brand or your products.

The second category works on the principle of reservation. You will have to contact the platform's teams to set up your advertisement. These are expensive advertising formats (often several hundred thousand euros), such as :

• The Hashtag Challenge: the brand invites users to take up a challenge in order to create virality and quickly gain notoriety.
• The Brand Take Over: a video of a few seconds when the application is opened.
• The Top View: a rather long opening video that accompanies the user to their "For You" feed and that they can only skip after 5 seconds.
• Sponsored effects: the brand will create a filter and special effects that users can then use in their content.

The choice of your ad format depends on your campaign objectives. You can thus seek to gain notoriety, generate traffic and leads, convert new customers, etc. It is possible to create your TikTok Ads account by visiting the website, or by contacting the platform teams to launch your first campaigns.

The most common errors on TikTok Ads

Before starting, it can be interesting to know what not to do when creating your first TikTok Ads campaign. In order to avoid committing them, we are going back over the 3 most common mistakes made by brands on the application. 

Mistake 1: Not using native creative videos in TikTok

As TikTok says, don't make ads, make TikTok (don't make ads, make TikTok).

Asa matter of fact, the TikTok format is quite standardized (filmed with a smartphone, vertically, short duration, trendy music, native effects and texts...) and the competition is tough between TikTok content creators. Making content that does not fit into these codes, it is risky to generate no engagement. So we relegate to oblivion the studio productions, brand logos on the application, in short everything that does not breathe authenticity and spontaneity.

TikTok content is often entertaining or educational. Your promotional video must therefore be creative and captivating, otherwise users will swipe without hesitation.

Also keep in mind that the lower the quality of the videos, the higher the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) of TikTok will be. In these cases, it's a double whammy: you'll have both low engagement and a skyrocketing CPM.

The best solution to avoid this situation is to collaborate with creators. They are indeed the best ones to produce native TikTok content.

Indeed, not only do these content creators know the application by heart, but they have federated a community that will be potentially interested in your products or services.

Mistake 2: Aiming for too narrow an audience

When social media advertising was first launched, the algorithms were not as sophisticated as they are today, which meant that brands had to target a very specific audience. Now, algorithms are becoming more and more powerful. Therefore, it is better to target a large audience and let your campaigns optimise themselves thanks to the information that comes back via the TikTok pixel.

Not to mention that the more targeted your audience is, the more the price of your advertising will increase. Our advice: choose a large target and let the algorithm do its job to find users interested in your business.

Moreover, it is not always easy to manually target the right audience. You will have to take into account behavioral criteria (users' behavior on TikTok) or interest criteria (type of videos watched on TikTok, etc.). However, this information is not always easy to collect on your target audience or it requires a certain experience of advertising on the platform.

Error 3: Not installing the TikTok pixel

The TikTok pixel is a tool to measure the impact of TikTok ads on your website. This smart code allows you to monitor sales, track user activity and find the right audience for your ads.

So, when a user accesses your site via TikTok, the pixel will be activated to measure his behavior and conversions. Not installing the pixel means thatyour TikTok campaigns will not beoptimized to reach their marketing objectives (conversion, traffic increase...).

There are two types of pixels.

First of all, the standard pixel that tracks in "single session last click". This means that it will only track the actions performed by the user immediately after they click on the ad.

And the "developer mode" pixel, which will track the user's actions for 7 days after clicking on the ad. This pixel provides 30% more data than the standard pixel. This means that your campaigns will be even more optimized and therefore even more effective and profitable.

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An example of a well optimised TikTok Ads campaign

In 2021, Sleeq carried out, among other things, an influence booster campaign in ads, for the Bourjois brand.

For this campaign, we called upon 3 content creators who were in charge of the creations native to the platform. As experts in the social network, they produced content with an entertaining format that brought value to their audience while highlighting the brand's product.

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Then we just had to sponsor the videos, avoiding all the mistakes mentioned above, for the campaign to explode.

Result: sales multiplied by 3, during the entire campaign. And as a bonus, the campaign brought traffic to the store. Indeed, several salesmen reported that customers were looking for the product they had seen on TikTok.

‍Aquestion, want to collaborate with us to make your brand take off on TikTok? Contact us, we will be happy to collaborate with you.