Different types of TikTok ads

TikTok is currently one of the most innovative and effective advertising platforms, especially well-suited for brands aiming to reach younger generations. With a variety of ad formats, TikTok offers significant opportunities for businesses to convey messages vividly, capitalize on trends, and achieve widespread virality. In this article, let’s explore the different types of TikTok ads and how each format works with Adsupport.

Summary of different types of TikTok ads

TikTok provides a diverse range of ad formats, tailored for various marketing objectives such as increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, promoting app downloads, or boosting purchase conversions. Choosing the right ad format not only helps optimize costs but also enhances reach and effectiveness. Below are the most popular TikTok ad types that businesses should consider using.

Spark Ads

Spark Ads are a unique TikTok ad format that allows businesses to leverage existing videos on the platform – including content from the brand itself or trending KOLs/KOCs. The strength of Spark Ads lies in preserving the “organic” and native feel of the original content, preventing viewers from feeling overtly advertised to. Advantages of Spark Ads:

• Utilizes existing videos, saving time on new content production.
• No limitations on video length or format.
• Allows interaction via Duet and Stitch, and use of original sounds and effects.
• Displays detailed data such as follows: profile clicks, sound usage, fixed text..

Spark Ads are ideal for campaigns that need to build credibility and drive organic user actions.

Branded Hashtag Challenge

The Branded Hashtag Challenge is an ad format that encourages users to create videos around a specific theme linked to a brand’s hashtag. This type of campaign is highly community-driven and often achieves widespread virality through the natural “viral” effect of User-Generated Content (UGC). Key features:

• Significantly boosts brand awareness.
• Engages users to participate actively.
• Generates thousands of related videos in just a few days.

Branded Hashtag Challenges are typically used for branding campaigns, product launches, or creating a community buzz, but they aren’t suitable for driving direct conversions.

Reach and Frequency

Reach and Frequency (R&F) is an ad format that allows businesses to control their ad reach and impression frequency at a fixed cost. You can predict how many times your ad will be shown and to whom, ensuring your campaign runs steadily and on schedule. Main Benefits:

• Proactive control over the number of ad impressions per user.
• Often combined with In-Feed Ads for enhanced effectiveness.
• Ideal for large-scale branding campaigns.

In-Feed Ads

In-Feed Ads are TikTok’s most popular ad format. These video ads appear interspersed within a user’s organic video feed (on the “For You Page”), ranging from 5 to 60 seconds in length. Viewers can interact with them just like regular TikTok videos—liking, commenting, sharing, or clicking on the Call-to-Action (CTA) button. Why use In-Feed Ads?

• Easy to set up and deploy.
• Cost-effective for businesses of all sizes.
• Suitable for all objectives: increasing awareness, driving traffic, or boosting conversions.

TopView Ads

TopView Ads are TikTok’s premium ad format. The video ad displays full-screen immediately when a user opens the app, then automatically transitions into an In-Feed Ad. These can be up to 60 seconds long. Key features:

• Maximizes visibility within the first few seconds.
• Supports click-through links to redirect users.
• Does not repeat within a single day, reducing ad fatigue.

This format is ideal for large-scale campaigns aiming to make a strong initial impression and optimize conversion potential.

Branded Effect

Branded Effects allow businesses to create custom filters, stickers, and AR effects featuring their unique branding. Users can then apply these effects when recording videos, helping to spread brand imagery creatively and engagingly. Benefits of Branded Effects:

• Boosts user interaction with the brand.
• Integrates the brand into users’ entertainment experiences.
• Ideal for campaigns combined with Hashtag Challenges to enhance viral spread.

Top Feed

Top Feed is a display setting exclusively for campaigns running under the Reach and Frequency model. When enabled, ads are prioritized to appear at the very top of a user’s feed (on the “For You Page”), rather than being interspersed within the content stream as usual. Benefits of Top Feed:

• Increases view and click-through rates due to its prominent position.
• Suitable for short-term campaigns that require rapid viral impact.

Important notes when running ads on TikTok

TikTok isn’t just an entertainment platform; it’s also a “goldmine” for creative and viral ad campaigns. However, to maximize its potential, advertisers need to grasp several crucial factors before launching a campaign. Here are the important notes you shouldn’t overlook if you want your TikTok ads to perform effectively.

Key differences when advertising on TikTok

Before diving into campaign creation, you need to understand TikTok’s unique advertising characteristics compared to other platforms like Facebook or Google:

• Short video format: Ad content is primarily short-form video, ranging from 5 to 60 seconds. This demands messages that are clear and engaging from the very first second.
• CPM-based pricing: TikTok primarily calculates ad costs based on CPM (Cost Per Mille), which is the cost per 1,000 impressions, rather than CPC (Cost Per Click) like some other platforms.
• Young user base: The majority of TikTok users are aged 18 – 35, active, entertainment-oriented, and easily drawn to new trends.
• Dual ad review mechanism: TikTok employs both AI systems and human reviewers to moderate ad content, ensuring compliance with community standards and legal regulations.

Understanding these differences will help you design content appropriate for the platform and optimize your campaign’s effectiveness.

Determining suitable product types for TikTok advertising

Not every product is suitable for advertising on TikTok. Therefore, the first step in your planning process is to check if your product aligns with TikTok’s user base.

• Platform market research: Create several TikTok accounts to observe the content and ad videos currently being recommended. If you see numerous ads related to the items you sell, it’s a good sign to start.
• Choose products prone to virality: TikTok is ideal for trendy products such as fashion, cosmetics, tech gadgets, and accessories. Everyday essential products or those with high entertainment or practical value also tend to reach users easily.
• Restrict heavily regulated products: For certain products like functional foods, weight-loss products, or unverified cosmetics, you need to thoroughly review advertising policies before launching campaigns to avoid rejections or account suspension.

Tip: Always prioritize products that are easy to understand, simple to present via video, visually appealing, and lend themselves well to entertaining content.

Understand TikTok’s advertising policies

One of the most common reasons for failed ad campaigns is violating platform policies. TikTok has clear regulations regarding:

• Permitted industries/categories with restrictions or prohibitions on advertising.
• Language, imagery, and content within ad videos.
• Authenticity and clarity of the communicated message.

Failure to comply with these policies can lead to consequences such as:

• Ad rejection immediately upon submission for review;
• Account restrictions or permanent banning;
• Wasted budget due to numerous revisions.

Regularly update and thoroughly review the TikTok Advertising Policies for Vietnam to ensure your content is compliant. For “sensitive” industries, prioritize neutral expression, limit keywords prone to prohibition, and present content creatively while still adhering to regulations.

Choose the right ad format based on objectives

TikTok currently offers a variety of ad types. Selecting the appropriate format for your campaign objective is a decisive factor in advertising effectiveness. If you want to increase brand awareness, consider formats like:

• TopView Ads: Appearing immediately when users open the app.
• Branded Hashtag Challenge: Creating a strong viral effect.
• Branded Effect: Building brand recall through exclusive effects.

To increase website traffic or drive purchase conversions, In-Feed Ads and Spark Ads would be more suitable choices, offering the ability to attach CTA links, measure specific performance, and facilitate optimization. If you want to reach the right audience with a fixed budget, Reach and Frequency helps you control the number of viewers and impression frequency, proving particularly effective for campaigns requiring precise coverage calculations.

Exploring suitable ad formats for E-commerce stores on TikTok

TikTok isn’t just an entertainment platform; it’s also a powerful ally for e-commerce businesses looking to expand their online sales. The ad formats on TikTok for the e-commerce sector are designed to directly connect users with products, boost conversion rates, and optimize the customer journey. If you’re running an online business with a storefront on TikTok Shop, or if you want to drive users from TikTok to your website, landing page, or other e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada, etc., then the following ad formats are your best bet.

Dynamic Showcase Ads (DSA)

Dynamic Showcase Ads (DSA) are an intelligent ad format that allows for the real-time, automatic creation of product videos based on a pre-established product catalog. These ad videos can vividly and accurately display product images, names, prices, stock availability, descriptions, and more. Key Advantages of DSA:

• Optimizes delivery to the right target audience thanks to behavioral analysis algorithms.
• Saves time on ad content creation by using pre-existing video templates.
• Increases conversion opportunities, especially with users who have previously interacted with or have a purchase intent for products.

This format is suitable for shops with extensive product catalogs that are frequently updated.

Collection Ads

Collection Ads are a highly interactive ad format combining an In-Feed video ad with a curated set of prominent products displayed as product cards. When users tap on these cards, they are taken to an Instant Gallery Page, which showcases selected products from your catalog. Advantages of this format:

• Enhances the product discovery experience directly within TikTok without interruption.
• Increases time spent on the ad, thereby boosting conversion rates.
• Personalizes ad content through the ability to select products relevant to the target audience.

Collection Ads are very well-suited for campaigns introducing themed product sets, promotional bundles, or seasonal collections.

Deeplink to Marketplace

This is an excellent solution for businesses operating on e-commerce marketplaces like Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, and others. Deeplink to Marketplace allows you to embed a direct link from your TikTok video to the product page on the marketplace, enabling users to purchase with just one click. Key benefits of Deeplink ads:

• Shortens the purchase journey, reducing friction between viewing and buying action.
• Increases conversion rates, especially with customers already familiar with e-commerce marketplaces.
• Supports remarketing and ROI optimization, targeting the right potential customers and creating effective upsell opportunities.

This ad format is highly suitable for brands looking to integrate multi-channel sales and leverage the e-commerce ecosystem to optimize sales.

TikTok Shopping Ads

TikTok Shopping Ads are a comprehensive suite of advertising solutions designed to help sellers on TikTok Shop boost sales, increase product visibility directly within their storefronts, and reach the right customer segments as they search or shop. The TikTok Shop ad package currently includes three main formats:

Video Shopping Ad

This ad format uses video to display products vividly directly on the “For You” page. Video Shopping Ads allow customers to view and purchase items without leaving the app. Thanks to intelligent distribution algorithms, these ads easily reach users who are in a shopping mindset, significantly optimizing conversion rates.

Live Shopping Ad

This format leverages the power of live stream selling – a highly popular trend on TikTok. The ad directs users into a brand’s live broadcast, where they can watch product demonstrations, ask questions, and make immediate purchases via CTA buttons or pinned product cards on the screen. Live Shopping Ads help increase trust and the likelihood of closing sales in real time.

Catalog Listing Ad

This format uses your product catalog to display multiple items simultaneously, presented as a scrollable list, similar to Collection Ads. Notably, these ads are distributed via bidding, allowing you to actively set bids to get your products displayed in better positions within users’ feeds. Catalog Listing Ads help showcase numerous products in a single impression, making them suitable for shops with many items in the same segment or under the same promotional campaign.

Depending on your campaign goals – from boosting brand awareness to driving conversions – TikTok offers a diverse range of ad formats suitable for every business. Choosing the right ad type not only optimizes communication effectiveness but also enhances the user’s experience with your brand.

Contact Info

Information about “Different types of TikTok ads” hopes to provide you with additional necessary knowledge. At Adsupport, there is a team of highly qualified and experienced staff and experts who will provide facebook rental as well as support when you run Facebook ads. Contact us via phone number.

Frequently Asked Questions