On TikTok, the video is the targeting
People on TikTok are not searching for you. They are scrolling, and they stop for a video that looks like the ones they came for, not like an advert. So most of the work is the videos: many short versions, each with a different opening in the first two seconds, tested against each other until the ones that bring customers in are clear. We make them with AI from your real product photos, so testing new versions never waits for a shoot (how we make them).
What a TikTok ads account needs before it can work
TikTok has to see the sale
TikTok learns who your buyers are from the sales it can see. The TikTok Pixel reports them from your website; TikTok recommends adding its Events API, which sends the same sales from your server, and asks that a sale sent both ways carries one ID so it is counted once (TikTok: About Events API, Event deduplication). We set up both and check the count against your own records.
Time to learn
A new campaign starts in TikTok's learning phase. TikTok says its results start to steady after about 25 campaign results or 7 days, and that pausing it or making some edits can set it back (TikTok: About the learning phase). So we give each campaign a budget that can reach those results, and leave it alone while it learns.
The right kind of ad
- Spark Ads run real TikTok posts as ads — your own, or a creator's with their permission — and the likes and comments stay on the original post (TikTok: About Spark Ads). They look like TikTok because they are.
- Smart+ lets TikTok automate as much or as little of a campaign as you choose, for sales, traffic, leads or app promotion; TikTok is rolling the new version out account by account (TikTok: About Smart+). We lean on it where the account already counts sales well.
- TikTok Shop ads run as GMV Max campaigns, TikTok's only campaign type for Shop ads (TikTok: GMV Max for TikTok Shop ads), and Product GMV Max is available in Singapore (TikTok: Create Product GMV Max ads).
Rules that apply to your trade
TikTok has its own rules by industry. Financial services ads in Singapore, for example, need the right MAS licence or registration, an 18+ audience and disclaimers (TikTok: Financial services policy). We check what applies to you before the first ad is made.
How a month runs
- Review and set up. We read your account and tracking, set up the Pixel and Events API, and agree the one result each campaign is for.
- Make and test. New videos go out in versions, side by side, on a budget each campaign can learn from.
- Move the money. Every week, budget moves to the videos that bring customers in most cheaply, and new versions replace the ones that stop working.
- Report. Every two weeks you get the numbers that matter to you — what you spent, what each customer cost, what we change next — in plain words.
Your TikTok account stays yours
The ad account sits in your own TikTok Business Center, in your company's name. You add us as a partner from it and choose our access — Admin, Operator or Analyst — and you can change it there (TikTok: Invite partners into Business Center, Change a partner's permissions). For Spark Ads, TikTok lets you give us "show through ads only" access, so we can run your posts as ads without being able to post on your profile (TikTok: Share a TikTok account with partners).
Who runs your ads
Felix Zhu Shunhao, our founder and CEO, ran advertising at Google and Meta before AI WISE. DongHyun Kim, co-founder, CTO and COO, spent five years in market growth strategy at Agoda, and runs how we measure and report. More about us
What TikTok ads cost
There are two parts: the money you pay TikTok for the ads, from your own account, and our fee for making the videos and running the account. We quote the fee after the discovery call, once we know what you sell and what you spend now. The two things we work on to bring the cost of each customer down are the videos and how clearly TikTok can see your sales.
Questions about TikTok ads
TikTok works best for products people decide on by seeing them: food, beauty, fashion, gadgets, home, anything with a visible result. For a service people search for when they need it, Google often comes first. We'll tell you which on the call.
No. We make the videos from your real product photos with AI, with presenters where a video needs one. If your founder or team want to appear, we film or edit those videos with you.
TikTok says a new campaign's results start to steady after about 25 results or 7 days. From there, the work is finding which videos bring customers and making more like them.
Yes. If you sell through TikTok Shop, its ads run as GMV Max campaigns, and Product GMV Max is available in Singapore; we set them up and keep the product videos coming.
Yes. The account sits in your own Business Center and we only hold partner access to it, so the account, its history and its videos stay with you.
TikTok and Meta reach people before they search; Google reaches them while they search. TikTok needs short, vertical videos made for it; Meta can reuse more of what you already have. We decide from your product and your numbers.
The people who run your ads. Felix Zhu Shunhao, our founder, leads every client relationship, and your report comes every two weeks with what we changed and why.
Last updated
