TikTok Ad Platform Review

I was fortunate to get my hands involved in TikTok Ads for the first time to set up a conversion campaign for two Singapore retailer brands. Unlike, Google Ads or Facebook Ad platforms, it wasn't too much to absorb at first sight. Most of the terms used are similar or almost similar to Facebook Ads platform. So I decided to list down a few insights for anyone who's looking to get their hands involved in the platform.

Just like on Facebook, TikTok Ad platform also has the Business Centre. There, you can find your specific ad account or accounts.

Unlike Facebook or Google, TikTok as an upcoming ads platform has a lot of potential as they don't have to spend half of the money which Facebook & Google invested in order to build their ads platforms to what they are today. In my opinion, that's what exactly they have done. For an example, on the dashboard overview even though most of the features are a lot similar to Facebook ads platform, it looks less cluttered and more organised.

Selecting the Ads Manager mode is something new for me (not sure if Facebook has this option or not) and you get this right before you create an ad.

If you are a Facebook Ads user, then you might understand the amount of similarities on TikTok in terms of the advertising objectives. However, I don't see a huge difference between the 'Simplified Mode' & 'Custom Mode' unless they have plans on simplifying it even further for non-digital users.

Campaign level terminologies have been slightly adjusted, but does the same job. Also, the three layers of arranging your ads which is Campaign, Ad Set, Ads are also structured in a similar way.

When selecting Ad Placement, something I opted out is the BuzzVideo and Pangle platforms. Pangle is a similar version of Facebook Network audience. Although, according to my research, these platform options are not yet out there as much as Facebook Audience network options.

In Ad targeting options, there are two main options. Custom targeting is the usual targeting of core audience & custom audiences just like of Facebook. There is an automatic targeting option which allows the machine learning systems to read and learn data on their own and decide targeting. However, since this is my first attempt, there are no data on the system so my option is custom.

In TikTok Ads, there are some new additions in the detail ad targeting section.

1. The platform suggest you a few categories based on the nature of your website.
2. You can target people based on their content preference and your audience will remain broad.
3. You can narrow down your audience to a specific purchase intention.

Overall, I would rate TikTok Ad experience 8 out of 10 not only because of the same features as Facebook or better but the User Interface wise its far better than any other platform I've used.