How to Use TikTok Ad Library to Run Successful TikTok Ad Campaign

In today's fast-paced digital marketing world, we are all looking for new social platforms to promote our brand. The campaigns will catapult your brand to the next level of success by increasing awareness and connecting you with qualified leads. Initially, brands focused on only Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

In 2016 and 2017, TikTok wasn't considered by most digital marketers when creating SMM (social media marketing campaigns). Fast forward to 2018, TikTok started gaining traction thanks to the company's branding efforts and new auction ads platform. 

Today, it's one of the world's largest and most effective video-based social media marketing platforms. The most successful companies use it for marketing, and the results are remarkable. Here are some statistics to prove its potent ability to help businesses realize their full potential.

• As of July 2022, TikTok had more than 1 billion monthly active users globally.
• TikTok is the 7th most popular and influential social media platform.
• The TikTok app has been downloaded more than 2 billion times on Google Play and App Store.
• An average TikTok user spends 45.8 minutes daily on the app.

Investing in a TikTok ad campaign will increase your brand exposure online and expand your customer base. 

Like other social media platforms, competition for visibility on TikTok is cutthroat. You need creative ads to pique the target audience's interest, spur engagement, and encourage them to take the desired actions. 

Creating an ad from scratch is not easy. Luckily, the platform has an inspirational hub, the TikTok ad library (also known as TikTok top. ads), that you can check out to see the ads other brands in your niche are using.

Simply put, the library is a searchable repository of high-performing ads running on the platform for the last month. Here are tips on using the TikTok ad library to create a robust TikTok ad campaign for your business without breaking the bank.

How to Use TikTok Ad Library to Grow Your Business

TikTok ad library is like a goldmine waiting for you to discover it. At any time, there are more than 100 new ads from across the globe. 

The platform offers valuable information, such as trends and insights on how to connect with the ever-growing TikTok community. Here are expert tips on using the tiktok ad library to create successful TikTok ad campaigns by viewing the top ads running on tik tok right now.

Use Filters to Find Relevant Ads

Manually looking for an ad that matches your campaign goals and industry can be time-consuming and stressful. Ease the process by leveraging the many filters offered in the Creative Center. They will help you narrow down to ads most relevant to your business and industry. The primary filters are;

Country

Explore video ads that competitors are currently using in different countries. This filter is vital for brands that only operate in specific countries. Also, if you are a global brand, you can use the filter to understand how your competitors market themselves in various regions or continents. 

Industry

This is a no-brainer; if you are in the home improvement niche, you shouldn't be looking for health & fitness ads on the TikTok ad library. TikTok has 21 primary industry categories mostly around eCommerce products. You can refine your search by specifying your brand's niche. 

Objective

What do you want to achieve from the ads? TikTok has six primary campaign objectives: Conversions, Video Views, App Installs, Reach, Lead Generation, and Traffic. This filter will also come in handy when doing competitor analysis.

Duration

Duration refers to the length of the ads. This filter option has six choices in the range of 10-second intervals. Your goal when running ads on TikTok should be to capture the viewer's attention within the first 1-2 seconds of the ad. Most high-performing ads on TikTok are between 10 and 30 seconds long. 

Time Frame

As mentioned earlier, the ads in the TikTok ad library have been running for the last 30 days. The platform is fast evolving, and the default setting for this filter is seven days. Trends that worked two weeks ago may be irrelevant and ineffective in moving the needle. Thus, limiting your search to ads posted most recently is advisable. 

Search

The TikTok Creative Center main menu has a search bar that you can use to find ads that contain a specific phrase or word in their caption. The term can be a target keyword, brand name, or product. 

Reviewing the High-Performing Ads

Now that you have a list of ads matching your industry and campaign, you need to review the top or high-performing ads from your search results. Hover your mouse over any video and click on the "View Top Ad" option. 

You will be redirected to a dedicated "About this ad" page with insightful information about the ad. The insights include;

• Industry
• Region
• Objective
• Source (Ads manager and video editor) 
• Engagement (total number of shares, tiktok comments and likes accrued) 

This information will give you ideas for creating your ads for better results.

Also, on TikTok Creative Center's main page, you can organize the ad results based on Reach, CTR, 2s View Rate, and 6s video view rate. Check the CTR (click-through rate) and CVR (conversion rate) of the videos you like to gauge their ability to help your brand achieve its goals.

TikTok also goes the extra mile to compare how other ads perform against the same metric, thus giving you an idea of where the ad falls in the spectrum. You will notice the connection between copy quality and performance as you continue to review the videos.

7 Types of TikTok Ads and How They Work

By now, you already know the kind of ads to use to promote your business on TikTok. Connect with the TikTok community and increase the chances of your video ads going viral by being creative. The more unique and authentic your ads are, the higher the engagement level they will get.

There are seven different types of TikTok ads you can create to market your products or services. Here is a detailed review of each type to help you decide which one to include in your TikTok ad campaign. 

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Top View Ads

The top view ads are 60-second ads that offer an immersive viewing experience. They effectively capture the user's attention as they cover the entire screen. To avoid distractions, TikTok doesn't display any other content or text when they are viewing it. More importantly, these ads are more engaging and effective in generating sales than other ad formats.

Collection Ads

TikTok users gravitate towards brands that allow them to view products in-app and make purchases without leaving the app. Collection Ads will help you achieve this goal by directing viewers to a dedicated Instant Gallery page where they can view additional product photos and buy. 

Concisely, collection ads give customers a shopping and browsing experience that is memorable and engaging. However, they are not available in all industries, but they are worth trying if available in your niche. 

In-Feed Ads

In-feed ads are displayed to users on For You page, interrupting their scrolling. TikTok uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to determine which ads to show to a user based on how they use the platform. Two of the primary factors that it considers are;

• Type of ads the user previous interacted with via likes, follows, comments
• Personal interests and preferences

The in-feed video ad will help you tell your company's story and encourage viewers to visit your website to learn more about what you offer in 60-seconds. The goal is to make your brand memorable, as most people only buy from brands they are familiar with or have heard about online or offline. A recent study shows that TikTok in-feed ads are 23% more memorable than TV ads.

Maybelline is a perfect example of a company that successfully expanded its market base by creating compelling in-feed TikTok ads. 

In just 24 hours, the video ad accrued more than 2,907 comments, 48,000 likes, and 709 shares. The brand's awareness shot up to 80%, while brand favorability increased by 47%. 

Branded Hashtag Challenge

Branded hashtag challenge is ideal if your goal is to increase brand favorability and create more awareness. It's cheaper than other ad formats and invites millions of active TikTok users to engage with your brand. Use incentives such as mentions and freebies to encourage them to participate.

TikTok for Business describes it as a new ad format that leverages savvy TikTok users' passion for expression and creation. It boosts brand awareness efforts and connects deeply with potential customers. The level of engagement is beyond a simple click.

On average, branded hashtag videos record a whopping 17.5% engagement. Mercedes Benz recently ran a campaign on the platform dubbed #MBStarChallenge.

The campaign garnered more than 185,000 user-generated content (UGC) from 75K creators and over 180 million views. The brand preference and brand favourability increased by 15.7% and 18.25 respectively.

Brand Takeover Ads

Brand Takeover ads are unique ads tailored to give brands massive awareness. The ads are displayed to the target audience immediately after they open the TikTok app. Like the top-view ads discussed earlier, the brand takeover ad video is played in full-screen mode.

In addition, the entire screen is clickable. So, you can link an ad to a landing page, service page, or a branded hashtag challenge. Including this kind of ad in your TikTok ad campaign will help increase your reach by grasping and retaining the attention of potential customers.

Here is an example.

Branded Effects

Creativity will help you establish lasting and meaningful connections with the target customers. Flaunt your brand's playful and human side by spicing up your TikTok video ads with special effects, stickers, and filters.

Encourage influencers also to use special effects when creating marketing videos. The unique elements will immensely enhance the ad's ability to convert a regular TikTok user who comes across the ad from a viewer to buying customer.

These ads worked like a charm for Vinfast E-scooter, a company that sells electric scooters. They created a campaign to promote their Ludo and Impes scooters. The ad allowed users to select the kind of digitized scooter they would like to ride while dancing.

The #Phieucungxechat Hashtag challenge further fueled the campaign's popularity. In total, the campaign achieved more than 60 million impressions.

Spark Ads

The main goal of Spark ads is to spur brand growth using organic content. The ads look like they were created by an independent Creator, not the brand. They are considered unbiased and, thus, more effective in encouraging users to buy or visit a website to learn more about the promoted products or services.

One aspect that sets Spark ads apart from the pack is that the ads are run directly from the creator's page and not your official page.

Also, if a customer creates a video about your service or product and posts it on their TikTok account, reach out to them for permission to use it as a Spark ad in the campaign.

In addition, these kinds of TikTok ads are authentic and blend into the user's feed like the regular videos posted by other users. 

Costa partnered with creators to create a campaign using Spark ads. The campaign increased the brand's followers by 159% and generated thousands, if not millions, of impressions worldwide.

Wrapping Up

TikTok is the secret recipe for success in social media marketing. Monitor the results achieved from each ad type to identify one that best suits your brand and marketing goals. 

For even more ROI, pair your TikTok ad campaign with Foreplay to save video ads that you like from the TikTok ads library. The videos will always be in your Foreplay profile, and you can share them with other team members even if they don't have a Foreplay account. Check out our demo video to learn more. 

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