TikTok Minimum Ad Spend: How Low Can You Go?

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Carolyn Howell

Last Updated: Nov 07, 2024

TikTok 101

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Are you new to advertising on TikTok? It would be smart to explore it using the TikTok minimum ad spend the platform allows. Here’s your basic guide to TikTok ad budgets and bids to get you started on the right track! 

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TikTok Ads Cost

Wondering how much it would cost to run TikTok ads? To give you a general idea, you’ll need a minimum budget of $50 to run a TikTok campaign. But to better understand how budgeting works for TikTok ads, let’s find out what an ad budget means vis-a-vis ad bidding. 

Your ad budget is how much you plan to spend for an ad campaign or ad group over a specific time period. On TikTok, you can set an ad budget at either the campaign or ad group level. Take note that you can have multiple ads per campaign/group level. These video shopping ads will all share the ad campaign/ad group budget you allot. 

Your bid is how much you’re willing to pay for each action you want users to take when they see your ad. If you want to bid on clicks, for example, you’ll bid on the cost per click (CPC). You can bid a minimum of $0.02 for CPC. This means you’ll pay $0.02 each time a viewer clicks on your ad. 

Let’s say you have a budget of $50 for an ad group. You bid $0.02 for CPC and run only one ad for this ad group. Your $50 can help you generate 2,500 clicks. 

Keep in mind that your TikTok ads campaign can have several ad groups; within each ad group, you can run multiple ads. If you set a budget at the campaign level, all the ad groups and ads per ad group will share the budget. If you set a budget at the ad group level, all the ads within this group will share the budget. 

A person uses a blue calculator to calculate his ad spend.

TikTok Ads Minimum Budget

What’s the minimum amount you can allot for a TikTok campaign or ad group? The 

minimum ad spend on TikTok for a campaign is $50; the minimum for an ad group is $20. 

How long your budget will last and how much it can support the individual ads you’re running under it will depend on:

  • The number of ad groups and individual ads per ad group, if you set a budget at the campaign level. 
  • The number of individual ads you have within an ad group, if you set a budget at the ad group level.
  • How much you bid per action. 

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Minimum Daily Budget for TikTok Ads

What’s the minimum spend on TikTok ads per day? Your minimum daily budget for an ad will depend on the bidding method you choose. For example, if you select CPC/cost per click, you can bid as low as $0.02 CPC. For CPM or cost per thousand impressions, the minimum TikTok ad spend is $0.50.

TikTok offers the following bidding methods via TikTok Ads Manager:

  1. CPM or cost per thousand impressions. Your bid is the price you are willing to pay for one thousand impressions. TikTok charges advertisers per impression. This is the ideal bidding method if your advertising objective is to boost reach. 
  2. oCPM or optimized cost per thousand impressions. This represents how much you’re willing to pay to create one thousand impressions from people you select. You can select people who are most likely to take the action you want, e.g., install your app or make a purchase. Choose oCPM if your objective is shop purchases, product sales, conversions, app installs, lead generation, follows, or community interactions. 
  3. CPV or cost per view. The bid applies when a person views your ad for at least 6 seconds or interacts with it within the first 6 seconds. This is the ideal bidding method if your advertising objective is to drive video views.
  4. CPC or cost per click. Your bid is how much you’re willing to pay per click. Use this bidding method if you want shop purchases, product sales, traffic, conversions, app installs, community interactions, or profile visits.

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Why TikTok Minimum Ad Spend Matters

Knowing the TikTok minimum ad spend will help you maximize your budget while learning the ins and outs of TikTok advertising. You’ll be experimenting with various ad creatives, tools, and strategies to come up with a solution that works for your TikTok goals. Make sure you use your ad budget wisely during this learning phase. 

Sign up for a High Social plan to get expert help in navigating TikTok’s suite of advertising solutions. High Social also offers its advanced, proprietary AI targeting algorithm to help clients connect with users most likely to drive higher conversions. 

Start growing your TikTok today!

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Minimum Spend TikTok Ads: Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the lowest amount you can spend to run an ad on TikTok? Here are a few more FAQ to sum up everything you need to know about ad spend on the video-sharing platform. 

Do you have to spend $500 on TikTok ads?

The higher your budget for an ad campaign, the more actions it can support. If you have the budget, you can allot $500 for your entire ad campaign or an ad group. However, TikTok only requires a minimum of $50 for a campaign and $20 for an ad group. 

How much does it cost to have an ad on TikTok?

You’ll need to spend a minimum of $50 to start a campaign on TikTok and start running ads. The minimum amount you can bid per day depends on your advertising objective. If you want to bid on clicks, you can bid as low as $0.02. 

The minimum bid per one thousand impressions is $0.50 if you want to bid on impressions.

Why are my TikTok ads not spending enough?

If you’re unable to spend your campaign/ad group budget, your cost per action (CPA) is probably too low. You can try increasing your bid or switch to Maximum Delivery bid to support the highest number of actions possible. 

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