How To Run TikTok Ads For Dropshipping

In this article, I will show you how to run ads on the TikTok platform.

I will discuss:

• Step-by-step ad creation process on TikTok
• Tips on how to create successful ads on TikTok
• The size of TikTok and why you need to advertise here

In the end, I’m positive that you will possess the fundamental knowledge to start a TikTok business account and create an ad that will increase your sales. Ready? Let us begin!

How Big Is The TikTok Market?

TikTok has a user base of 1.1 billion people, with a demographic of people between the ages of 13 and 60. Given this data, one can say that TikTok is one of the biggest platforms for dropshippers as far as advertising goes.

Here are some more TikTok ad stats you need to know:

• The average paid media ROAS for TikTok in the US is 14%
• The measured sales efficiency for the US market based on TikTok ads is 2x
• 18.2% of TikTok users are women between the age of 18 and 24
• 18% of TikTok users are male between the age of 18 and 24
• Adults in the US spend 4.43 billion minutes per year on TikTok

These numbers are staggering. As far as usage goes, TikTok users spend around 95 minutes on the app per day, while YouTube users only spend around 78 minutes.

From these figures, we can say that advertising on TikTok is not a waste of money. It is the way you create the ad and what targets you set that will determine your success.

Reasons To Advertise In TikTok | Benefits Of Advertising On TikTok

TikTok is not the only social media platform where you can advertise. There are many, like Instagram Facebook, and Snapchat. However, TikTok is one that you must leverage for reasons we will discuss in this section.

1. TikTok Is One Of The Biggest Social Media Platforms

You want to advertise on a social media platform that has a huge coverage, not only in your country but globally. Why? Small platforms do not expose you to a wide range of audiences. TikTok, on the other hand, allows you to reach more than a billion people.

As one of the largest social media platforms, you can choose to advertise on TikTok based on:

1. Age
2. Country
3. Interest
4. Behavior
5. Purchase intent

The more targeted your ads are, the more likely you are to reach your desired audience. As such, you are not advertising randomly to people who may not even be interested in what you have to offer.

2. TikTok Offers Affordable Advertising Rates

TikTok offers a more affordable advertising rate than most other platforms. I cannot tell you the exact cost, as the advertising price varies among countries and the audiences you select. Suffice it to say that your dollar can go far and wide if you use TikTok for ads.

Based on some studies, the average CPM for a TikTok ad is $9.16. While this may sound huge, note that this is the average. The reality is that you can advertise for as low as $0.50 CPM and $0.02 per click.

3. TikTok Has Multiple Types Of Ad Formats

TikTok allows you to choose an ad format for better results. The options are:

• “In-feed Ads” – these are video ads that look like normal user content; people see this as they scroll from one content to another. Viewers can like, share, and comment on these ads the same way they do on regular content.
• “Takeover Ads” – these are ads that appear when a user launches the TikTok app. They can also appear on the “For You” page. It is up to you if you want to use a video, a GIF, or an image.
• Top View Ads – these ads do not cover the TikTok app when they appear. They only occupy the feed for three seconds. You can extend this duration to 60 seconds.

These are the most common ads, but there are others that you can try, such as hashtag ads,

Branded effects ads, collection ads, spark ads, and text ads.

4. TikTok Has A Video Ads Library That You Can Access

It is not uncommon for marketers to feel lost in terms of creativity. The good news is that TikTok has an ad library that you can visit for ideas.

Here is an example:

The highlighted stats allow you to see the performance of that ad. If you want to see more details, you can click on the SEE ANALYTICS button.

What is this used for? You can use the ad library to search for ads similar to your product. If the ad has a lot of views and click-through rates, you know that this ad works. From here, you can begin thinking about how to create a similar ad, knowing that it resonates with your audience.

How To Run TikTok Ad Campaigns For Dropshipping Step by Step

Before you can run a TikTok ad, you must have a business tiktok account. A business account is different from a user account. To create a business account, go to the TikTok Business Center. Follow the initial prompts and you will see something like this:

From here, choose the “I’m an advertiser” option. Then, fill out the details like the following two screenshots.

Finally, you will be taken to your business account dashboard, and it looks like this.

To create an ad, you must create an ADVERTISER ACCOUNT. Complete the steps that TikTok requires (shown below).

Once you have done all that, you will now see this dashboard. From here, you have to click on ADS MANAGER.

It will open a new page like this:

Step 1: Setting Up The Ad

In the ADS MANAGER Page, click on the CREATE AD found on the upper right.

After that, select the BASIC CREATE OPTION. Once you click that, you will see these options:

Always choose website conversions if you are a dropshipper. You do not want to choose anything else because your goal is to make a sale, not to generate leads or to get traffic.

Click on the CONTINUE button at the bottom right, and you will now see this:

There are two things you will do here. The first one is to create a pixel, and then upload that pixel into your dropshipping store. The instructions on how to create and add a TikTok pixel are in TikTok’s help pages.

Right now, we will create a target audience. Choose CUSTOM AUDIENCE and then click on the LOCATION and DEMOGRAPHICS drop-downs to reveal the options. You will see this:

Select the age bracket and then type the location, like this:

You can only choose specific countries based on your listed TikTok location. TikTok does not allow international or global advertising. They only allow per region.

Next, scroll down, and you will see other options like LANGUAGE, INTERESTS, and INTERACTIONS.

The language area has radio buttons. The same thing goes for interests. The interest drop-down menu looks like this:

After selecting several interests, you can scroll down to the interaction type. It looks like this:

Under the “DEFINE WHAT KIND OF VIDEOS” area, you can choose from these categories:

Once done, you can see your potential audience size on the upper right side of the page. You can keep playing around with your audience until you are satisfied.

Click on the CONTINUE button once you are ready to move to the next step. You will find yourself on this page:

TikTok, like other advertising networks, has an algorithm that decides how much your MINIMUJM advertising budget should be per day. In this area, you have the power to decide if you want to place a bigger budget than what is required.

It is also on this page where you can set the dates you want to run your ad. Once done, click on CONTINUE at the bottom right.

The higher your budget, the more TikTok will show your ads to your target audiences. Keep in mind that in any advertising g network, you are bidding for the eyeballs against other advertisers. As such, more budget also means TikTok will give you a higher priority.

Step 2:  Creating The Ad

After following the prompts, you are now ready to add your video. You should be on a page like this:

In this example, I will choose VIDEO. If you choose TikTok post, then you will be selecting a video from your TikTok posts that you already released in the past.

After clicking on VIDEO, you will see this screen:

Click on UPLOAD VIDEO, then choose the video file from your computer. Then, you will see this:

The only things left to do are to name your ad, add a title to your video, and then add the text below the DISPLAY NAME. The display name is the title of your video ad. Scroll down and you will see this:

Fill out these areas. The call to action is the button that people will see on the ad. The URL is the landing page or website you want the customer to go to after clicking the Call-to-Action button.

Finally, check the box in agreement to the Terms & Conditions, and click PUBLISH, and you are done!

How To Analyze Ads In TikTok

To analyze TikTok ads, you have to go to the TikTok Ad Library to view the stats of existing ads. You can do this by clicking on the SEE ANALYTICS button in the ad library.

From here, you will be redirected to this page:

What do we get with this data? Here are a few important metrics and items to check out:

• Objective – this is what the advertiser wants to accomplish; some examples of objectives are app installs, landing pages, conversion, and traffic.
• Likes, Comments, and Shares – these are the number of likes and comments that the ad got. An ad will only have this data if it is an in-feed video ad.
• CTR – you will not see the actual CTR of an ad, but you will see yours. In this case, you will only see which bracket this ad belongs to as far as CTR performance goes.

Since this ad’s CTR is in the top 4%, it means this ad is one of the best ads that has the highest click-through rate. It does not mean that its CTR is 4%.

Another thing we can do is to visit the landing page. Do this so you know what viewers see when they click the ad. You can get ideas of how a seller presents his products from his landing page, and you can incorporate the same landing page style with yours if you think it would help improve your conversion rate.

If you scroll down, you will see this interactive chart:

You can choose among:

• CTR
• CVR
• Clicks
• Conversion
• Remain

For this screenshot, the numbers at the bottom represent the time in the video when it got a click. Now, what you can do is watch the ad video and see why there are 20 clicks at the 12-second mark.

It takes a lot of hard work to analyze why a TikTok ad is performing. Once you have launched an ad on TikTok, you will see the same stats in your tiktok ads manager. Now, you will have a point of comparison between your ad and other ads.

The trick here is to never stop learning from the top-performing ads on TikTok in your niche. There is a lot of data you can view, and then see which part of the video made a viewer respond positively to it.

Where To Get Ideas For TikTok Ads

You can view TikTok ads from your business account, but then you will spend so much time waiting for an ad that is relevant to your niche. In this section, we will discuss two ways by which you can get ideas for your ads that you can launch on TikTok.

1. TikTok Creative Center

The URL for this site is https://ads.tiktok.com/business/creativecenter/inspiration/topads/pc. Go to this site to access the TikTok ad library. You will see this page:

What you want to click is the link to INSPIRATION at the top, and then click on TOP ADS DASHBOARD.

Then, you will see this:

The next step is to use the filters so you can narrow your search. The goal here is to find ads for products similar to yours. The filters allow you to view ads with specific performance achievements.

This is what I did:

Now, I can view many ads about clothing. The specific market of these ads is the United States, and all of them have a lot of engagement.

It is at this point where you need to look for products similar to yours, you can then click on the ANALYTICS button to view more data. We have a section in this article where we discuss how to use the analytics area to your advantage.

2. Facebook Ad Library

Facebook is a different social media channel, but there is a goldmine of ads here that you can get ideas from. Go to the Facebook Ad Library and you will see this:

Select the region, and ad category, and type the niche. In this case, I typed “beauty.” Once done, the page will automatically load the ads.

Here is what I have:

What we need to do now is to keep scrolling until we find a product similar to ours. Then, we can click on the SEE AD DETAILS button to know more about the ad. One big difference between this and TikTok is that on Facebook, you will not see the ad performance on these thumbnails.

If you click on the AD DETAILS, you will see this:

There are no other data points to see. You can only have visibility on the ad creative, the platforms where the ad was shown, and the ad copy on the advertisement itself.

So, while Facebook’s ad library does not provide as much data as TikTok’s, you can still get ideas about ad copies and ad creatives. The thing is you will not know if the ad performed well or not.

Tips When Advertising On TikTok

Like any other advertising endeavor, it is not right to just slap some texts and videos together and expect people to respond positively to your ad. There are best practices that you must implement—best practices that will be discussed in this section.

1. Identify Your Target Audience

The first thing any advertiser must do is to identify a target market. “Men” or “women” are broad targets. If you use such broad targets, you are bound to fail.

To get the most out of your ads, you need to get as detailed as you can about your target. This way, you can, without a doubt, create an ad that resonates with your target consumers.

Here is an example:

• Women between 25 and 40
• Works at an office
• Likes to wear high-heeled shoes
• Follows the Kardashians
• Loves to go to dinner and eat at fancy restaurants
• Rents a condo

With this target market in mind, you can create an ad that will capture this woman’s attention. You can create a video and ad copy that appeals to her. As such, if a woman of this status in life sees your ad, what do you think will happen?

She will spend some time in your ad, probably watch its entirety, and then click on your link and visit your store.

2. Use A Hook Early In The Ad

A hook is a statement that attempts to get a viewer’s attention. As much as possible, use a hook that immediately tells a consumer what the problem is, or how your product attempts to solve a problem.

Here are some good hook examples:

• Get rid of acne forever!
• Want to make $1 million a year?
  99 smart ways to use an air fryer

People today have a low attention span. Experts suggest that your ad must get the viewer’s interest in as little as three seconds. If not, the ad viewer is likely to scroll to the next content.

Now, here are some key characteristics of a good hook:

• It must grab attention
• It must make an offer or tell your value proposition
• It must cater to an emotion
• It must provide a solution to a problem

Your hook does not need to have all these. One or two should be enough. What really matters is that it has to grab attention so the viewer will stay and watch your ad.

3. Use Sound Effects Properly

Sound effects are one of the most abused effects in ads. One problem that users have is that the sound effects sometimes overpower the content of the ad. Then, there is also this issue where the sound is so overused that it becomes annoying.

Here are some tips on how to use sound effects properly:

• Tone down the background music; nobody wants to hear it out loud
• Make the sound realistic to define the in-ad world or universe
• Trim, slice, and use fading sound effects

In addition to all these, make sure that the audience can hear what the narrator says (if there is one). Sound effects can make your video more dynamic. However, if used the wrong way, the viewer may find it too overbearing.

4. Follow Current Viral Trends

It would take you some time to get viral on TikTok if you do not follow trends. It is these trends that people want to watch—TikTok users consume these types of content with an obsession, and it is a must that you create an ad surrounding the current trends to capture the attention of the audience.

Here are some examples of viral TikTok trends:

• A Day in the Life
• ASMR
• Oddly satisfying thing
• Dance Challenge
• Green screen video magic
• TikTok made me buy it

It does not matter what your product is. There has to be a way by which you could create video ads that follow the format of these trends. If you do, you may not even have to allocate a big amount in your ad budget because people will share your videos.

5. Focus On Benefits, Not Features

What does this mean? It means that you must tell or show the ad viewer what’s in it for him. People do not buy because of features—they buy because of what a product or service can do for them.

Here is an example of a feature: a 10,000 mAh battery. As you can see, a buyer cannot make any sense of this information. So, instead of verbalizing this feature in the ad, say “this battery lasts 72 hours on stand-by mode.”

See the difference?

When focusing on benefits, you can also capitalize on emotions or desires. Words like “How would you like to impress your friends?” mean a lot to people. Instead of telling the viewer what your product is made of, tell the consumer how it impacts his self-esteem.

6. Videos Are Better Than Images

If at all, we no longer recommend the use of images in ads. People will just skip through these and go watch a video. Images work only for paper ads, like magazines, blogs, and newspapers.

TikTok is a video app, so it is just appropriate that you use videos in your ads. People launch TikTok because they want to watch. As such, you need to provide them with what they expect.

7. Use Spark Ads

Finally, use Spark Ads on TikTok. A Spark ad is a type of video ad that does not go away once your ad budget has been consumed. It is like a normal video post that will stay in your account for people to see.

To do this, you have to post the video first as normal TikTok content. Then, you choose that video as an ad and set a budget. You can even use the posts of their Tiktokers, provided that you have their permission. Such user generated content or UGC, usually performs great.

Best practices are not a silver bullet. They do not guarantee sales. At best, they merely get your foot in the door. So, why use them?

All people change, trends change, and competitors rise and fall. Best practices only allow you to meet the basic expectations of the market. These basic expectations have been around for decades. As such, implementing these tips allows you to get ahead of the curve.

FAQ: How To Run TikTok Ads For Dropshipping

Are TikTok ads good for dropshipping?

Yes, TikTok ads are great for dropshipping because TikTok has a huge user base. It has over 1 billion users in varying demographics.

How do I run TikTok ads for eCommerce?

You must first sign up for a business account to be able to run a TikTok ad. I recommend that you separate your personal and business accounts.

How do I run ads on TikTok for Shopify?

You will run the ad the same way you run any TikTok ad. However, you must use your Shopify store landing page.

Where do I get ads for my dropshipping business from?

You can create your ad by using video creation tools, or ask a marketing agency or individual to create the ad for you. Fiverr.com or Billo.app are two great platforms where you can get quality and cheap product ads.

Final Thoughts

Advertising is an expensive undertaking. That is why you must do it right and approach it with caution. If you want to test the waters, post your video ad as a normal TikTok upload, not as an ad. See how the audience reacts. If the reaction is positive, then you can make that post a sponsored one.

As a final word, do not go all in on ads. Always take things slowly, observe, learn from your mistakes, and then increase your budget or scale up only if the ad is already producing sales.