SOP 231: How to launch Tiktok Brand awareness campaign

Goal:
Create a new TikTok brand awareness campaign in simplified or custom mode.

Ideal Outcome:
High reach and engagement from your new TikTok brand awareness campaign.

Prerequisites or requirements:

You will need to have a TikTok Ads Manager account before creating a TikTok campaign. Refer to SOP 229 (web version): How to set up a TikTok Ads Manager account if you do not have one.

Why this is important:
TikTok has been one of the world’s most downloaded apps in recent years. It is an effective way to engage with a wider audience (more than 150 countries). TikTok has a variety of ad formats and templates for you to choose from and enhance your brand awareness.

Where this is done:
In TikTok Ads Manager.

When is this done:
Whenever you want to launch a TikTok brand awareness campaign.

Who does this:
The business owner/manager or the person/agency digital marketer.

Click-Worthy TikTok Campaign Ideas Checklist

Before you jump into:

[Simplified Mode] Set up a brand awareness campaign in TikTok Ads Manager

[Custom Mode] Customize a TikTok brand awareness campaign

You may want to consider different types of video ideas before you publish a campaign. Click here for 30 different campaign ideas.

A simplified mode relies more on TikTok's algorithm, while custom mode gives you complete control with the ability to A/B test, define your audience targeting, and more. If you are new and looking to set up your campaigns quickly, it is recommended to use the simplified mode.

[Simplified Mode] Set up a brand awareness campaign in TikTok Ads Manager

2. Next, click “Campaigns” and then “Create”.

3. For a brand awareness campaign, select “traffic” as your advertising goal in the simplified mode. Click “Continue” to proceed to the next step. For a custom mode, please refer directly to “[Custom Mode] Customize a TikTok brand awareness campaign”.

Search and add locations where your customers should see your ads.

[Optional] You could set your ad to “Automatic Audience” where TikTok will find the most receptive audience for your business.

4. To customize your audience pool, you could add specific information to your campaign based on your targeted audience’s demographics and interest & behavior. Click each section to expand.

5. Under “Demographics”, choose the appropriate gender, age, and language.

6. Select the gender profile of your targeted audience.
7. Select the age range of your targeted audience.
8. Search and add the languages based on the location of your targeted audience.
9. Under “Interest & Behavior”, include the following interests and people who have carried out interactions with videos.

If you don't know which categories to select, you can click “Recommended”. The recommendation is a feature on TikTok Ads Manager that lets you identify relevant audiences for your ads that most likely contribute to your campaign's advertising objective. Click “Browse” for more options. Tiktok recommends selecting 15 or more interests and/or behavior categories. For instance, if your campaign is about financial education, select “Browse” > “Financial services”, and tick all the relevant services under finance.

According to your targeted audience’s interaction with videos in the past, you can also customize how they have interacted with the videos for this campaign. We recommend ticking all the boxes below.

We also recommend including a category. In this case, a financial education campaign would attract audiences who have interacted with educational videos.

TikTok will track users' behavior in the last 7-15 days and identify the valuable behaviors for your targeting. If you would like TikTok to track faster, select 7 days. If you would like TikTok to collect more data for the future benefit of behavior targeting, select 15 days.

10. Next, it is recommended to select TikTok as your placement. You may also choose to add additional placement to show your ads apart from TikTok. Click “Additional placement” and select the most relevant placement for your ad.

TikTok placement—Your ads will appear as regular in-feed ads on the “For You Page”.
News Feed App placement—Your ad will appear within TikTok’s other apps (BuzzVideo, NewsRepublic, TopBuzz, etc.).
Pangle placement—Your ad will be shown to more people thanks to this video advertising platform. This option is only available in selected countries. Visit here for more information.
11. Click “Continue” to proceed.

12. Next, set a “Daily budget” and schedule. Your budget will also determine your bid strategy.

It is recommended to set a daily budget rather than a lifetime budget in the drop-down menu. Enter your budget in the box and ensure it is in the right currency.
13. Schedule a date range for your ad to run.
14. Click “Continue” to proceed.

Upload video(s)

It is recommended to add a video rather than an image. To make an impact on your brand awareness campaign, ensure that your videos meet TikTok’s video ad specifications.

TikTok video ad specifications include:

- - Aspect ratio: 9:16, 1:1, or 16:9. Vertical videos with a 9:16 ratio perform best.
  - Minimum resolution: 540 x 960 px or 640 x 640 px. Videos with a resolution of 720 px perform best.
  - File types: mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp, or .avi
  - Duration: 5-60 seconds. TikTok recommends 21-34 seconds for top performance.
  - Max file size: 500 MB
  - Profile image: square image less than 50 KB
  - App name or brand name: 4-40 characters (app) or 2-20 characters (brand)
  - Ad description: 1-100 characters, no emojis

Preview and post creatives

Once you have successfully uploaded a Brand Takeover video ad format for your brand awareness campaign, preview it before you hit “Submit”.

[Custom Mode] Customize a TikTok brand awareness campaign

2. Next, click “Campaigns” and then “Create”.

3. Click “Custom mode”.

4. Next, confirm that you will be switching from simplified to custom mode.

5. Under “Campaign”, select “Reach” as your advertising objective.

Set up your campaign settings.

Key in your campaign name.
You have the option to choose if you would like to conduct a split test. If you tick this option, you will have to provide a payment in advance in the later steps for you to proceed to submit your ad. If you do not want to conduct a split test, you can ignore this step.
You have the option to set a campaign budget. It is recommended to select “Daily budget” in the drop-down menu.
6. Click “Continue” to proceed.
7. Next, name your ad group and select a placement setting.

Name your ad group.
8. You have the option to select a few advanced settings. Switch on all of the below such as “User comment”, “Video download”, and “Video sharing”.

9. Next, under “Targeting”, expand all sections and input the relevant information such as “Demographics”, “Audience”, “Interests & Behaviors”, and “Device”.

10. Next, under “Content exclusions”, click “Edit”.

11. Choose either “Full inventory” or “Standard inventory” and then click “Save”.

Set your daily budget and schedule.

12. Next, set your bidding “Frequency cap” and “Bid control (Optional)”.

To determine the optimal bidding strategy that works for you, you may refer to SOP 235 (web version): How to determine a bid strategy for TikTok ads campaign.

A bid control means a maximum cost per result you are willing to bid. TikTok will automatically suggest a bidding cost for you to maximize campaign performance. To use the lowest cost bidding strategy, remove or delete the suggested cost in the box below “Bid control (Optional)”.

You can also select “advanced settings” and set your “Billing event” and “Delivery type”. Choosing “Accelerated” as the delivery type won't help you increase the amount of budget you consume, it only increases how fast you spend your budget. TikTok suggests increasing your budget if you are noticing that the daily billing event is continuously below your bid.

13. Next, enter your Ad details under “Ad”.
Key in your Ad name.

It is recommended to deliver your brand awareness campaign as Spark Ads. Refer to SOP 230: How to set up a TikTok Spark Ad, if you have not enabled ad authorization before this. With a Spark Ad, you will have a higher reach and encourages more engagement.If you did not tick “Use TikTok account to deliver Spark Ads”, enter a display name and upload a profile picture by clicking on the pencil icon.Next, upload the ad video and enter the ad text.

You can choose to click on “Smart Text” for TikTok to generate recommended text for you.
Under “Smart Text”, select a language, industry (optional), and keywords. Click “generate” and then “Confirm” to proceed. To search for keywords, you may follow SOP 154 (web version): Keyword Research for Local Business.

[Optional] Next, you will have the option to track your ad events, if any.

Tick the box to allow the add performance metrics to be displayed in the TikTok For Business Creative Center.
You can choose to set a tracker for your website and/or app events from your ads. For this step, you will need to set up TikTok Pixel. Alternatively, you may also choose to add a third-party tracking setting by entering the tracking URL.
Click “Continue” to proceed.
If you have chosen “Split testing” in the earlier steps, you will be prompted to add balance to your account before you submit the ad.

A split test is closely related to your bid strategy. Please refer to SOP 235 (web version): How to determine a bid strategy for TikTok ads campaign to A/B test your ads campaign.
Once you have successfully completed all the steps above, preview it before you hit “Submit”.

If you did not tick “Split testing” in the earlier steps, you are allowed to click “Submit” immediately after filling out your “Campaign”, “Ad group”, and “Ad” details.