A Guide to TikTok Shopping Ads

By now you’ve hopefully realised the importance of making TikTok ads for your ecommerce business. TikTok’s packed full of users of all demographics who have shown that they want to use TikTok as a commercial platform.

And not only do they want to buy, they also want to be involved in a community. TikTok users are 2.4x more likely than other social media users to create and post their own content featuring a product that they have purchased, tagging the brand in the process.

So, if you want to boost the interest around your brand and your products, then advertising on TikTok should be on your list of priorities.

If you’re wondering where to start then let us show you! We’ll cover over one of the possible ways you can advertise on TikTok, through TikTok Shopping Ads.

What are TikTok Shopping Ads?

If you already run paid ads on other social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook…) then you should be pretty familiar with Shopping Ads.

Provided that you have a business account, you can link your Shopify site to your TikTok profile and the two will work in tandem when you create certain adverts.

Your product catalogue will be synced to TikTok and be ready to instantly load whenever a user wants to view what you stock. The three ways that users can easily view your products are:

Product Showcase

Your profile will now have a dedicated Product Showcase tab, similar to Instagram, where visitors can see your products without having to leave TikTok.

Creating a seamless transition like this is fantastic because if users had to keep launching in and out of TikTok then they’d be much less inclined to visit your products.

Product Links

These links appear directly within your TikToks themselves. So, say you sell t-shirts, then you could include a product link to a t-shirt featured in one of your posts so viewers can easily buy it themselves.

What’s good about this is that you can have links to your products within your actual posts and don’t have to rely on the link to your website on your profile page (we’re looking at you, Instagram). Also, the links are easy to spot, and launch your product listing natively within TikTok meaning that they load instantly.

Oh and also, you can include product links on all TikTok content, it doesn’t just have to be ad posts. So always take care to include them on your organic content if it’s relevant to do so.

Product Detail Page

Finally, the Product Detail Page is where TikTok users will be able to see information about your products along with a short product description and product images.

The images and description will be synced from your Shopify account so you can easily keep your listings up to date and accurate.

If a TikTok user wants to buy your product then they will be sent to your website with their basket already loaded and ready for checkout.

Requirements for TikTok Shopping

There are a few requirements that need to be met before you can start utilising TikTok Shopping Ads, but don’t worry because it’s all kept really simple.

Basically, all you need is a TikTok Business Account and you must be 18 or over. Your product catalogue should be between 1 and 1000 items, and it’ll help if you’re actually active and creating content on TikTok or your account may be paused.

Because TikTok syncs all of its data for your ecommerce site through Shopify, you will need to have a Shopify account with all of your products on. This is perfect for small businesses as Shopify has really taken the world by storm over the past few years and most new ecommerce businesses are on the Shopify platform.

How to get started with Shopping

Setting up your TikTok account for Shopping Ads is very straightforward and follows a step-by-step process.

First, ensure that your TikTok account is a business account. You can do this from your account settings.

Second, link Shopify to your TikTok account. To do this you will need a TikTok For Business account, but if you haven’t already got one of them then you can do so now. This will enable you to use TikTok Ads Manager and other useful tools like the Creative Center and the Creator Marketplace.

Next, sync your product library from Shopify to TikTok. You can either select all or choose a selection of products that you want to sell on TikTok. After you’ve chosen what products you want to sync, they’ll then be reviewed by the TikTok people which will take 3-5 working days.

Finally, correctly set up the Shopify Pixel so you can be sure that any ads you create will be fully functional and with no errors on your end.

Be sure to use the Shopify Pixel when creating TikTok ads because there’s nothing worse than going through the effort of creating and budgeting for adverts only for your account to have errors that make them pointless!