How To Find Success With TikTok Ads

TikTok has transformed from an emerging social platform into a mainstream marketing channel in just a few years.

Since its global launch, the platform has exploded to over 1 billion monthly users (with estimates of around 1.5 billion in 2024).

The user engagement is staggering given the short time frame it has been active. U.S. adults now spending about 54 minutes per day on TikTok, a usage level rivalling or exceeding that of other, more mature social networks.

For brands and advertisers, this growth and engagement represent a massive opportunity.

Surveys show 37% of TikTok users have purchased something they discovered on the platform, and 41% of users say they trust a brand more after seeing it advertised on TikTok.

From a paid media perspective, TikTok is no longer a ‘shall we give it a test budget?’ network, it’s a key pillar to millions of advertisers across the world.

In this post, we’ll explore how to find success with TikTok Ads from an expert perspective, taking insight from running a TikTok ads agency for brands of all sizes.

The TikTok Audience: A World of Niches and High Engagement

As with all paid social media strategies, understanding who you can reach through the channel before jumping in headfirst is key.

Globally, TikTok’s reach is massive. The platform now has the 5th largest social media audience in the world (just over 1.5 billion MAUs). The United States alone accounts for ~150 million monthly TikTok users with nearly 5 million businesses maintaining a presence on the app.

The gender split is slightly skewed towards women at 55% of total users and 49% of users are under 27, with 36% between 29 and 44.

What truly makes TikTok’s audience unique is the reason they are there, and what they are there for.

Users are there for entertainment, to connect with others and to discover new content that is curated perfectly (to a degree) to their interests today, tomorrow and in the future.

Niche communities have been born from the powerful algorithm that surfaces videos based on almost every interest and behaviour, there really is a corner for almost everything imaginable.

What this means for advertisers is that standing out and having impact within a platform that produces over 117 million new videos every 24 hours, is not an easy task.

To get started, approach this channel as you would with any other media buying and map out your audiences:

Acquisition – Interests, purchase intent, behaviours, and hashtags.
Retention – Pixel, platform, and first party data

You’ll discover the breadth of audience targeting for acquisition can help you reach the communities as vast or as niche as you would like.

Ensuring your targeting is rooted in strategic intent is key and builds the bridge to a clear framework for matching creative and messaging to the communities most likely to respond, the foundation of any high performing social ad campaign.

TikTok Ads Formats and Features: Choosing the Right Tools

TikTok has a very specific style of content and no matter what your brand is, you have to think ‘TikTok first’ with all creative.

Take Meta and IG ads for example: there are guidelines to be followed as far as ad length, video first, where to include/not include text, etc. However, with TikTok ads you really do have to lean into the unique style of content to succeed.

This includes:

Short form video (9 – 15 seconds)
Overlays
Voiceovers

The overarching goal being to blend seamlessly into your audience’s feeds, something that I have found many brands miss the mark on by simply repurposing content from Meta/IG for their campaigns.

Once the creative strategy is defined, advertisers have a wealth of ad types to choose from:

In-Feed Video
- Standard Feed. In-feed auction ads, the most common ad type.
- TopView. High impact, full screen takeover that transitions to an in-feed video.
- Top Feed. Place your video in the first in-feed ad slot to reach & frequency campaigns.
- Spark Ads. In-feed video ads, however, this native format allows advertisers to leverage organic posts for extra authenticity.
In-Feed Interactive
- Playable. Interactive videos that showcase a preview of your app before someone downloads.
- Carousel. This format supports images and allows advertisers to display swipeable carousels of products as an alternative to video content.

From my experience, most brands start in-feed with both standard ads and spark ads to get a good base for learning with a mix of formats whilst they gather data.

If you’re unsure of where to get started, working with a specialist TikTok advertising agency can help as you will be able to lean into experience, case studies and agency support to build a solid foundation to build upon.

Creating TikTok Ads That Work: “Make TikToks, Not Just Ads”

TikTok is a content-first platform.

Users scroll for entertainment, inspiration, and authenticity, not ads.

Let’s use a theoretical example:

You’re a sneakerhead.

You’re browsing your feed watching short videos on the latest drops and reviews from content creators, then 25 videos into your session you’re served a product carousel of shoes from a brand you’ve never heard of before.

A product carousel served to a new audience is easy to swipe past, but if this brand had used a native-feeling, creator-led video that tapped into the culture of the audience they are looking to reach, the likelihood of engagement could be much higher (dependent on context).

The difference between being ignored and being remembered isn’t media budget, it’s whether your content feels like part of the feed rather than an ad imposed on it.

Brands that adopt this way of thinking are already on the front foot when it comes to advertising on this platform and there are other tactical recommendations that can help form the asset strategy too:

Hook: You only have three seconds to grab attention on TikTok, so lead with a bold hook, not a logo, otherwise users will simply swipe past.
Audio: Remember, TikTok is a sound-on platform, and incorporating music or audio dramatically boosts viewer immersion and engagement compared to silent ads.
Follow Trends: Ride the wave where possible, this could be audio clips, video styles, content themes, etc.
People and Faces: Users expect to see real faces, whether customers, employees, or creators and if your goal is to blend naturally into the feed, test these out.
Length: While TikTok ads can be up to 60 seconds, the optimal length for performance typically falls between 9 and 15 seconds.

Measuring Performance: Metrics and Reporting for TikTok Ads

Like any performance channel, TikTok campaigns should be measured against clear KPIs to prove ROI and guide optimisation:

Reach & Impressions: How many people saw your ads and how often?
Engagement Metrics: How well is your audience receiving your content?
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Is your ad engaging enough that users click through?
Cost metrics: CPMs, CPCs, and more, all influenced by a wealth of factors
Conversion metrics: Are users taking the desired action? Sales? Leads?

All of the above must be considered, they are all interlinked to provide a holistic view of how your ad campaigns are performing.

When measuring TikTok ad performance you must always consider that you’re serving content to audiences who are there to be entertained rather than actively searching.

That means attribution models, marketing mix modelling, and post-view analysis become critical in understanding true impact.

A campaign that looks expensive through one lens may actually be driving brand discovery, future searches, and incremental sales.

To judge TikTok properly, combine platform KPIs with broader business metrics and be clear on the role it plays in your funnel, not just immediate conversions, but long term influence on awareness, engagement, and customer lifetime value.

Closing Thoughts

TikTok has moved well beyond being an ad network that brands are just testing.

Ad revenue alone for 2025 is forecast to exceed $33.1bn, and when compared to Meta Ads forecast at ~ $160bn, it is still a fraction of Meta’s scale but one that continues to grow at a far faster rate year on year.

With its extensive reach, highly engaged communities, and cost efficiencies that still compare favourably to other social platforms, the opportunity is clear.

But success isn’t about throwing budget at the platform using repurposed assets, it comes from treating TikTok on its own terms: understanding the audience, creating content that feels native, choosing the right ad formats, and measuring performance through the right lens.

TikTok can drive both short term conversions and longer term brand discovery, but only when advertisers accept it isn’t a plug-and-play channel; success depends on creating native content and measuring its impact above and beyond in-platform pixel data.

The brands that will win are those that adapt quickly, embrace TikTok’s culture, and view it not as a bolt-on channel, but as a strategic driver of growth.