How to Make a TikTok Ad
TikTok is one of the most powerful platforms for reaching new customers, but getting started with its ads can feel intimidating. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know, step-by-step, to set up your TikTok Ads Manager, create your first campaign, and design ads that actually convert.
First Things First: Getting Set Up in TikTok Ads Manager
Before you can run an ad, you need an account on TikTok’s advertising platform. Unlike boosting a post, creating dedicated campaigns happens inside the TikTok Ads Manager, a powerful dashboard where you control everything from your budget and targeting to your ad creative.
Step 1: Create Your Ads Manager Account
Creating an account is straightforward. Head to the TikTok for Business website and sign up. You’ll be asked for basic information about your business, such as its name, industry, and location. Once you complete the registration, TikTok will review your business information. This usually happens quickly, and you'll soon have access to your dashboard.
Once you’re in, take a moment to get familiar with the layout. You'll see tabs at the top for "Dashboard," "Campaign," "Assets," and "Reporting." For now, we'll focus on the "Campaign" tab, which is where the magic happens.
Step 2: Install the TikTok Pixel (Don't Skip This!)
Before you run a single ad, especially if you want to drive sales or leads, installing the TikTok Pixel is a must. The Pixel is a small snippet of code that you place on your website. It tracks the actions users take after clicking on your ad, like making a purchase, filling out a form, or adding an item to their cart.
Why is this so important?
Conversion Tracking: The Pixel tells TikTok which ads are actually leading to sales, so you know what's working and what isn’t. Without it, you're just measuring clicks and views - not revenue.
Audience Building: It lets you create custom audiences of people who have visited your website. You can then retarget these highly interested users with specific ads.
Ad Optimization: TikTok's algorithm uses Pixel data to learn who your ideal customer is and will automatically show your ads to more people like them, improving your results over time.
To set it up, go to Assets > Events > Web Events in your Ads Manager. TikTok provides easy, one-click integrations for popular platforms like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace, making installation simple even if you're not technical.
How to Structure and Build a TikTok Ad Campaign
TikTok Ads use a three-level structure: Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Ads. Understanding how they work together is the key to organizing your advertising efforts effectively.
Campaign: This is the highest level. Here, you choose your primary advertising objective (e.g., getting more sales) and set an overall budget for the campaign if you wish.
Ad Group: This sits inside a campaign. You can have multiple Ad Groups in one campaign. At this level, you define your audience (who you want to see your ads), placements, a specific budget, and schedule.
Ad: This is the actual creative - the video and text that users will see. Each Ad Group contains one or more Ads, allowing you to test different videos or messaging with the same audience.
Step 1: Create a New Campaign and Choose Your Objective
In the "Campaign" tab, click the "Create" button. The first thing you'll need to do is pick an objective. Your choice here tells TikTok what you are trying to achieve.
Objectives are split into three categories:
Awareness
Reach: Show your ad to the maximum number of people possible. Great for getting your brand name out there.
Consideration
Traffic: Send people to your website or a specific landing page.
Video Views: Get more eyes on your video content to build engagement.
Community Interaction: Drive more followers to your TikTok profile or engagement on your posts.
Conversion
Lead Generation: Collect leads using TikTok’s instant forms.
Website Conversions: Drive specific actions on your website, like sales or sign-ups (this requires the Pixel).
For most businesses, especially in e-commerce, Website Conversions is the go-to objective. After choosing your objective, give your campaign a clear, descriptive name (e.g., "Q4 Holiday Sale - US - Conversions"). This will help you stay organized as you launch more campaigns.
Step 2: Set Up an Ad Group and Define Your Audience
Next, you’ll be prompted to create your first Ad Group. This is where you tell TikTok who to show your ads to.
Placements
You can choose where your ads will appear. "Automatic Placement" is the recommended default, allowing TikTok to show your ads across its network (including partner apps) for the best results. You can also manually choose to run on TikTok only if you prefer.
Targeting
This is one of the most powerful features. You can get incredibly specific:
Demographics: Target by location, gender, age, and language.
Interests: Reach people based on their engagement with different categories of content, such as "Skincare," "Gaming," or "Pet Products."
Behaviors: Target users based on their recent actions on TikTok, like watched a video to the end, liked, commented on, or shared videos from a specific category. This is extremely powerful. For example, you can target users who have recently engaged with videos tagged with #homedecor.
Custom Audiences: Upload your own list of customer emails or phone numbers to target existing customers. You can also create audiences based on people who have visited your website (tracked by the Pixel) or engaged with your previous ads.
Lookalike Audiences: Once you have a well-performing Custom Audience (like a list of past purchasers), you can ask TikTok to find new people who have similar characteristics. This is a fantastic way to scale your campaigns and find new customers.
Start with a broad audience based on interests and behaviors related to your product. As you gather more data, you can refine your targeting or build Lookalike Audiences.
Budget and Schedule
Set a daily or lifetime budget for your Ad Group and choose when you want your ads to run. You can start with a small daily budget (e.g., $20/day) to test the waters. You can also turn on "Dayparting" to only show ads during specific times of the day, but it’s often best to let TikTok’s algorithm optimize this for you initially.
Step 3: Create Your Ad and Upload Your Video
This is the fun part: the creative. At the Ad level, you’ll upload your video, write your ad text, and add a call-to-action (CTA).
Upload Video: Select the video file you want to use.
Ad Text: Write a short, punchy caption. You can include hashtags here, too. The text should complement the video, not just repeat it.
Call to Action: Choose a dynamic CTA button like "Shop Now," "Learn More," or "Sign Up."
URL: Add the link to the landing page where you want to send users who click the ad.
Once you’ve filled everything out, hit "Submit." Your ad will go into a review process (usually a few hours) before it starts running.
Creating TikTok Ads That People Actually Want to Watch
The single most important factor for success on TikTok is your creative. Highly-polished, corporate-style ads almost always fail. The golden rule is: Make TikToks, not ads.
Your ad should look and feel like a native, organic video that would organically appear on the "For You" page. Here’s how to do that:
1. Embrace Native Features
Shoot your videos in a vertical, 9:16 format. Use trending sounds and music wherever appropriate (you can find these in TikTok’s Commercial Music Library). Use TikTok’s built-in text styles, stickers, and filters to make your content look authentic to the platform.
2. Hook Them Fast
You have less than three seconds to grab a user's attention before they scroll away. Start with a strong visual hook, an intriguing question, or a bold statement. Don't waste time on a slow intro or a fancy logo reveal.
Example: Instead of saying "Introducing our new coffee maker," show someone reacting with surprise and say "I never knew making a latte could be this easy."
3. Focus on Authenticity and UGC
Forget the studio set. The best-performing ads often look like they were filmed on a smartphone by a regular person. User-generated content (UGC) is king. Content that shows real people using and loving your product builds trust in a way that polished ads can't.
Example: A skincare brand could use a video from a customer showing their morning routine and talking about how the product has helped their skin.
4. Show, Don't Just Tell
Instead of listing your product's features, show the problem it solves or the benefit it delivers. If you sell a kitchen gadget, show it in action making a meal faster. If you sell clothing, show someone styling it in a "get ready with me" format.
5. Have a Clear Call to Action
Tell viewers exactly what you want them to do next. You can use on-screen text like "Link in bio to shop!" or have the person in the video verbally say it. Your official CTA button reinforces this, but a native call-out within the video is essential.
Final Thoughts
Creating your first TikTok ad is a process of setting up your account, structuring your campaign correctly, and most importantly, making entertaining and authentic creative. It's an iterative process, so don't be afraid to test different videos, audiences, and captions to find what resonates most with your audience. The key is to start, learn from the data, and adapt.
Once your campaigns are running, tracking performance becomes critical. Analyzing your TikTok Ads data alongside sales data from Shopify and website behavior from Google Analytics can feel like a full-time job. With Graphed, we make this simple. You can connect all your data sources and ask questions in plain English, like, "Show me my TikTok ad spend vs. revenue last month" or "Which campaign had the highest return?" to get an instant, unified view of what's truly driving growth.