What are TikTok Ads? Why should businesses run TikTok ads?
What are TikTok Ads?
TikTok Ads is a paid advertising system that runs on the TikTok platform, allowing businesses to display videos to the right target group of customers based on viewing behavior, engagement and demographic data. Basically, ads are set up through TikTok Ads Manager in a bidding model, optimized for campaign goals such as outreach, video views, traffic, conversions, or sales.
Why is TikTok Ads suitable for businesses and e-commerce stores?
TikTok is suitable for businesses and e-commerce stores because the platform focuses on short video content, has a fast viral speed and high user retention. With goals such as increasing brand awareness, boosting traffic to other platforms or selling directly through TikTok Shop, TikTok Ads has a corresponding form to implement.
In terms of market size, according to advertising data published by TikTok and compiled by DataReportal, the platform had about 76.1 million users aged 18 and over in Vietnam at the beginning of 2026, with an advertising reach equivalent to 88.8% of the total internet users in Vietnam at the same time. This is a level of coverage large enough for most B2C industries to reach the right customer base on the platform.
TikTok content consumption behavior of target users
To illustrate TikTok Ads' ability to generate real results, we can mention Chilly's campaign in Vietnam. According to information from TikTok for Business, Chilly - this women's hygiene solution brand aims to maintain sales after the Tet holiday, a period that is often quiet for many retailers, and at the same time build brand trust with the group of female customers aged 18–55. The brand implemented a video series using Spark Ads combined with Display Card, focusing on natural ingredients and brand story to create a sense of closeness and authenticity. The results recorded more than 3.5 million outreach, conversion rate (CVR) of over 2.1% and more than 2,300 form conversions. This case shows that choosing the right ad format and the right message for your target audience can create real conversions, not just views.
Popular forms of TikTok Ads today
TikTok offers many forms of advertising for different purposes. Here are the most common forms that businesses use.
Popular forms of TikTok ads
In-Feed Ads Ads show alternately in the "For You" feed, which looks almost like natural content except for the "Sponsored" label. This is the most accessible form of self-service and fits most goals from brand recognition to conversion. Suitable for businesses that are just starting to run TikTok ads or want to test multiple audiences at the same time.
Spark Ads: Allow amplification of a video that has been naturally posted on TikTok - Can be either by the brand itself or by the creator (with permission). The difference is that all likes, comments, shares, and followers from the ad campaign will accrue to the original post, retaining the social credit factor after the campaign ends. Should be used when the business already has natural content that works well and wants to expand its reach.
TopView Ads: The form of a full-screen video ad, which appears in a prominent position as soon as users open the TikTok app. This is an ad format that prioritizes coverage and brand recognition, suitable for businesses that want to reach a large number of users in a short time. TopView is usually implemented in the form of reservations instead of automatic bidding.
Hashtag Challenge/UGC: Encourage users to create brand-themed content that creates a natural viral effect thanks to the large number of videos produced by the community. This format is suitable for campaigns that require high coverage and engagement, but require creative ideas and a good lead script to get the community ready to participate. This is also the reason why the content service plays an important role when implementing these types of campaigns, because the script and content orientation need to follow the brand tone from the beginning.
TikTok Shop Ads: The ad group is tied directly to TikTok Shop, which takes users to the product page, cart, or LIVE sales session. This form is suitable for direct sales objectives, especially for shops that already have a stable operation of TikTok Shop. The charging mechanism and specific conditions of TikTok Shop Ads may change from time to time and the industry and businesses should confirm directly in TikTok Shop Seller Center or through the implementation unit before budgeting.
TikTok Ad Budget Determinants & Self-Run or Outsourced Costs
Cost of running TikTok ads and hiring an agency
There is no one fixed cost that applies to every business. The actual budget depends on the category, goals, form of advertising, audience, creative, time and how to optimize the campaign.
Factors Affecting TikTok Ad Budget
Before you decide to run your own TikTok advertising service, you need to understand what factors will directly affect your budget:
Campaign Goals If you just want to increase brand awareness (Awareness, Reach), the cost is usually lower. Conversely, if the goal is to optimize conversions and make actual orders, the budget needs to be higher due to the stricter level of auction competition, which is also the reason why many shops look to TikTok ad runners to make effective orders instead of fumbling on their own.
Two targets: The level of competition in each client file can affect the cost of advertising. When multiple advertisers target a high-demand audience, competition in the auction increases and may result in higher CPM or CPC. Industries with a high level of advertising competition such as fashion, cosmetics and F&B are recording high advertising costs, depending on the customer file, campaign goals and implementation time.
Ad Formats In-Feed Ads are a popular, affordable, small-budget format. Meanwhile, TopView, Branded Hashtag Challenge or Branded Effects have very high costs, often only suitable for large enterprises.
Time and season: On peak occasions such as Tet, 11/11, 12/12, advertising bids increase sharply due to many advertisers competing for display positions.
Video content quality: TikTok evaluates relevance score based on content quality and engagement rate. The higher the quality of the video, the higher the cost per result.
Geographical target area: Advertising in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City often has a higher CPM than the provincial area.
Costs and what to know when running TikTok ads on your own
With the self-run form, businesses pay the budget directly to TikTok via TikTok Ads Manager according to the bidding mechanism, optimizing according to the selected campaign objectives. The minimum budget and specific billing mechanism may change over time, businesses should check directly in TikTok Ads Manager at the time of setting up the campaign for the most accurate figures.
Form | Expenses | Reference level | Conforms to |
CPM | Pay Per 1,000 Impressions | ~25,000-50,000 VND/1,000 displays | Brand identity campaign |
CPC | Pay Per Click | ~ 3,000-5,000 VND/click | Traffic campaign, measure interest |
Ad group level minimum budget | Operating Expenditure/day | From 200,000 VND/day | Small, trial business |
Campaign Level Minimum Budget | Operating Expenditure/day | From 500,000 VND/day (or lifetime budget ≥ 500,000 VND × number of days) | Long-term campaigns, multiple ad groups |
Reach & Frequency | Reach + Frequency Plan | From about 1,200,000-1,300,000 VND/week campaign | Short-term increase in coverage |
TopView | Premium Display Plan | Very high minimum budget in million impressions per day | Big brand, high branding budget |
The reference level is aggregated from domestic digital marketing sources, updated mid-2026; data may change according to the time, industry and actual auction policy on the account. Note: If paying with a personal Visa card, TikTok may add 5% foreign contractor VAT to the invoice. The advertising budget, self-run businesses do not include creative production costs, operating personnel time and conversion tracking tool costs if any.
If you decide to run TikTok Shop ads yourself without going through another unit to run TikTok Shop ads, here are the things you need to prepare and note:
Create TikTok Ads account
Define the target audience and set campaign goals
Set up a budget, campaign runtime
Understand how to run TikTok ads on PC for more convenient campaign setup
Monitor and optimize campaigns continuously throughout the run
However, when implementing TikTok Ads on your own, there are some common disadvantages:
Lack of optimal experience makes it difficult to react in time when performance decreases.
It takes time to learn the advertising system and track data daily.
It is easy to target the wrong audience without understanding user behavior data.
Creative is not suitable for platform tastes, leading to low performance.
Risk of running out of budget but not generating commensurate conversions.
Cost of hiring an agency/service to run TikTok Ads
If there is not enough time or in-depth knowledge, renting to run TikTok ads is a choice that many businesses consider, especially with the common question: How much does it cost to run TikTok ads and how does the cost of running TikTok ads fluctuate?
Two expenses to be paid when outsourcing:
TikTok Direct Payout Budget to Run Ads
Service fee paid to the service provider running TikTok Shop ads, the price varies by provider
Reference price list according to each budget package
Packages | $0 advertising budget. | Reference services |
Basic Package | Less than 10 million/month | - From 3 to 5 million/month |
Medium EXP Package | 10-50 million/month | 5-15 million/month |
Business Plan: | Over 50 million/month | private treaty |
Why hiring services helps optimize budgets more effectively:
Prestigious TikTok advertising service unit has experience in targeting the right audience from the beginning
Limiting mistakes in strategy thanks to real combat experience
Save time for you to focus on operation and business
The professional team detects and adjusts in time when the campaign is not effective
Should you run TikTok ads yourself or hire a service to run TikTok ads?
The choice of running your own TikTok ad service depends on the size of your campaign, your budget, and how knowledgeable you are about the platform. If your campaign is small, your budget is limited, or you simply want to experiment and learn more about how to run ads on TikTok, running your own will be a more affordable option, as long as you have enough time to learn, test and optimize yourself over time.
In contrast, with large-scale campaigns that require high accuracy and no small advertising budget, taking the risk of trial and error when running on your own can cost you more than you expect. In this case, if you are not confident enough about the knowledge and skills of running ads, hiring TikTok ads from professional units will be a safer and more effective option. However, choosing a reputable TikTok advertising service unit also requires you to carefully consider: Check the practical experience through the deployed case studies, evaluate the level of prestige through feedback from former customers, and clearly confirm the information security policy before cooperating.
Self-run Tiktok ads and Tiktok ad service
Why should businesses choose Markee to run TikTok Ads?
There is no shortage of TikTok ad receivers, but not everyone can help businesses answer the question: where is the advertising money going and whether or not it will bring back the real order. Markee approaches this differently - separating clear costs, measuring business goals, and implementing a proven process across multiple real-world campaigns. Details are as follows:
Budget transparency: Markee separates the advertising budget paid for the platform and the implementation service fee, helping businesses proactively control spending instead of receiving a hard-to-verify gross figure.
Optimal according to business indicators: Instead of just reporting views, likes, or followers, Markee tracks CPL, CR, and roas - metrics that directly reflect the campaign's business performance.
There is a clear implementation process: All campaigns are operated according to the standardized tracking process, building campaign structure, continuous creative testing and only expanding the budget when the performance is stable. This is the approach applied in performance Marketing services markee's.
Support ecosystem: In addition to running ads, businesses can combine more content services to produce video scripts and captions, social media services to synchronize ads with social media channels, or Markee Chat to not miss lead messaging from TikTok.
IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCE The experience of running multi-channel ads is a factor that helps a TikTok Ads campaign not stop at testing but come to a stable result. Having handled many industries, many goals and many different budget sizes helps the team to identify problems faster, from choosing formats, targeting files, to creative creating interactions.
Tiktok ads advertising service in Markee
Website: https://markee.vn/
Hotline: 0765 055 708
Email: hello@markeeai.com
Address: 8th Floor, No. 122 Ly Thai Tong, Thanh Khe Ward, Da Nang City, Vietnam
TikTok Ads pricing list in Markee
TikTok Ads are implemented within the Performance Marketing PRO package (multi-channel, including TikTok) or Social Media Marketing PRO package (synchronizing TikTok social ads with content), depending on the focus of the business.
Ad Budget Service Rates
Budget per month | Fee rate (VND) |
60 million | 6,000,000 VND /month |
From 60 - 120 million VND | 12% of budget /month |
From 120 million or more | 10% budget / month |
Note: Real costs can vary depending on the industry, goals, budgets, and the range of development. Contact Markee to be advised to the appropriate solution.
The process of deploying TikTok Ads Professionally at Markee
As the prestigious TikTok Advertising Services unit, Markee built an 11-step process of deployment, making sure that each campaign is optimized and gives its customers practical effects. Below are step-by-step details:
Step 1: Take the target: The Markee team will record business goals, budgets, and specialization of the customer's products to determine the appropriate strategic direction from the start, avoiding the state of running advertising without clear direction.
Step 2: Biographical Analysis and Customs: Markee proceeded to assess the competitive context in the industry, the customer portrait and consumer behavior on the TikTok platform, as the target's strategic construction facility that aims the potential customer file.
Step 3: Strategy Building: Based on the analysis data in the previous step, the Markee team will choose the form of advertising, the campaign goal and the appropriate budget distribution – this is also the period Markee gave clear advice to the customer who runs the marketing of TikTok ads as valid for each period.
Step 4: Standard Procession: Markee set up conversion Event and dashboard measurement to ensure that the campaign's data was accurately recorded from the first day of the run, helping the later optimum to have a clear base rather than a speculative basis.
Step 5: Build campaign structure: At Markee, campaign was designed according to funnel and group of customers to be easy to control the costs on every floor of the targeting, restricting the dissolution of the budget.
Step 6: Prepare and test creative: Markee's production team will create multiple video variants, testing the message and form to find the most effective creative group — this step is especially important to the shops that are trying to run the Tink commercial out of the quick and sustainable single.
Step 7: Launch campaign: Markee began the campaign with tight-controlled budgets, following closely in the early days to detect early problems and make adjustments in time.
Step 8: Data Monitor: Markee oversees CPL indexes, CR, ROAS by day to capture the trend of campaign performance, making sure that all advertising costs of TikTok are properly used.
Step 9: Best: The Markee team adjusts targeting, budget and correative based on actual data rather than sentiment — this is the core value that the TinkTok Shop advertising service brings compared to the customer's running self-expression.
Step 10: Scale according to performance: Markee only increased the budget when KPI was stable, avoiding expanding too fast to cost the cost, making sure that each customer budget has a corresponding effect.
Step 11: Report: Markee combined the results by the time the report was unanimous, contrasting with the initial goal to propose the next optimum direction, helping the customer to know exactly how much running the ads on TikTok Shop was going to bring relative effect.
By keeping this 11-step process fully, the TikTok Advertising Service at Markee helps customers with better budget optability than running the TikTok Shop ad from scratch, especially with major budget campaigns and demanding high accuracy.
Common Questions (FAQ) on Tiktok Ads
1. What are the criteria for selecting agency/your run the credit TikTok commercial?
The business should priority the unit with transparent reports, track business indexes such as CPL/CR/ROAS instead of vanity indexes, distinguishing advertising budgets and service fees, having specific processing processes as the operation efficiency declines, and having experience deploying in many different disciplines.
2. How long does it take to run the TankTok commercial?
The first phase of a TikTok Ads campaign is often used to collect data and test creatives, so it has not properly reflected performance. The trend toward conversion usually only begins explicitly after the system has enough data to optimize the tarenting and budget, rather than from its debut days. The rate of achieving stable results depends on the industry, the level of competition, the quality of creative and the scale of budgets — business should avoid effective ratings based solely on the first few days.
Three. What sectors does TikTok Ads fit to deploy?
TikTok Ads is consistent with most B2C goods with graphic/video elements, especially fashion, beauty and personal care, food & drinks, retail/MDT, education and some financial services. With the B2B or long-term decision-making cycle, TikTok Ads can still be used for brand recognition target, but need to be more thorough about format and message versus the target of direct conversion.
Four. How does Markee track and optimize advertising efficiency?
Rather than run the view or turn of the game, Markee puts his focus on three indicators that reflect the business properly: CPL (private on each lead), CR (permanent rate), and ROAS (a promotional spending rate on revenue). This approach is applied throughout the area of Markee's performance advertation, where every decision to increase the budget is based on data rather than sentiment.
Five. What Markee's TikTok Ads can be combined with to achieve the best business effect?
Yes. To optimize business efficiency, TikTok Ads can combine with Content Service to build the right video game insight customers, the Social Media service to sync content and advertising on social networks, the FM service to maintain natural traffic sources along with the cost, the Media service to produce the image/video right brand recognition, and Automation & CRM to standardize pipeline lekT, escape the opportunity to sell.
