What, did Germany get withdrawn from the Beta-program?
Germany removed from TikTok ads beta, here’s what you need to know.


A couple of weeks ago we at Awelin, as one of the first nordic agencies, got verified for the TikTok advertisement platform. The timeframe of establishing contact with the headquarters of TikTok, getting whitelisted as an agency and then getting verified, has been a cumbersome process with never ending meetings, phone calls and emails back and forth.


Knowing that there is a platform is one thing, but the biggest mountain to climb when having established contact with them was getting them to trip on the words and saying that the self serving platform actually does exist, and being quick on the trigger.


There are two different ways of buying inventory from TikTok. The first, and most known format, is the reserved ads – where you buy guaranteed impressions with a rather generous investment. The pricing is dependent on the location targeting and of course the format – differing from $7.500 – $80.000.


The second and, in our opinion, the most interesting is the ad auction platform, where we buy inventory based on CPC & optimised CPC (for conversions). This is where we as an agency can stand out in the crowd and help our clients reach their audience in a new channel.


We have been granted a lot of responses from the post we have done, with back to back meetings and hosting seminars about the new platform, and I have decided to gather the most frequently asked questions with answers directed from the TikTok headquarters.


How is the performance of TikTok Ads?
As of today, there is no statistics or data from the ads on TikTok. The reasons for this is 1. There has not been enough advertisement on the existing markets and 2. TikTok does not enclose the statistics for the brands that have done advertisements with reserved ads.


Could you send me a case study on TikTok ads in Sweden:
I have been in long and hard talks with TikTok for them to give me indications and numbers of the Swedish market. This is not something that they are doing because Sweden still hasn’t joined the beta-program and therefore it’s still not possible to push ads in sweden.


I have seen ads on TikTok:
I know you have, and if you click on “why am I seeing this ad” you will also see that it’s because of the brand using the Facebook Audience Network.


Can you target only TikTok with Audience network?
I’ll spare you the frustration and time – No it does not work – the targeting gets way too narrow when you apply a block list for all but TikTok and will not allow you run ad groups with.


My audience is not in TikTok – why should we do it?
This might be true to some extent. Your whole audience might not use TikTok, but surely some do and if I was a marketeer I would definitely want to test out new channels and reach potential customers with e.g. Retargeting ads on Tiktok – Our why not find a new cluster of potential clients with Look-a-like-audiences on TikTok?


I want to advertise in Sweden:
I would love to help you out, but we both need to wait until Q2 when they are expecting Sweden and the Nordics to join the Beta-program. Do you want to be first? – No problem!


What budget is needed?
Budget can be distributed in two ways, daily budget of $50 USD or a lifetime budget of $580 USD.


The audience in TikTok is too young:
We are seeing that more people are looking into TikTok, so even if it seems like the creators are young does not mutually mean that the viewers are. I am expecting the age group of 24-35 to be the one exploding in the near future, I’m basing this on the fact that the content on the platform has seen a drastic change the last couple of month, with more informational and food related videos-


I cannot target the people I want: Pixel / retargeting / lookalike
Yes you can, TikTok offers both custom audiences based on the TikTok pixel (where you can optimise towards the events you are interested in. Secondly, you can retarget people with TikTok – pushing ads towards people who have not completed a goal or transaction!


Can anyone advertise on TikTok?
Yes and no. To be able to advertise on TikTok you need access to the advertisement platform, and secondly you, as a brand, need to get whitelisted by TikTok. This process takes anything between 1-4 weeks depending on what you are offering. Getting whitelisted does not mean that you will have access to all the beta-markets (France, Italy, Spain, UK and US) – to get this you need to apply even further – Something we as a whitelisted agency have a shortcut for.


Do I need a TikTok account to run ads?
No you don’t need an organic TikTok account to run ads, au contraire – You cannot connect a TikTok account with your ads.


What markets are open in the Beta-program:
Good question! Germany just got withdrawn (without any further explanation) from the beta-program. See the list below:

• Japan
• Taiwan
• India
• Korea
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• Indonesia
• Vietnam
• Russia
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• France
• Italy
• Spain
• Saudi Arabia
• United Arab Emirates
• Egypt
• United States

Contact rutger@awelin.com for more information.