Andre Kempe, Founder at Admiral Media, offers advice on making your TikTok ads more effective.

Advertising on TikTok is a genius way to connect with your audience in a personalised, casual, and entertaining setting – and it often pays big dividends.

However, TikTok ads are a newer phenomenon – brands and businesses are still trying out TikTok, so understanding the channel, its average cost or return on investment (ROI) is hard. To help advertisers, Admiral Media collected their learnings across many TikTok campaigns in the new TikTok Handbook and is sharing 4 of the top tips in this post. 

Here are four things you might be missing in advertising on TikTok:

#1 Test Auto targeting, especially on Android 
With TikTok auto targeting, the algorithm does all the work for you. The algorithm shows your ads to what it decides to be ‘relevant users’.

It does this by optimising targeting settings in accordance with your goals, content, and historical data.

Instead of broad targeting, which marketers have been using up until now, auto-targeting involves less hassle and often sees better results.

We ran some tests for TikTok auto targeting campaigns across iOS and Android against regular campaigns. The results show higher traffic levels and an up to 39 per cent cheaper CPI on Android. We recommend conducting your own tests on both Android and iOS and you can reap the benefits of automating your targeting.

#2 Use App profile pages 
Create a page for your app on TikTok – it’s like a mini preview of an app with information pulled from the app store, but without leaving the TikTok environment.

This way, users can connect and learn more about your app directly from TikTok itself. This will give them important information about who you are and what products/services you offer. It allows you to build trust and increase conversions because users see what they get before tapping through to the store. As a new feature, TikTok can highlight App profiles within your ads – which can be really powerful as our tests found.

#3 Create with creators – especially the small ones
It’s not all about the big guns!

TikTok users engage with the creators they love, and often pay particularly close attention to micro and nano influencers with smaller audiences. These smaller creators and their dedicated audiences are filled with potential for advertisers.

Not only can these influencers keep your TikTok advertising cost lower, they also give access to a very engaged audience. A study by Trackrr found that micro-influencers had the highest average engagement rate in France, while nano-influencers had the highest average engagement rate in the US and UK.

#4 Target millennials – most TikTok users are over 25
When most people hear the term TikTok, they think of dances, funny content, trending music, and everything Gen Z. What many marketers arent taking into account is that TikTok is no longer just a young persons app.

According to our data at Admiral Media, 61 per cent of TikTok users are over the age of 25 and thus are most likely employed and have disposable income. Almost 40 per cent of users are 35 years or older. The good news is that, generally speaking, millennials have more disposable income than Gen Z and have the potential to bring your company a lot of new revenue.

If you’re missing any of these things from your TikTok marketing strategy in 2022, it’s time to get up to date. Check out the TikTok Handbook or read our online TikTok advertising guide to get up to speed.

TikTok is an always-on platform, and therefore you should be too. Refresh your ideas and content constantly to adapt to the new now.