Best Practices to Improve TikTok Ad Conversion Rate

TikTok is the latest social network to captivate and entertain people worldwide, and its meteoric rise is still in motion. So how can you use TikTok to drive revenue for your eCommerce site and improve your TikTok ads conversion rate to maximize every click?

Why Advertise on TikTok?

The rise of TikTok has sparked a debate among business owners: should we invest more in TikTok ads or Facebook ads?

Facebook may still have the most monthly active users, but TikTok has established a growing foothold in North America and Gen Z. On iOS alone, TikTok has approximately 29.7 million daily active users and is one of the most downloaded entertainment apps in the Apple App Store.

However, many organizations still struggle to optimize their ads for the new platform. In addition, the nature of TikTok and what its users appreciate is unique to other platforms, so many of the old techniques don’t directly transfer over.

{{cta-bench-03}}

What’s an Ideal TikTok Ads Conversion Rate?

Before diving into the best practices, it’s vital to consider what a reasonable conversion rate goal might be for your industry. Looking at overall averages and industry comparisons helps you understand what an ideal conversion rate (CVR) actually is.

The average conversion rate for TikTok ads is 1.1%. However, that statistic includes every industry — from high-value real estate conversions to low-cost health and beauty sales.

Understanding TikTok ad benchmarks relevant to your industry is essential to setting goals and measuring the success of your efforts. 

We’ve designed Varos to give you real-time benchmarks for specific platforms relevant to your industry, not the overall average.

Below, you can see how TikTok ad conversion rates compare against your peers. You can use this information to set realistic goals while gauging your campaigns' success.

Best Practices to Boost Your Tik Tok Ad Conversion Rate

TikTok is a unique platform compared to the entrenched competitors' many organizations are used to. As a result, some of the same techniques will work, but others won’t. 

We’re ready to explore TikTok CVR best practices now that you have an accurate benchmark to gauge results.

{{cta-tiktok-guide}}

Leverage User Generated Content (UGC)

User Generated Content (UGC) is at the heart of TikTok, perhaps even more so than other social networks. 

The organic posts a user sees while scrolling TikTok are made by average people using the platform’s built-in editor. Highly polished and professionally edited ads will stick out like a sore thumb in the worst way.

Instead, create ads that mimic the types of content users are accustomed to. A great way to do this is to ask existing customers to create videos about your products, which can be reviews, demos, or unboxings.

You can then run ad campaigns with videos and TikTok-style editing to highlight their main points. As a result, you’ll earn more clicks while also educating potential customers about your product.

Include a Clickable Call-to-Action (CTA)

TikTok allows you to include a clickable CTA in your ads, typically a button right at the bottom of the ad. Put this option to work to improve your CTR for TikTok ads and guide users directly to the next step.

A few impactful ways to use the CTA button are:

• Give free shipping on orders made through the ad
• Provide a discount
• Offer a gift with the purchase

You can also experiment with other relevant CTAs for your business, industry, and products. Some of your CTAs used on other social media platforms may also be effective; keep the CTAs relevant and enticing. 

Use High BPM Music and Voice Overs

Fast music and voice overs are at the core of plenty of posts that go viral organically. Use these same tactics in your ads to move well beyond the average TikTok CPM, generate clicks, and ultimately improve your conversion rate.

Using specific trending music might not always be feasible due to licensing restrictions, but upbeat tracks at or above 120 BPM tend to work well. Make sure the music matches the overall focus of the ad itself.

The music helps with engagement and builds energy, but the voiceover (with captions) helps make the sale. Demonstrate what makes your product stand out among the competition, how it solves the given pain point, and how the user can buy it.

Combine this with UCG-style ads, and you’ll effectively qualify clicks ready to make a purchase at your eCommerce site.

Put Storytelling to Work

Storytelling has been used in marketing for decades, and TikTok is no exception. Looking once again at viral user posts, you can see how storytelling is a common theme in many of them.

For paid ads, an effective storytelling strategy follows the ‘problem to solution’ format:

• Start the video by demonstrating the specific problem your product or service solves
• Show someone trying to solve said the problem with other methods
• Highlight how your specific product finally solves the problem

However, you want to avoid the pitfalls of dated infomercials that use this format. Make it realistic, use real customers when possible, and keep it engaging.

{{cta-tiktok-guide}}

Add Captions to Every Ad

One of the early pitfalls of TikTok was its reliance on audio. This reliance is problematic for those hard of hearing, along with others using the platform on mute, which is common when in public.

Adding captions accommodates everyone while also further emphasizing the message. Hearing the voiceover is one thing, but seeing the same message in text drives the point home.

Captions and other text can go a long way in enriching the core message of your ad. The better your messaging, the better your conversion rate. 

You pay for every click, so you want people who click on your CTA to understand your product or service accurately. Captions help you convey more information and drive home the information in the voiceover.

Effectively Running Your TikTok Ads

The ads themselves play a significant role in your TikTok conversion rate. However, how you run those ads is also essential and worth exploring. So let’s discuss a general strategy for running your ads:

1. Launch: One of the unique elements of TikTok is its advanced algorithm for serving users relevant content. That algorithm will also work with your ads, meaning you can launch without specific targeting — something highly unusual for paid ads. However, it can pay off in the long run; let the platform itself serve up your new campaigns.
2. Find the best performing: After a few days or a week, you’ll have a good understanding of which specific ads and targeting groups are connecting. Identify these ads and move forward while stopping others that are underperforming.
3. Add specific interest: Now, you can start targeting specific interests with ads that are already doing well. Focus on ads with solid engagement and conversion rates and continually refine your targeting.
4. Scale: At this stage, you’ve identified well-performing ads and optimized targeting. There are two ways you can scale your results:

1. Slowly increase your budget on influential ad groups by 10-20% every 48 hours. 
2. Recreate winning ads with new campaigns, then launch with a higher budget.

You can undoubtedly use similar strategies you’ve used with other social media platforms. However, TikTok’s unique algorithm can be used to your advantage with this unconventional yet effective strategy.

Sign Up with Varos for Accurate TikTok Ad Benchmarking

Improving your TikTok ads conversion rate relies on having accurate benchmarks to gauge the success or failure of your campaigns. 

Additionally, real-time competitor benchmarks allow you to understand if your results are affected by overall industry trends rather than something specific to your efforts.

Varos is a unique platform designed to give you the entire story behind your results. As a result, you won’t need to evaluate your campaigns in a vacuum anymore, instead using results from your peers.

Below, you can see how Varos shows several important KPIs about your TikTok ads to enable data-driven decisions.

Is it time to get the entire context behind your TikTok conversion rate? Sign up with Varos or book a demo today to begin.

‍

About the Author

Yarden Shaked

Co-founder & CEO at Varos

LinkedIn