Online users nowadays are increasingly frustrated by intrusive ads that disrupt their experience, often causing them to ignore or even actively avoid brand messaging. TikTok Spark Ads changes that by blending the power of advertising with the feel of organic content. Let’s discover how this ad type works and how to run Spark Ads on TikTok right in this article!
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What are TikTok Spark Ads?
Spark Ads are a native ad format on TikTok. It allows brands to either promote existing organic posts from their own TikTok accounts, or use authorized content made by other creators. Like TikTok In-feed Ads, Spark Ads appear naturally like any other organic content on the TikTok For You Page.
Spark Ads are TikTok’s way of blending ads into the platform’s organic content. This ad format lets you amplify existing TikTok content.
Spark Ads are labeled as “Sponsored”, and will include a CTA of your choice, account name, caption, and audio. These ads are unique in that they have all of the standard engagement drivers, such as commenting, sharing, and liking.
TikTok Spark Ads vs. Non-Spark Ads: What’s the Difference?
The main difference between TikTok spark ads vs non-spark ads is the level of control and customization that businesses have over their ad campaigns.
Here’s a quick comparison of spark ads and non-spark ads to highlight their differences:
| Feature | Spark Ads | Non-Spark Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Connection to organic content | Linked to organic accounts (brand’s or creator’s account) | Not linked to an organic account |
| Engagement | Higher engagement due to native, authentic content | Lower engagement as ads feel more commercial |
| Click-through rate (CTR) | CTR driven by intentional clicks, increasing brand presence | Higher CTR driven by multiple touchpoints to the landing page |
| Follower growth | Increases followers and brand presence organically | Does not directly impact follower growth |
| Creative tools | Utilizes existing organic content, more authentic approach | Uses creative tools available in the TikTok Ads marketplace |
| User experience | Feels more natural, like regular posts in the feed | Can feel more like traditional, disruptive ads |
Benefits of using TikTok Spark Ads
Let’s find out some key benefits of Spark Ads that can take your TikTok to another level:
Boost with influencer creativity
One of the easiest ways to collaborate with influential content creators is through Spark Ads. Brands can allow influencers to use their creativity and experience to produce captivating content. As a result, the ad produced is equivalent to the organic content, making users much more likely to watch and interact with it.
Promote your best content
If you already have content that is performing well on TikTok, Spark Ads can leverage it and add an extra boost. Spark Ads ensure that your content will reach more people and build stronger connections between users with things in common.
According to TikTok, Spark Ads give better ad performance compared to non-Spark Ads and efficient buying alternatives while weaving organic and paid campaigns together.
Provide detailed metrics
Spark Ads can provide more ad metrics compared to Non-Spark Ads, such as:
- Paid clicks on the CTA button
- Paid shares
- Paid followers in 1 day
- Paid profile visits
Brands can measure their TikTok campaigns more specifically and optimize the strategy, which may lead to engagement, new leads, and conversion rate. This is where the culture and consistency of TikTok begin.
What Are TikTok Spark Ad Specs?
When it comes to Spark Ads TikTok, Mega Digital recommends some necessary specifications that advertisers should follow:
- Recommended dimensions: 16:9, 9:16, or 1:1.
- Recommended resolution: 540 x 960px, 640 x 640px, or 960 x 540px.
- Ad captions can be left blank or include account tagging, emojis, and hashtags.
- Ad display name and text will be based on the selected organic post that cannot be changed during the ad creation process on TikTok Ads Manager.
How Much Do TikTok Spark Ads Cost?
TikTok Ads cost varying amounts, which can be changed due to different campaigns. Typically, advertisers have to pay an average price of $1.00 per click and a CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) of $6.06.
TikTok also requires a minimum budget of $50 per day at the campaign level and $20 per day at the ad level. Campaign objective, budget & bid amount, audience segmentation, and CTR significantly impact how much your TikTok ads will cost.
How to Run Spark Ads on TikTok?
TikTok Spark Ads combine TikTok-provided organic content with creative advertisements. Creators must consent to the usage of their posts in advertising campaigns in order for these advertisements to run.
So, below is all the thing you need to do.
Method 1: Linking accounts
Step 1: Enable Spark Ads Feature
- Go to the TikTok Ads Dashboard
- Select the advertising objective
- Complete settings in “Campaign” and “Ad Group”
- Enable “Use TikTok Account to deliver Spark Ads”
Step 2: Choose advertising account
Add your owned account to directly use existing posts or create/upload new videos from the “Ad Manager”.
- For using existing videos:
- Access “Ad Details”, select “TikTok Posts”, then choose the post you want to use in Spark Ads
- After selecting the video, click “Confirm”
- Complete advertising settings options and click “Submit” to publish Spark Ads
- For creating/uploading new videos:
- Click on “+ Video” to upload the video
- After uploading, select “Display as an ad” if you want the video not to be suggested, searched, or displayed on your profile page
- Click Submit when your ad is complete. Now, you’ll have to wait for your ad to be approved
Method 2: Authorized Accounts or Post
With this method, businesses and content creators need to cooperate. Businesses that want to use authorized posts must have content creators authorize their videos for advertising purposes.
Step 1: Choose Videos and Generate Authorization Code
- Click on “Me” to go to your TikTok channel, then tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner
- Choose “Privacy”
- Turn on the toggle “Ad authorization”
Step 2: Authorize Video
TikTokers select videos for authorization, or businesses contact TikTokers to discuss authorized videos. After selecting the video, content creators need to:
- Access the selected video
- Click the three-dot icon
- Choose “Ad settings”
- Turn on “Ad authorization” and choose “Agree with Advertising Terms of Service”
>>> Read more: How much do TikTok Ads cost? Is it worth your investment?
Step 3: Create a Video Code
If your business collaborates with TikTok Creator Marketplace’s influencer, you can skip the code creation step and synchronize their videos with the TikTok ad manager for use in Spark Ads campaigns.
However, if your business does not work with creators on the TikTok Creator Marketplace, the content creator must generate a video code to share with your business. This code allows you to promote their content.
- Select “Generate Code” and choose one of the three allowed time frames: 7 days, 30 days, or 60 days
- Click “Authorize”
- Tap “Copy Code” to share the code with the business.
Step 4: Input the Authorized Video Code into TikTok Ads Manager
After copying the video code, the content creator will send it to the business, and you will need to input the code into the TikTok Ads Manage:
- Access “Assets”, then select “Creative”
- Choose “Spark Ads” and click “Apply for Authorization”
- Paste the authorization code into the search bar and click “Search”
- If the displayed video is the selected authorized video, click “Confirm”
Step 5: Run Spark Ads Campaigns
After completing all the steps, the business can convert natural videos to Spark Ads on TikTok by following these steps:
- Create a campaign and set up an ad group
- In the “Ad level” section, select Spark Ads
- Choose “Select posts from Library” in Upload
- Select the video you want to advertise
- Turn on the toggle “Use TikTok account” for advertising authorization and select the account you want to advertise
- Click “Submit” when your ad is ready. Now, you will have to wait for your ad to be approved
Effective TikTok Spark Ads Examples
Here are two powerful examples of TikTok Spark Ads that demonstrate how brands can seamlessly blend organic content with paid promotion to boost engagement and drive results.
Mango
The leading Spanish fashion brand – Mango, needed to raise awareness for its new Camille Charrière x Mango capsule collection, so it turned to TikTok for a traffic campaign.
With Spark Ads, Mango lets us see the clothes in all three-dimensional glory instead of watching models dress up individually. Mango’s results were showstopping, earning exceptional performance for their landing page view campaign when compared to the previous results. The brand witnessed a 533% increase in web sessions while paying 83% less per web session.
Isle of Paradise
Isle of Paradise, the beauty brand responsible for the world’s first 100% vegan and cruelty-free color-correcting self-tan, has a strong presence on TikTok.
As the off-peak season approached, Isle of Paradise approached various TikTokers who had previously made wonderful organic testimonials for Glow Drops and worked with them to repurpose their material for the campaign. The brand then used TikTok Ads Manager to launch Spark Ads that featured both original creator content and TikTok user-generated content.
Isle of Paradise achieved a 500% ROI, 45 million video views, a 1.1% click-through rate, and a 68% increase in revenue each week compared to the previous nine weeks.
Best Practices to Optimize TikTok Spark Ads
Certainly, businesses do not want their campaigns to encounter obstacles or issues such as videos being deleted due to policy violations, videos being muted, or videos receiving a lot of negative comments resulting in poor advertising results.
Therefore, you should immediately refer to some useful tips below to optimize your Spark Ads:
Define the campaign’s objectives
You need to identify goals to devise appropriate strategies to achieve them. Additionally, when the campaign ends, you should compare the results with the objectives to assess the effectiveness of Spark Ads advertising. Based on this, you can implement measures to improve future campaigns.
Develop a specific plan
After identifying the campaign objectives, you should build a plan for the Spark Ads advertising program, including these factors:
- Target audience
- Advertising budget
- Advertising formats
>>> Read more: All TikTok Ad Types You Need to Know [Update 2024]
Evaluate the effectiveness of various videos
To deploy Spark Ads on TikTok, you can select videos from your TikTok channel or use videos from KOC/KOL. So how do you choose suitable videos that yield results? Evaluate videos based on the following indicators:
- The created video content must ensure the requirements:
- Video duration
- Language
- Hashtags
- Use of music in the TikTok Commercial Sounds library
- Views: Select videos with high natural views to ensure good popularity.
- Interactions: Including the number of likes, comments, and shares. A higher interaction rate indicates that the video attracts audience attention.
- Conversion rate: Indicates the video’s ability to convert audiences into customers. Evaluate and measure this indicator to select videos that yield the highest conversion rate and focus on optimizing your campaign.
Wrap-up
TikTok Spark Ads have just transformed the way brands can advertise for the better. Remember that your Spark Ads will be much more effective when you partner with content creators who can churn out great UGC. Hopefully, this post has provided you with a broad understanding of how Spark Ads function and how they may benefit brands.
