10 Tips for Convincing TikTok Ad Creatives

1. What are TikTok ad creatives?
2. Why are TikTok ad creatives so important?
3. Which TikTok ad formats are most suitable?
4. What makes good TikTok ad creatives?
5. 10 tips for convincing TikTok ad creatives
6. Examples of successful TikTok ad creatives
7. Which tools can help in creating TikTok ad creatives?
8. What is the TikTok Creative Center?
9. Conclusion

Our guest author Helena Rettig gives you an overview of TikTok ad creatives, inspirations for good ad creatives and how you can implement them using 10 tips. In addition, you will receive some suitable tools to help you create TikTok ad creatives.

TikTok is the new leader among social media platforms. The monthly time users spend in the app far exceeds that of Meta platforms. As the State of Mobile 2022 Report shows, German users spent 23.6 hours per month on TikTok in 2021, only 11 hours on Instagram and even just 8.5 hours on Facebook.

This clearly shows: German social media users are on TikTok, across all target groups. The 18-24 year olds now even make up the largest user share. The purchasing power on TikTok is therefore becoming increasingly positive, which means that TikTok is becoming increasingly attractive as an advertising platform for e-commerce companies. But that's not so easy - simply transferring the previous Facebook ads strategy to TikTok definitely doesn't make sense. As with all social ads platforms, the key to success on TikTok is not targeting or bidding strategy, but TikTok ad creative. But this TikTok ad creative must look very different for good performance than on other advertising platforms.

What are TikTok ad creatives?

Ad creative refers to the image or video of an advertisement. Especially on TikTok, the video of an advertisement is hugely in focus. The TikTok ad has few additional elements apart from the video. However, it is important to consider these when designing ad creatives and only place important ad details in the safe zone so that they are not covered.

TikTok Ads Elements

Why are TikTok ad creatives so important?

As mentioned above, TikTok focuses on video content much more than other social media platforms. Users watch one video after another in fullscreen. Associated copies receive little attention. The ad creative is therefore the most important success factor and the biggest growth lever for your TikTok ads.

Technical measures in the ad account, on the other hand, have only a minor influence on performance. Sounds simple at first, but it's not that easy. The ad creative must fulfill very different tasks: The users scroll through the TikTok feed at a high speed and must therefore first be prevented from scrolling on. Once this is done, the video must entertain or inform to maintain user attention and promote engagement. And finally, the ad creative must of course also sell, i.e. cause a conversion.

To satisfy all these tasks, ad creatives require a well-thought-out storyline. You work this out through a testing roadmap, according to which you strategically test numerous ad creatives against each other. In such A/B tests, different versions of your videos are pitted against each other - for example the identical storyline, but with different scroll stoppers.

Ad concept

Which TikTok ad formats are most suitable?

The TikTok advertising platform offers a wide range of ad formats. Many of them reflect TikTok's intention by involving the community strongly. Like the branded hashtag challenge. In this advertising format, users are encouraged to produce user-generated content under a given hashtag of the brand.

However, in most cases we recommend you to use the classic In-Feed-TikTok-Ad. Here, your ad is displayed directly in the For-You-Feed of the users. Particularly video ads work well here - however, they should only be between 15 and 30 seconds long, even though TikTok videos are allowed to be up to 60 seconds long.

The TikTok Shopping Ads Update is interesting for the future, which has been rolled out since summer 2022. This includes not only video shopping ads, in which the advertised product is displayed as a small photo at the bottom left of the ad creative, but also live shopping ads, in which products can be presented via live stream and bought immediately.

What makes good TikTok ad creatives?

"Don't make Ads. Make TikToks." - This call comes from TikTok itself and embodies exactly what makes a successful TikTok ad creative:

• Native: TikTok ad creatives are supposed to integrate natively into the platform. They should not be immediately recognized by the users as advertisements, as they would otherwise with great probability scroll directly over the advertisement. You achieve nativity, among other things, by using the elements of the platform in your ad creatives. Here you can find the native TikTok color codes and fonts for download.
• Authentic: TikToks are above all one thing: authentic. The content is dynamically edited, but otherwise remains RAW. User-generated content is the motto for your ad creatives - the users want real and natural content from real people. High-gloss ads have no place on TikTok.
• Entertaining: TikTok means fun. Users are on the platform to be entertained. Your ads should therefore be entertainingly prepared to give the users exactly what they are looking for on the platform.
• Dynamic: TikTok is an extremely fast-paced and dynamic platform. It consumes only short content. Organic TikToks are usually extremely dynamically cut and convey many contents in just a few seconds. Your ad creatives must therefore embody dynamics in order to keep the attention of the users.

10 tips for convincing TikTok ad creatives

You have now understood what is important if you want to use TikTok as an advertising platform for your company. But how do you manage to create convincing TikTok ad creatives? We have 10 tips for you.

1. Use TikTok trends for native concepts: The TikTok user and also the algorithm punish obvious advertisements with high click prices and little attention. Your ad creatives must therefore integrate natively into the platform and this is easiest if you pick up on the same trends in them that the organic TikToks are created after. On TikTok, there are both current trends and evergreen trends. Due to the fast pace of the platform and to achieve consistent results with your ads, it is advisable for you to fall back on evergreen trends. Trends that work well in advertisements are, for example:

• What i ordered vs. what i got
• 3 reasons why
• TikTok made me buy it

2. User-Generated-Content (UGC) is King: TikTok is about UGC. The contents are RAW, produced with the mobile phone, emotional and show approachable people. Your ad creative needs to be exactly the same to not stand out negatively. Therefore, definitely use User-Generated-Content in your ads. UGC in this case means content from content creators without a large own reach (≠ Influencer), who enjoy creating authentic videos for your product. Of course, they may keep your product in return.

3. Use Hooks & Scrollstopper: The attention span on TikTok is short - the first three seconds are crucial. Your ad creative needs to catch the users with the scroll stopper in second one immediately and then convince them in the following two seconds to continue watching your video. You achieve this through so-called hooks, i.e. hooks with which you catch the attention of the users and stop the scroll. In order to find out how your target group responds to which hooks, you should test a lot of different hooks against each other in A/B tests. Here are a few examples:

• "Lifehack i wish i knew sooner"
• "Things i discovered on the Internet"
• "Favorite Online-Shopping finds"
• "Products that have changed my Life"
• "Best affordable dupes for X"
• "Things i use everyday"

4. Varied scenes for more dynamics: If you look around TikTok, you'll notice that the videos are cut extremely dynamically. Therefore, your ad creatives should use quick scene changes, different backgrounds and settings. Especially when placing your products, variety is important to keep the users hooked: Change the camera perspective, for example from the medium shot, which shows the creators with the product to the close-up for product focus. Let the creators talk into the camera and then switch back to the voice from off. Illustrate the spoken words with B-Role, Unboxing or Application scenes. There are no limits to your creativity.

5. Your storyline is short and concise: As with the previous point, not only for the length of individual scenes should these be cut short and dynamically, the overall length of the ad creative should also be in the range of 15 to a maximum of 30 seconds. Keep in mind that your TikTok audience is used to consuming content at a high speed. The dynamic scene changes enable you to pack a lot of information into a 15-second video. A recipe for a successful storyline is:

Pain Point + Solution + Unboxing + Application + Advantages + Offer

6. See, hear & read for maximum attention: In addition to the visual track of your video scenes and the spoken text of the creators, you should in your ad creatives also definitely use stickers, text overlays and/or subtitles. The written text ensures an additional reception of your advertising message and allows users who watch the ad silently to understand the content. The texts should not transcribe the entire wording, but briefly and succinctly reproduce the most important content.

There are two things to pay attention to:

1. The positioning of the stickers or subtitles should only lie in the safe zone, i.e. they do not overlap with other elements of the ad (e.g. ad copy or engagement buttons)
2. The text elements should definitely integrate natively, i.e. be identical to the fonts or stickers available in TikTok.

7. Sound on: The audio processing of your ad creatives is another important factor for their success. On TikTok, there's a big focus on songs and sounds. But you can't just copy the organic content. For advertisements, TikTok provides a special commercial sounds library. You can also use sound effects like the typical robot voice in your ad using the TikTok video editor.

8. Put a call to action and a clear offer: Tell the users what to do. It's as simple as it sounds. A clear call to action increases the conversion rate. Therefore, definitely include a call to action at the end of your ad creatives and provide a tempting offer as an additional conversion incentive. Whether this consists in a discount, a free product or similar, depends entirely on your target group. It is definitely recommended to test different offers against each other in order to make data-based decisions.

9. Always remember - fullscreen and vertical: Your ad creatives should definitely be produced in 9:16 format, so that they are played out as full screen in the app and take up the entire screen. This achieves the maximum possible attention. Take into account already in the content conception and production that your ad will later be displayed in 9:16 format, i.e. in portrait format. This is how native TikTok content is created.

10. No Ads: The tenth tip sums up the basic principle again. The attempt to make a TikTok ad creative appear as native as possible means in turn to also discard all classic advertising elements. Do not use classic advertising text overlays to communicate your offer. So no colorful circle elements with big discount numbers in them. Avoid glaring advertising colors and typical foil templates. All this would make your users immediately uncover your ad creatives as advertisements and with a high likelihood simply skip without consuming your message. You can find more tips and best practices in this TikTok ads guide!

Examples of successful TikTok ad creatives

Example Ad Sheko

Example Ad Paul Hewitt

Example Ad Leafnutrition

Which tools can help in creating TikTok ad creatives?

So, the goal is clear! But surely you're asking yourself if there aren't some helpful tools that can assist you in creating effective TikTok ad creatives. Of course, there are.

Tools for Ad Creative conception

TikTok ad creatives are small and consist of many short scenes, which are dynamically cut together. This means a lot of effort in briefing for post-production. The UGC raw content needs to be put in a meaningful order for the final ad concept. The collaboration tool Miro is ideal for visual conception.

Miro

Tools for Video Editing

Once the ad creative concept is set, it's time for post-production. You can use high-priced video tools like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro. For the beginners, you can also use free video tools, such as Canva Pro. However, to make your TikTok ad creatives as native as possible, we recommend you to use the TikTok Video Editor. It's part of the TikTok Creative Center and gives you direct access to all native fonts, design and sound effects.

Here you can find additional useful social media tools, for example for content planning and automated posting.

What is the TikTok Creative Center?

The TikTok Creative Center is a huge database and toolbox, which gives you inspirations and helps you to exploit the maximum potential of your TikTok ads.

What are current trends?

In the area "Trend Intelligence" you can see which hashtags, songs, creators or organic TikTok videos are currently trending in your country. Even a breakdown to a specific industry is possible here. This way you always stay up to date and exactly know what your community likes.

TikTok Creative Center

What works well?

If you switch to the area "Campaign Inspiration" you will find more specific information for you as advertisers. Especially exciting here is the list of the top ads, filtered by country, industry, campaign goal, likes and video length. This database is extremely helpful to see which advertisements currently work particularly well on TikTok. For each ad listed here, you can also see KPIs such as click-through rate or conversion rate over the course of the ad's runtime. A very valuable source of inspiration for your ad creatives.

TikTok Creative Center Campaign

Let’s get started

And finally, in the area "Creative Tools" you will find the TikTok Video Editor and video templates as well as a complete audio library to create your own TikTok ad creatives.

TikTok Creative Center Video

Conclusion

TikTok ads offer enormous potential, but should not be underestimated in terms of effort. Anyone who thinks they can simply copy the ad creatives from Facebook or Instagram and achieve strong performance on TikTok is mistaken. Instead, TikTok ad creatives have to be thought of completely separately in order to achieve the nativity and authenticity necessary for performance. Don’t make Ads. Make TikToks.