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Questions about setting up TikTok campaigns (10)

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Hi everyone.

I finally started some quick tests on TikTok to check how it goes with my offers.

@shishev was kind enough to let me use his advertising account for the tests, thanks alot for this.

The results were so/so but I also didn´t intend to run highly profitable campaigns right away, I just wanted to get a rough idea if it works at all.

Nonetheless the test results were good enough for me to get my own agency account (thanks @jack_l) to continue testing my offers on TikTok but of course I want to do it better for the "real" campaigns so I have some questions for the TikTok experts about the campaign setup.

My campaign setup was definitely a bit suboptimal so before I start new tests I´d like to tell how I ran the campaigns and then hopefully get some inspirations what I can do better next time.

I tried to keep the campaign setup very basic because I just wanted to get it running as fast as possible without wasting too much time so I went to TikTok and searched for keywords related to my offers and then I downloaded a video that looked ok-ish.

The video had some English text so I edited it for my geos and added overlays with text in the local languages.

Then I created the campaigns with the following setup:

I used "Conversions" as objective, I enabled campaign budget optimization, bid strategy was lowest cost and delivery type was standard.

I created 1 ad group per campaign and kept the targeting pretty broad, I targeted only by country and excluded the 13-17 age group.

"User comment" and "video download" is enabled, "automated creative optimization" is also enabled.

For the creatives I uploaded the video to TikTok and used their "Smart Video" tool to add music.
That way I generated 3 variations of the creative, all with same video but different music.

I also added 3 different ad texts so that I had 9 different ad variations per campaign.

Here are my questions for the next campaigns:

- How many ad groups per campaign?
- How should the ad groups be structured? (1 ad group per age group, 1 ad group per video, 1 age group per video and age group etc.)
I also set targeting pretty broad because when I tried to create 1 ad group per age it often said "Your audience size is too narrow."
- What event to use for SOI leadgen campaigns, "Complete Registration" or "Submit Form"?
- How many creatives per campaign and per ad group?
- How many different videos and how many variations of each video?
- Campaign budget optimization yes or no?
When I enable it the bid strategy will always be lowest cost and delivery type is always standard.
Without campaign budget optimization I can also set bid strategy to cost cap (CPA goal).
- "User comment" and "video download" enabled or not?
- Interest and behaviors yes or no?

If there´s anything more to consider I am all ears

Then about performance, I tested leadgen campagns in MX and KZ.
I run the offers for long time already so I know that they convert good.

The first day the KZ campaign received 4 early conversions, probably in the first 100-150 clicks.
Then it received lots of addittional clicks but no more conversions so that day 1 ended with 8959 clicks and still 4 conversions = 0.04% CVR.

The MX campaign received only 155 clicks the first day but these clicks resulted in 15 conversions = 9.68% CVR so the performance there was much better.

On the second day it was rather other way round, the KZ campaign received only 358 clicks that resulted in 25 conversions = 6.98% CVR.
The MX campaign received 1683 clicks that resulted in only 37 conversions = 2.20% CVR.

Is this normal that there are such hefty swings, especially like I´ve seen in the KZ campaign?

Or is it just in the beginning when the pixel is fresh and it will normalize better the longer it runs.

About the pixel, is it better to use 1 pixel for several campaigns or separate pixels per campaign/geo/whatever?

Here I used 1 pixel per campaign.

Thanks in advance

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TikTok does a background check if the video has been run previously by another account and will penalize you occasionally for this, just a heads up, almost always better to edit the video a bit for uniqueness.

1 Ad per Ad group is a good idea but don't use CBO for it, TT isn't great at choosing which videos are best. It's better to use your own judgement right now.

Disable "User comment" and "video download", video download doesn't provide any benefit what-so-ever, user comments in my opinion will almost always hurt the CVR unless you spend all day monitoring and controlling the comment section.


I don't recommend smart tool either to be honest, the TT app itself does the best from what I've found for producing content.

I've ran as many as 250+ per campaign, data is stored in ad group level, not campaign.

I ALWAYS run as broad as possible and let my pixel find the best customers for me, I run a single ad per ad group and have found the most success with this.

Submit Form or Complete Payment, I have 45%+ CVR using Complete Payment and haven't managed to repeat this with other event types.

1 creative per ad group.

I test 3 or 4 videos for every offer almost always, completely different angles intentionally to see which one provides best stats.

I never run CBO anymore, it just doesn't work well imo.

I never run comments, video download doesn't matter as tools exist to download.

Honestly a coin flip, if it's an obvious interest category offer (eg. a psychic offer, use nature interest) anything else, including leadgen, just as wide as possible.

I use 1 pixel and 1 account per offer personally.

I'd never reuse a pixel for MX in KZ as well if you were considering it. The TT algo's are very strong, I let them run wild usually but don't give them bad data.

Can't comment regarding the massive swing but if you changed budget, I've seen that happen a couple times.

Had one ad group run 25% cvr on an ecom offer to never convert ever again after trying to scale, weird things happen on TT at very low budgets (sub $50)

Hope this helps amigos.

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@ScottyG Thanks for your answers.

My agency account is loaded with some money and I am more or less ready to test but now I have few more questions

Good to know but you say "if the video has been run previously by another account".

So when I create a video myself and it´s converting good then it´s safe to use it for different campaigns without getting penalized?

Ok, got it.

Just for clarification, when you say the "TT app" do you mean the Android/iOS app or the TikTok Video Editor in the creative setup?



From what I see I can do probably the same things in the TT Video Editor that I can do in the Android app and it would be much easier to do all the creative stuff directly on the PC

About music for the videos, I guess you add the music just from the songs that TikTok provides during video creation?
Also do you have tips for music that works good for the TikTok audience?
For me all the music sounds nothing but terrible so I would just choose random songs

Ok, so you have up to 250 different ad groups with one creative per adgroup in a campaign.

Targeting for all ad groups is exactly the same (also as broad as possible) and the only difference between the ad groups is the creative, correct?

Also about targeting broad, do you run Android and iOS together in a campaign or do you run them separated?

So when you say you have up to 250 creatives in one campaigns I guess these are not all completely different videos but rather 3-4 different videos with many variations of each, is this correct?

If that´s the case, what kind of variations are more important in your opinion, different music or different video style (transitions, effects) or is it best to create a shitload of different music/style variations and then just test?

Then about text in creatives, do you add text to the creatives or not?



I would just add few information about my offer but I have absolutely no idea how the TikTok audience works and if maybe additional text will rather hurt the performance.

Usually I would also add a good CTA as text but you have to add a CTA during creative setup anyway so probably there´s also no need to add an own text with CTA?



About creatives in general, do you use real videos for creatives or do you just upload images and let TikTok create videos/slideshows from it?

Maybe I have a wrong battle plan anyway because so far I only thought about uploading images and not creating the videos itself on my own

One last question about creatives, what length is doing best?
Better to run shorter or longer videos?

So even for SOI leadgens you are using "Complete Payment"?

About bid strategy, do you use "Lowest Cost" or "Cost Cap"?

For cost cap the suggested minimum is often way too high for SOI leadgens, for AR for example it´s at $6.72 so I am not sure if using "Cost Cap" would work.

Is there a specific reason for using a separate account per offer or is it just your personal preference?

The only reason that comes to my mind that really makes sense is when an account get banned that the other campaigns are not affected from it.

I didn´t change anything on the campaigns, the swings just happened

But talking about budgets, these campaigns were set to $50/day.

Maybe I just start with higher limit next time.

Thanks in advance

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On the same account yes, however I notice reduced performance and higher CPMs when reusing a video from even my own account in my own BM.

Basically if you make a creative, it belongs to one account. Run it as hard as you want on that one account.

TT App itself, the desktop video editor is shit, lacking features.

TT App Recommended music, pick basically any of the top 30 suggestions

Nah, if I got 5 videos working well I'll just duplicate an adgroup with video #1 10x times, video #2 10x times, etc

Yup

Together, 25+ M/F Android/iOS USA is 99% of my camps

Yeah you got it, read above regarding the other 250 creative question

Neither, the message and angle is the most important. Regardless of shitty music taste and bad video editing or content, a good angle always wins. Especially cause 'trash' low quality content is considered the same as professionally produced.

I'm 50/50 on this and can't give a straight pick either way right now

Like I said, hard to call right now, I run both and test both.

Always videos, never use images/slideshows. The 5% CTR you will receive on it is fake reach traffic, it'll never convert.

sub 30s is my sweetspot right now. You get better CPMs for shorter videos.

Nope, been testing SubmitForm, CompleteRegistration and others as well.
However I still usually see best results with complete payment, just seems to be the most fleshed out event targeting option so far.

Lowest cost always, never touch cost cap personally.

Personal preference and I don't follow it, I run similar offers on one account, eg. 3 ecom gadget offers can share an account, never a pixel though.

I see weird shit happen at $50/day budgets, I try to do $100+ always.

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@ScottyG Thanks alot.

There´s just one thing in your answers that destroys all motivation completely:

I really hoped that slideshows will do the job as well.

Anyway, off to work now, need to get some videos done

Btw, does it make a difference if I upload images and make the slideshow in TikTok creator or if I make a slideshow on my PC and upload it as video to TikTok?

In other words, when I make a slideshow on my PC and upload the video to TikTok will it still be seen there as slideshow or as a full video?

Also do you use spoken text in your videos or just visuals with music?

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Jumping in here, do you see differences in traffic quality or just CPA? I've been using the Tracking Event Category table on https://ads.tiktok.com/marketing_api...01890972233730 as my general guide, and trying to make my funnel events as similar as I can to whether the ecommerce, form, apk download, or consultation flows in whatever my offers seems closest too. I just had a weird experience though with one offer, where I used the Download Button Click event goal. Things converted amazingly well, but the backend quality was horrific (90% below KPI threshold). It was weird for me, as I havent had any other leadgen offer even be more than slightly below KPI, though those had all be ran with Form Submission or Complete Registration as the goal. I'd split test it myself, but for rather obvious reasons that offer isnt eager to give me more cap lol.

Do you think TikTok selects different traffic pools based on what conversion event you select?

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Let me piggy back off Scotty "dont copy creatives" advice.......

TT is taking down accounts that copy repeatedly. I worked closely with them on this process and it just started to roll out about a month ago. Lastly if the same AFF ID is continuously ripping your content there are several legal ways to make it painful for them.

Here is the link to report ads that are stolen

https://www.tiktok.com/business/en/report

If you have a high level rep you can just message them the URL and they will get it taken down in a few hours.

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Nice, I messaged my rep the other day about a creative of mine I found stolen. Hopefully they got it.

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Thanks, good to know.

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If you create a video in the regular APP is it automatically supposed to show up in the creatives of the Ad manager if the accounts are linked? I seem to be having trouble with this.

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