Hey there, TikTok marketers! So, your ads are already making waves on the platform? Awesome stuff! But let’s be real, wouldn’t it be even better to crank it up a notch and squeeze more juice out of those campaigns that are already doing well? That’s where scaling your TikTok ad campaigns comes into play.
Why settle for small wins when you could be reaching millions more eyeballs? Whether you’re a seasoned TikTok advertiser or just dipping your toes in the water, this blog post is about to become your new best friend. Get ready to learn how to stretch your reach, make the most out of your budget, and truly dominate the TikTok advertising game.
If you’re pumped to level up and leave your competition in the dust, then buckle up because we’re about to drop some serious knowledge bombs!
But before we dive into the good stuff, let’s quickly break down the cost of running TikTok ads in 2024.
Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty – how to do it. You’re almost there, ready to boost your campaign.
We’re going to share some practical tips that experts use to make their TikTok ad campaigns work better.
TABLE OF CONTENT:
#1. Use Spy Tools
When it comes to scaling up your TikTok ads, one big challenge is our own limitations. If you find yourself running out of creative steam and using the same old ads and tactics on repeat, you’re likely to hit a roadblock. That’s where spy tools come in handy, they can give you a much-needed boost to reach a broader audience.
TikTok Ads spy tools let you keep an eye on what your competitors are up to. They offer valuable insights into their ad strategies, which you can use to supercharge your own campaigns.
One major advantage of using these tools is that they help you uncover your competitors’ targeting methods. By knowing who your competitors are aiming their ads at, you can uncover new potential audiences for your own promotions. You might stumble upon a demographic or interest group that you hadn’t considered before, opening up fresh opportunities for expanding your audience.
One of the coolest things about these tools is getting a sneak peek into what your competitors are putting out there. By checking out their ad creatives, you can get a good idea of what’s clicking with your target audience.
Learning from what works (and what doesn’t) is key to cooking up your own killer ads that grab people’s attention.
And guess what? We’ve got you covered with a huge stash of TikTok ads and videos that we’re constantly updating. With over 5 million TikTok Ads collected so far and new ones added every day, you’ll always have the latest and greatest examples of successful ads right at your fingertips.
#2. Find out your breakeven CPA (Cost per Action)
Determining the breakeven Cost Per Action (CPA) is crucial for successfully scaling your TikTok ad campaigns.
Breakeven CPA is the point where the cost of acquiring a new customer matches the revenue generated from that customer. It’s the tipping point where your ad campaign doesn’t make a profit or a loss. Knowing this breakeven point helps you figure out how much you can invest in your campaigns without risking profitability.
To calculate your breakeven CPA, you need to know your average order value (AOV) and gross margin. Simply subtract the cost of goods sold (COGS) from the AOV to find your gross profit per order.
Your gross profit, which is your breakeven CPA, is a crucial number for setting realistic budget goals for your TikTok ad campaigns. If your actual CPA is below this breakeven CPA, you’re turning a profit. But if it’s higher, you’re running at a loss.
So, where do you apply this info?
You can use it to assess how your campaigns are performing and to set the Cost Cap for your campaign. We’ll dive deeper into this in the next tip.
#3. Split-Test Optimization Goal and Bid Strategy
When it comes to optimizing your TikTok ad campaigns, you’ve got three types of Optimization Goals and two types of Bid Strategies at your disposal. By testing out the four possible combinations of these, you can figure out which setup works best for driving high-performing campaigns.
TikTok offers two bidding strategies to help you achieve your business goals, whether it’s boosting brand awareness, generating leads, or optimizing conversions. To make your campaign more effective, it’s best to match your bidding strategy with your primary campaign objective.
Currently, TikTok Ads Manager offers two bidding strategies:
- Cost Cap: With this strategy, you have control over the average Cost Per Action (CPA) outcome. You can use the breakeven CPA you’ve calculated based on the strategy mentioned earlier in this list.
- Maximum Delivery: This strategy is all about getting the maximum results for your budget.
To enhance your ad performance through bidding, keep these tips in mind:
- If managing costs is your main concern, go for either Cost Cap or Bid Cap as your bidding strategy.
- When using Cost Cap or Bid Cap, make sure to set your bid to align with your target cost per action (CPA).
- If maximizing your daily budget is your primary goal, consider the Lowest Cost bid strategy and stick to the minimum recommended bid.
Bidding isn’t just about controlling your cost per action; it also gives you insight into your ads’ competitiveness in the auction environment.
A bid higher than your competitors could mean you’re in a good position to grab ad space, but it might also mean spending more than necessary. We encourage you to see bidding as a powerful tool for reaching your goals and not something to overlook. It’s worth understanding and using wisely.
When it comes to optimization goals, you’ve got three options: “Conversion,” “Click,” and “Reach.” Some campaign objectives automatically set this for you, but others give you the option to change it.
Usually, you can switch between Conversions and Clicks. We recommend trying out one option per campaign, keeping all other settings the same. This way, you can accurately compare which optimization goal works best for your campaign.
#4. Utilize Lookalike Audiences
Using TikTok’s lookalike audiences feature can make a huge difference when scaling your ad campaigns. By targeting users who resemble your current customers or website visitors, you can boost the chances of engagement and conversion. It’s a powerful way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
Here’s what you need to do:
a. Understand Your Current Audience:
Before diving into creating a lookalike audience, take the time to really get to know your existing customer base or website visitors. Dive deep into their demographics, interests, behaviors, and any other relevant attributes. The better you understand your current audience, the more accurate your lookalike audience will be.
b. Create a Custom Audience:
Take advantage of TikTok’s Custom Audience feature to assemble a list of users who have engaged with your brand, whether it’s through your website, app, or previous ad campaigns. This custom audience will serve as the foundation for your lookalike audience.
Here’s how:
- Go to the Tools section in your TikTok Ads dashboard.
- Click on Audience Manager.
In the Audiences page, locate and click on the “Create Audiences” button. Then, select “Custom Audience” from the dropdown menu.
You can add a custom audience in various ways, including:
- Customer File
- Engagement – Based on those who interacted with your organic TikTok content
- App Activity
- Website Traffic
- Lead Generation
- Business Account
- Shop Activity
- Offline Activity
Choose the option that best fits your needs and audience sources.
c. Define Your Lookalike Audience:
After setting up your custom audience, it’s time to create your lookalike audience. Remember, your source audience should have at least 100 members for a lookalike audience to be generated.
If you’re aiming to generate custom audiences solely based on your TikTok activity, ensure you create a custom audience promptly after uploading a new video or going live. This ensures you capture the most recent engagement data for optimal audience targeting.
d. Test Different Similarity Levels:
Try out various similarity levels to find the one that suits your campaign best. A higher similarity level might give you a more focused audience, while a lower one could broaden your reach to a larger pool of potential customers. Experimentation will help you determine the optimal balance for your objectives.
Here are your options for similarity levels:
- Narrow: This level targets users who closely resemble your source audience. While it provides highly targeted potential customers who are likely to connect with your brand, the audience size may be smaller.
- Broad: This level expands your potential reach, although the similarity between this audience and your source audience may be moderate. It’s useful for reaching a larger audience while still maintaining some resemblance to your original audience.
- Balanced: This is the default option, offering a middle ground between Narrow and Broad, providing a good balance between targeting and reach.
e. Use Multiple Lookalike Audiences:
Don’t confine yourself to just one lookalike audience. Instead, create multiple lookalike audiences based on different custom audiences or varying similarity levels.
We suggest generating a separate custom audience group for each data source you have, such as website traffic, current customers, or engagement with your TikTok profile.
By doing this, you can test and compare the performance of each audience group. For a streamlined marketing strategy, create one campaign for each audience group. And remember, you can create up to 999 campaigns per ad account, so take advantage of that flexibility!
f. Continually Refine Your Audience:
As you collect more data on your campaign performance, it’s essential to refine your lookalike audience to enhance its effectiveness. This could mean tweaking the similarity level or updating the custom audience it’s built upon.
Stay proactive in analyzing your campaign results and make adjustments accordingly to ensure your audience targeting remains finely tuned. This ongoing refinement process will help optimize your ad campaigns for better results over time.
g. Combine Other Targeting Methods in a Campaign:
In addition to using your lookalike audience as a target for your campaign, consider combining it with other targeting options like interest or behavioral targeting. This can help fine-tune your audience and boost campaign performance.
However, keep in mind that if your lookalike audience is small, combining it with other targeting methods might not generate much traffic. It’s best to use this approach when your lookalike audience consists of at least 10,000 users. This ensures that you have a large enough pool of potential viewers to reach with your ads.
#5. Clone Your Success
Replicating your successful TikTok ads is a proven method to scale your campaigns effectively.
Start by duplicating your winning campaign and tweaking its daily budget without pausing the original. This allows you to expand your efforts while retaining control over your budget and performance, without disrupting the algorithm of your original campaign.
But there’s more to cloning than just duplicating. It’s about identifying what’s working within your ad group.
You can then replicate and enhance these elements to maximize your results.
Here’s how to get started:
- Analyze your top-performing ads:
Take a close look at your best-performing ads.
- Understand what makes them successful:
Identify the factors that contribute to their success. It could be the creative elements, the call-to-action, or the targeting parameters — each aspect plays a role in their performance.
3. Create a template:
Once you’ve pinpointed the winning elements, use them as a template to craft new ads.
Remember, you’re not aiming to create an exact copy. Instead, you want to experiment with variations while retaining the core elements that contributed to the success of the original ad.
For example, if a particular visual style or tone of messaging resonates strongly with your audience, incorporate that into your new ads.
Similarly, if certain demographics or targeting parameters performed well, reuse them. But don’t forget to introduce minor changes to keep the content innovative and captivating.
4. Test:
Testing is essential throughout this process. Start by launching your new ads on a smaller scale and closely monitoring their performance.
This approach enables you to validate whether the success of your original ad can indeed be replicated. By carefully analyzing the results, you can determine which elements are contributing to the effectiveness of your ads and make any necessary adjustments accordingly.
5. Don’t overlook timing and context:
If an ad performed exceptionally well during a particular season or event, consider cloning it around the same time for maximum impact.
Launching it outside of that season or event could result in unnecessary spending, disrupting your budget for other successful ads. Timing your ad clones strategically ensures that you capitalize on the factors that contributed to its success in the first place.
#6. Increase Budget Gradually
Scaling up your TikTok Ads sometimes just means having a bigger budget. This removes the limit on how many people you can reach once your daily budget is exhausted.
However, scaling effectively requires a cautious approach. Instead of dumping a large budget all at once, it’s better to increase your spending gradually. Keep a close eye on the results at each step to ensure you’re getting the best bang for your buck. This way, you can adjust your strategy as needed and avoid overspending on ineffective campaigns.
So, we recommend that you:
Start Small:
Begin your advertising journey with a manageable budget that lets you test different ads without taking on too much financial risk. This initial phase is crucial for collecting data and figuring out which ads work best.
Analyze Performance:
Regularly review your ad performance. Keep an eye on key metrics such as engagement rate, conversion rate, cost per click, and return on ad spend (ROAS). These insights will help you identify which ads are delivering the best results and are worth investing more in.
Increase Budget for High-Performing Ads:
After identifying your top-performing ads, gradually increase their budgets. A general guideline is to raise the budget by 20 to 50% each time, whether it’s daily or weekly. This approach directs your funds toward ads that have demonstrated effectiveness, maximizing your return on investment.
#7. Surf Scaling
This is a modified version of increasing your budget.
The surf scaling strategy on TikTok involves a dynamic approach to budget allocation. Advertisers strategically adjust their ad budgets throughout the day or week based on current engagement levels, akin to riding the waves—hence the term “Surf Scaling.”
This method enables efficient profit and loss (P/L) management by capitalizing on periods of high engagement and minimizing spending during low-engagement times. Essentially, you increase the daily budget when sales or engagements are rising, and pause the campaign when results aren’t favorable.
This process can be incredibly effective for businesses. By constantly fine-tuning budgets based on the days of the week or hours of the day when the campaign performs best, they can optimize their reach, conversions, and ROI on TikTok. It enables brands to ride the wave of user preferences, ensuring that their advertising efforts resonate with the audience and achieve the desired outcomes.
While you’re not breaching any policies by employing this technique, it’s important to be aware that the outcomes may not always meet your expectations.
If you become overly enthusiastic and increase your daily ad budget too significantly, there’s a risk of disrupting your campaign and causing it to reset its algorithm.
Some advertisers opt for a 20% adjustment, while others go for 50% or even 100%! It’s crucial to strike the right balance to avoid unintended consequences and maintain the stability of your campaign.
It’s ultimately your decision whether you want to take the risk. Some advertisers have successfully increased their budgets significantly and rode the wave of success, while others have faced setbacks and lost their large budgets without much return.
This highlights the fact that there’s no universal strategy for scaling TikTok ads. Experimenting with different techniques is crucial to figure out what works best for your specific circumstances. It’s about finding the approach that aligns most effectively with your goals and resources.
#8. Use Automation to Manage Campaigns
One common challenge that many advertisers encounter is the fluctuating performance of TikTok ads. Some have observed that ads might perform excellently for a day or two and then experience a sudden drop-off, making scaling efforts seem daunting.
The key to overcoming this hurdle is persistence and continuous monitoring of your ad’s performance. By closely tracking your ads, you can make timely adjustments to enhance their effectiveness.
However, due to the rapid changes in performance, it’s advisable to utilize Automated Rules. These tools enable you to manage your spending efficiently, even when you’re not actively monitoring your campaigns. They allow you to automatically adjust your budget or pause ads if they’re not delivering the expected returns, providing a level of control even while you’re away.
Automated Rules:
Automated rules are a robust feature within TikTok Ads that empowers advertisers to manage their campaigns with greater efficiency. By configuring these rules, you can automatically tweak your ad campaigns in response to specific performance metrics.
How do Automated Rules work? It’s straightforward. You set up specific conditions for your advertising campaign, ad group, or ad. When these conditions are met, the system automatically triggers a predefined action. This action could involve adjusting bids, budgets, or even pausing or enabling your ads.
The beauty of Automated Rules lies in their flexibility. You can configure them to run at any time interval — whether hourly, daily, weekly, or custom intervals — based on your specific needs. Additionally, they can be applied to all types of campaigns, whether you’re aiming for traffic, app installs, conversions, or video views. This versatility allows you to tailor Automated Rules precisely to your campaign objectives and schedule.
Moreover, Automated Rules aren’t just about implementing changes. They can also send alerts when specific conditions are met, keeping you informed about your campaign’s performance without requiring constant monitoring.
In essence, Automated Rules within TikTok Ads are crafted to save you time and enhance the efficiency of your ad campaigns. They streamline the management process while ensuring that you remain informed and proactive about your campaign’s performance.
#9. Keep Ads Fresh
Another challenge with TikTok Ads is ad creative fatigue. Typically, people start losing interest in an ad within 14 to 21 days of its launch. This emphasizes the importance of consistently introducing new content to capture and maintain their attention.
Additionally, TikTok’s algorithm tends to favor fresher content, further underlining the need for regular updates.
To combat ad fatigue, we recommend rotating ads to keep your audience engaged. By regularly refreshing your ad content, you can sustain interest and ensure that your campaigns remain effective over time.
Rotating ads is a potent TikTok advertising strategy that enhances ad performance by testing diverse creative content. Advertisers are advised to craft multiple ads within a single campaign, each featuring different visuals and messaging. This method not only diversifies the content but also appeals to a wider audience demographic, ultimately optimizing campaign effectiveness.
Once these ads are in rotation, the TikTok algorithm distributes them evenly within the ad group, ensuring that each ad receives a fair opportunity to engage users. The system then analyzes user interaction, identifying which ads resonate the most and optimizing ad delivery accordingly. This ensures that the most effective ads receive more exposure, maximizing the overall performance of the campaign.
If you’re running low on creative ideas, you can leverage a spy tool like Anstrex In-Stream, as mentioned in tip #1.
Keep in mind that the key to success lies in constant experimentation, analysis, and adaptation of your strategies to discover what resonates best with your audience and drives results for your business.
Conclusion
Scaling your TikTok ads isn’t just about increasing budgets; it’s about employing a smarter strategy, being agile in execution, and continually optimizing.
The journey towards scaling involves a blend of data-driven decision-making and creative innovation. Learning from advertising experts, and meticulously monitoring ad performance, you can establish a strong presence on TikTok that resonates with your audience’s preferences and behaviors.
TikTok Advertising evolves rapidly, mirroring the attention spans of its users. Therefore, it’s crucial to remain curious, stay engaged with your community, and remain committed to delivering captivating content because ultimately, that’s what drives conversions.
