Social media marketing is a must in today’s age as it allows you to expand your business beyond your local area. Millions of people spend a huge portion of their time on social media sites daily, and every business or entrepreneur should take advantage of this fact. All major and minor businesses promote their products through advertising campaigns on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. Out of all of these, TikTok is new to the scene, being launched only in 2016. The popularity of the app can’t be denied, as it has about 1.5 billion users. With the ever-increasing popularity of the app, TikTok has become a valuable platform for marketing business products. Many companies use TikTok to engage and target their audiences through a variety of short video content. Influencer marketing has become a big part of TikTok marketing. Affiliate or influencer marketing involves affiliating yourself with well-known influencers or a social network to promote your products. In turn, the affiliates receive a commission for every click or sale made. Affiliate marketing can be highly advantageous as the influencers have an already in-built audience and can use their reach to build brand awareness. This can then translate into new leads or customers. Other kinds of ad campaigns are also used to improve brand exposure and increase sales. This article will focus on Spark Ads, and how they can be used for marketing purposes.
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What are TikTok Spark Ads?
TikTok describes Spark Ads as follows: “So, what exactly are Spark Ads? Spark Ads is a native ad format that allows advertisers to tap into authenticity by boosting organic content. This ad format allows the same user interactions as organic videos: users can comment, like, and share; they can visit your brand’s profile by swiping left, or clicking the handle name or profile picture; they can even follow your brand’s account by clicking the + icon on the profile picture. With Spark Ads, brands can grow through real connections with our community by delivering native content for greater authenticity. This is possible due to Spark Ads’ ability to combine the reach and scope of TopView and In-Feed Ads with the engagement and functionality of organic content”.
In other words
TikTok Spark Ads are a kind of ad format that allows businesses and brands to run ad campaigns by using organic content made by other TikTok users. TikTok Spark Ads allow brands to use content from other creators with their permission. This gives these ads a content-like feel and makes it difficult to spot a spark ad from an organic post. This allows brands to easily fit their advertisements in the daily feeds of TikTok users. This also increases the chances to catch a user’s attention, as a user is more likely to consume organic content than go out of their way to view advertisements of any sort. TikTok Spark Ads were launched in July 2021 and are now in use by many companies and brands. TikTok Spark Ads usually appear as sponsored content in your feed. These ads behave like normal videos and can be liked, shared, and commented on. Ad viewers can click on profile pics of accounts and can give them a follow if they like. Users can also be redirected to the landing page of the advertiser’s choice by tapping on the CTA button. Check Our TikTok Marketing Agency
How much do TikTok Spark Ads cost?
Just like other social media platforms, the cost of advertising on TikTok can vary from campaign to campaign depending upon certain factors. TikTok uses a cost per mile (CPM) metric to charge for ads. This roughly translates into the advertiser paying 10 dollars for every 1,000 views. But as mentioned, this may not be the case for you. The minimum budget for advertising on an ad level is $20 per day while for that on a campaign level is $50 per day. Factors that can affect your overall advertising costs include:
- Objective of your ad campaign
- The amount of money you bid on campaigns
- Your overall marketing budget
- Audience segmentation among others
How to create TikTok Spark Ads?
You can start creating your TikTok Spark Ads by following the steps below:
- The first step in the creation of a TikTok spark ad is the selection of the organic post you are going to use for your spark ad. Brands can pick posts from their TikTok accounts for this purpose. The second option, of course, involves picking a post from another TikTok creator. This can be done by finding content creators through the TikTok Creator Marketplace.
- After selecting the video of your choice, import it to the TikTok Ads Manager.
- The next step involves creating an ad campaign and an ad group.
- Choose the Spark Ads format while creating your ad.
- Find the Upload creatives tab. You can find a Select posts from library option under it. Use this to choose the post you want to use for your Spark ad.
- Add a CTA button and choose a landing page of your choice.
- After you are done creating your ad, tap on Submit to finish the process.
Advantages of Spark Ads
Spark ads offer the following advantages to advertisers on TikTok.
- Leveraging organic content: Spark ads allow brands to use popular and trending organic content to increase exposure, find new customers, create new leads and sales, etc. Companies can use content that is relevant to their brand image and reinforces their brand message.
- Better ad performance: Statistics have shown that spark ads tend to perform better than other ad formats. According to TikTok itself “Spark Ads have a 134% higher completion rate and 157% higher 6-second view-through rate than standard In-Feed Ads. Spark Ads’ new profile landing page UI also delivers a 69% higher conversion rate and 37% lower CPA than ever before”. At Admiral Media, we’ve had amazing results for our meditation app client, where we reduced the CPI by 57% and increased conversions by 170% with TikTok Spark Ads.
- More options for ad creation: Spark Ads offers many features that can be used to create innovative ads that get your message clearly to your intended audience. You can use features like duets and stitches. Or add stickers and animations, allow your viewers to click on music used in your ad, etc.
Conclusion
TikTok spark ads are an innovative way for brands to get in touch with their audiences through their marketing campaigns. With higher completion and conversion rates compared to other ads, the impact of spark ads cannot be denied. Admiral Media was one of the first agencies with an advertising account on TikTok, and our experts are always at the forefront of new developments. Check out our free TikTok Handbook to learn more and reach out if you would like to benefit from our expertise working with Spark Ads, TikTok App Profiles, or TikTok’s new auto targeting option.
