Here is how to advertise on TikTok in short: create a TikTok Ads Manager account, install the TikTok Pixel or Events API on your site, and build a campaign in three layers: a campaign with an objective, an ad group with budget and targeting, and vertical video ads. To boost a single organic post with a few taps, TikTok also offers Promote inside the app.
This guide walks through that setup in the order I use it, with the budgets, settings and limits TikTok documents as of October 2026. It also covers TikTok Shop ads and the Snapchat equivalent, because many advertisers test both. For more guides on short video platforms, see the TikTok and Snapchat ads hub.
What you need before you advertise on TikTok
You need four things before your first campaign: an Ads Manager account, a payment method, a way to track conversions and at least a few vertical videos. Sorting these out first saves you from rebuilding campaigns later.
The account is the part people rush. TikTok's own FAQ is clear that you cannot edit the time zone, region, business name or currency of an ad account once it has been created. Pick the time zone your CRM and other ad platforms report in, and the currency you invoice in, or your reporting will never line up.
For tracking, install the TikTok Pixel on your website. It is a piece of code that shares website events, such as page views, form submissions and purchases, with TikTok. TikTok also offers the Events API, a server-side connection that sends the same events from your server or tag management setup. Using both gives TikTok more complete event data to optimize on, especially when browsers block third-party scripts.
TikTok Promote vs Ads Manager vs Smart+
Use Promote to boost posts from the TikTok app, Ads Manager when you need control and measurement, and Smart+ inside Ads Manager when you want TikTok's automation to handle targeting and creative combinations. Most performance advertisers end up in Ads Manager.
According to TikTok's help center, Promote is an in-app tool to amplify TikTok videos and LIVEs. It offers four goals (boost account, get leads, get sales and boost LIVE), and you must be at least 18 to use it. Smart+ campaigns are an automated campaign type in Ads Manager for sales, app, lead generation and traffic goals: you supply the KPI, creative, geography and language, and TikTok automates targeting, budget allocation and creative variations.
| Criterion | Promote | Ads Manager (manual) | Smart+ campaigns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where | TikTok app or web | ads.tiktok.com | ads.tiktok.com |
| Best for | Boosting your own posts quickly | Full control over targeting, bids and structure | Scaling with automated targeting and creative |
| Goals | Boost account, leads, sales, LIVE | Reach, traffic, video views, community interaction, app promotion, lead generation, sales and more | Sales, app promotion, leads, traffic |
| Targeting control | Basic | Detailed | Mostly automated |
| Setup effort | A few taps | Full campaign build | Campaign build with fewer settings |
If you use Promote today and want to move up, TikTok lets you integrate Promote with Ads Manager, so you do not have to start from zero.
How to advertise on TikTok step by step
Running ads on TikTok in Ads Manager comes down to account setup, tracking and the three campaign layers. Here is the full sequence.
- Create your Ads Manager account. Go to the Advertising on TikTok signup page, register with an email address or phone number, add your business details, then your billing information and payment method.
- Set up tracking. In Events Manager, create a Pixel, install it on your site and define the events you care about, such as a completed lead form. Add the Events API if your developer or tag manager setup allows it.
- Create a campaign and pick an objective. The objective tells TikTok what result to optimize for. Choose it based on the action you want, not on the metric that looks best in reports.
- Build the ad group. Choose placements, targeting (location, language, age, interests or custom audiences), budget, schedule and the optimization event, for example a lead submitted on your website.
- Create the ads. Select an identity, upload a vertical video or use a Spark Ad, write the ad text, choose a call to action and add your landing page URL with UTM parameters.
- Submit for review. TikTok says most ads are reviewed within 24 hours. Use that time to double check that the Pixel fires on the thank-you page.
Choosing an objective, budget and measurement
Pick the objective that matches the action you will judge the campaign on, give each ad group enough budget to collect conversion data, and measure the result in your own systems. For lead generation, that usually means the Lead generation or Sales objective with a conversion event, not Traffic.
TikTok groups its objectives into three categories. Awareness has Reach. Consideration has Traffic, Video views, Community interaction and Branded Mission. Conversion has App promotion, Lead generation and Sales.
The Lead generation objective has two routes. Instant Forms open inside TikTok, load faster than a typical landing page and can pre-fill fields. Website forms send people to your own page, which TikTok recommends when you want to ask detailed qualifying questions. To get Instant Form leads into your CRM, TikTok points to integrations through Zapier, LeadsBridge or a custom API.
Budget rules in Ads Manager are simple. TikTok's help center states that a daily budget must exceed $50 at campaign level and $20 at ad group level. A lifetime ad group budget must be at least the number of days times the minimum daily budget, so a 31-day ad group needs at least $620.
How to measure TikTok ads
Measure TikTok ads on the outcome you care about in your own systems, and use TikTok's reported conversions as a directional signal. Platform reporting and your CRM will never match exactly, because each counts conversions with its own rules.
Use consistent UTM parameters on every ad, so sessions and leads show up correctly in Google Analytics and your CRM. Compare TikTok's numbers with what you see in your analytics tool, and decide upfront which source is the one you report on. Our guide to attribution models explains why the numbers differ and how to pick a model that fits a longer B2B sales cycle.
Creative that works on TikTok
TikTok ads perform best when they look like TikTok posts: vertical, fast and shot for sound on. The format specs are generous, so the limiting factor is almost always the idea, not the file.
For regular In-Feed ads, TikTok recommends a vertical 9:16 video, accepts videos of up to 10 minutes and files up to 500 MB. Ad text cannot contain clickable links, @ mentions or hashtags. Spark Ads are the other main option: they turn an organic post, from your own account or from a creator who authorizes it, into an ad. Engagement stays on the original post, which keeps likes and comments in one place.
For B2B and lead generation offers, these are the creative rules I start from:
- Show the product or the problem in the first seconds, not a logo.
- Use a real person talking to the camera instead of a polished brand video.
- Put the offer and the call to action in the video itself, because many people never read the ad text.
- Make three to five variations of one idea, so you learn what works instead of which video got lucky.
When you change creative, change one thing at a time. The same principles that apply to landing pages apply here, and our guide to conversion rate optimization explains how to set up clean tests.
How to run ads on TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop ads now run through GMV Max. TikTok's help center states that starting July 2025, GMV Max is the default and only supported campaign type for TikTok Shop ads, replacing the separate LIVE Shopping, Product Shopping and Video Shopping campaigns.
Existing campaigns of the older types keep running, but you can no longer create or edit them. If you sell through TikTok Shop, plan your product and creative setup around GMV Max. TikTok Shop is a commerce feature, so it matters less for B2B lead generation.
How to run ads on Snapchat
Snapchat ads work much like TikTok ads: you create an account in Snapchat Ads Manager, install tracking, then build a campaign, an ad set and vertical ads. The main differences are the audience and the objectives.
According to Snap's Marketing API documentation, campaigns use one of five objectives: Awareness and Engagement, Traffic, App Promotion, Leads and Sales. The minimum daily budget for an ad set is 5 units of the account currency, for example $5. For tracking, Snap offers the Snap Pixel and a Conversions API, the same browser plus server pattern as TikTok and Meta Ads.
To create ads on Snapchat, prepare full-screen vertical creative, set up the Snap Pixel first and start with one objective per campaign. The same creative principles apply: native-looking video, a clear offer early and a simple next step.
Common mistakes when advertising on TikTok
- Picking the wrong time zone or currency. These cannot be edited after the account is created. Match them to your CRM and finance setup before you click Register.
- Launching without a working Pixel. Conversion objectives need event data. Check in Events Manager that your key event fires on the real conversion before you go live.
- Optimizing for clicks when you want leads. The Traffic objective finds people who click, not people who fill in forms. Use Lead generation or Sales with the right event.
- Running TV-style brand videos. Polished ads often look out of place in the feed. Native, vertical, person-led video usually fits better.
- Testing too many things at once. Many ad groups with tiny budgets split your data. Start with one campaign, a few ad groups and several creatives around one offer.
- Judging B2B results on cost per lead alone. Cheap Instant Form leads can be low quality. Follow leads through to the sales stage in your CRM before you scale.
