Can we choose what our TikTok ads appear next to?

TikTok took down more than 30 million videos in three months across ten markets in our region.

That sounds like a lot. Between April and June it was about three in every thousand videos posted there, and almost all of them were caught before anyone reported them.

The rest stay up. A prank that goes too far. A shouting match about politics. A night out filmed one drink at a time. None of them breaks TikTok's rules, and your ad can play right after any of them.

How often it does is partly up to you. With 11.11 a week away, this is the week to set it.

Can you choose what your TikTok ads play next to?

Yes, within limits. TikTok already keeps every ad away from videos that break its rules. Above that, you choose one of three levels for how strict it is about the videos around your ad, and you can block a few kinds of content on top. Set it once for the whole account, pick the level that fits the people you sell to, and look after the comments under the ad as well. They sit right under your name.

What TikTok put in one place on 28 October

At its forum for advertisers in Singapore on 28 October, TikTok opened what it calls its Brand Safety Center. It brings together the settings for where ads appear, a guide to protecting a brand on TikTok, and a short guide to advertising made with AI, written with an independent marketing consultancy. Marketing-Interactive reported the launch the next day, with the removal figures above.

The settings themselves are not new. They were already in TikTok's help pages before the forum. What changed is that they are now gathered in one place.

Brand safety is TikTok's name for keeping an ad away from videos a brand would not want to be seen beside. It sits on top of TikTok's own rules, which apply to every video whatever you choose.

Three levels, like choosing where your banner hangs

Think of a shopping mall that lets you hang a banner. You can say: anywhere in the mall. Anywhere except beside the bars and the nightclub. Or only in the family wing. The mall still won't hang it anywhere unlawful. The rest is your call.

TikTok's version has three levels, and its help page describes each one:

1. Expanded. Your ad stays away from clearly inappropriate videos, but may play next to ones with mature themes.
2. Standard. Your ad plays next to videos TikTok counts as suitable for most brands. Some may still touch on mature themes.
3. Limited. Your ad plays only next to videos without mature themes.

The same page has a table of what each level keeps away. A video that makes smoking, vaping or drinking look glamorous is kept away from your ad at Standard and Limited. So is one that cheers on one side of a political fight. The same subjects shown as news, or as plain information, are kept away only at Limited.

Which level fits your business

TikTok describes Standard as suitable for most brands, and for most small businesses it is the place to start. A café, a fashion label, a cleaning service, a gadget shop.

Choose Limited when your buyers are parents, or when you sell anything to do with children, health or money. In those trades, one bad neighbour for your ad costs more than a few lost views.

Stricter has a price too. Each level up keeps your ad out of more videos, so it has fewer places to show. Pick the level your buyers need, not the strictest one out of worry.

Two more choices, if they fit

On top of Standard or Limited, TikTok lets you block up to four kinds of content: videos made for young viewers, gambling and lotteries, violent video games, and combat sports. A bar would block the first. A tuition centre might block the last two.

You can also pick one industry from TikTok's list and keep your ad away from the touchy videos about it. A bakery that picks food stays away from what TikTok calls graphic food content and unhealthy eating habits. A beauty brand that picks beauty stays away from beauty content TikTok counts as negative or controversial. This one works on campaigns meant to reach people, get views or win followers, not on campaigns for sales, website visits or sign-ups.

Where the settings don't reach

Two things to know before you lean on them.

They cover TikTok's own feeds: the For You feed, the Following feed, profiles, search, and the lighter TikTok Lite app.

And TikTok's help pages list the kinds of campaign they work with. Selling straight from a TikTok Shop is not on the list. If your sale ads sell from your TikTok Shop, check in your own account what it lets you set there.

TikTok's own words are that it makes reasonable efforts to keep to the level you chose. Most of its checking is done by software. It is not a person watching every video your ad follows.

The comments are part of the ad

The video before your ad belongs to a stranger. The comments under it belong to you.

TikTok lets you turn comments off for a whole group of ads. Its own help page advises against it: keeping comments on, it says, helps your ads get seen more and bring in more sales and sign-ups.

Instead, it gives you one place to read and answer them all, the Comments Manager in your ads account. You can reply as your business, keep ready answers for the questions that come up every day, hide a comment, block someone who keeps spamming, and keep a list of words that hides any comment containing them.

Then answer the real questions quickly. "Is this legit?" "Do you deliver to Punggol?" A question under an ad is a customer halfway to buying.

What to set this week, before the sale

All of it is in your TikTok Ads Manager.

1. Set your level once for the whole account. Under Tools, then Settings, open the Brand Safety Hub and choose your default. Every new campaign then starts with it. Ads you made before keep their old setting, so open those too.
2. Choose the level your buyers need. Standard for most businesses, Limited if you sell to families or in health or money.
3. Add the extras that fit. The kinds of content to block, and your own industry's touchy videos.
4. Look at your TikTok Shop ads separately, since these settings are not listed for them.
5. Write your list of blocked words in the Comments Manager: the rude words you would never want under your name.
6. During the sale, read the comments at set times each day, and answer the buying questions first.

Questions owners ask

Does the strictest level cost us customers?

It can cost you reach. Limited keeps your ad away from more videos, so it has fewer places to show. For a brand whose buyers would be put off by mature content, that trade is worth making. For most others, Standard is the level TikTok itself describes as suitable for most brands.

Could our ad still appear next to something awful?

Much less often than you might fear. Videos that break TikTok's rules are kept away from ads at every level, and almost all of the ones TikTok removed were caught before anyone reported them. The levels decide the grey area above that line, and TikTok says it makes reasonable efforts to keep to your choice.

Someone is selling copies of our product on TikTok Shop. What can we do?

Report the listings. TikTok Shop has an Intellectual Property Protection Center where brands flag listings that copy them. It also has a programme called TikTok Real. With it a brand can see who is authorised to sell its products, get alerts on suspicious listings and act on confirmed fakes, as reported from the launch.

Do ads made with AI need a label on TikTok?

TikTok's new guide to advertising with AI covers when to say that a video was made or changed by AI. Our article on whether an AI presenter should front your videos goes through the labels on each platform.

Can an agency set this up for us?

Yes. AI WISE is a Singapore-based digital marketing agency serving Asia. We run TikTok ads for businesses in Singapore and across Asia, and we make the videos for them. The account stays in your own TikTok Business Center, and our first step is to read it with you, its settings included, before the first campaign goes out. See how we run TikTok ads.