Are you consistently creating on TikTok without getting the views or engagement you’d like? Wish there was a shortcut to reaching your TikTok goals? TikTok Promote may be the answer.

Like Instagram’s boosts and X’s (formerly Twitter) promoted post feature, TikTok created a tool that allows users to turn their organic content into a paid promotion quickly and simply.

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the TikTok promotion advertising tool, review the pros and cons and guide you on leveraging it in your TikTok marketing strategy.

What is TikTok promotion?

First launched in 2021, TikTok Promote is an in-app advertising feature that allows users to quickly boost their content and turn their organic videos into ads. Users can leverage the feature to get more views on TikTok, website visits, followers, messages or profile views.

@claireliz_

part 2 of trying out tiktoks promote feature! so far it has increased my leads and i will post an update next week. learn more about promote in my 🔗 #tiktokpromote #tiktokpromoteambassador #aspiringcreator #passiveincometips #passiveincome #tiktokgrowthforbusiness #tiktokcreatortips

♬ original sound – claire | social media coach

With Promote, getting an ad up and running takes a few clicks. All you need to do is choose a promotion goal, define your audience and set your ad duration and budget. Then hit ‘pay.’

Once your campaign is live, Promote has basic analytics to track your ad’s performance. These include the number of video views, likes, comments and shares on your video. You can also see how many people visited your website link, and the age and gender of people interacting with your video. For more comprehensive insights and advanced features beyond these basics, dedicated TikTok analytic tools can provide a deeper understanding of your campaign’s performance and overall organic strategy. These tools offer a more robust set of data points and customization options to truly optimize your TikTok presence.

How to use TikTok promotion

Whether you want to get more followers on TikTok or convert more followers into paying customers, TikTok promotions can help you reach your marketing goals faster and tap into new audiences.

But before we get into the step-by-step guide, here are some things to note.

To be eligible for TikTok Promote, you must:

You should also keep in mind that:

  • Promote is only available for public videos with original sound or sounds.
  • TikTok’s Commercial Musical Library is a resource for adding music to your video.
  • Promote is just a tool to get your content to a wider audience. To make your videos more engaging, check out these TikTok video ideas.

Now, on to the fun part—using TikTok Promote.

1. Open the Promote tool

In the TikTok app, access the Promote tool from a TikTok video, Creator Tools or the Business Suite.

To access it from a TikTok video you want to promote:

  1. From the video, tap the More options button.
  2. Tap Promote.

From your Creator tools:

  1. Tap Profile at the bottom.
  2. Tap the Menu button at the top.
  3. Tap Creator tools.
  4. Tap Promote.

From within the Business Suite for a business account:

  1. From your profile, tap the Menu button at the top.
  2. Tap Business Suite.
  3. Tap Promote.
The More options screen on TikTok, showing the Promote button

2. Choose a goal

The app will then ask you to choose a goal for your TikTok promotion. You have five options:

  • More video views: Get more people to watch your video.
  • More website visits: Guide more people to your website.
  • More followers: Improve your chances of gaining followers.
  • More messages: Add a “send message” button to your video and extend your reach to new customers.
  • More profile views: Get more people to view your TikTok profile.
The ‘What is your goal’ screen of TikTok Promote’s campaign set-up flow

3. Define your audience

After you choose a goal, you will need to define your audience (i.e., the people you will promote your video to). There are two options: Let TikTok determine your audience; or you can create your own.

When you select the ‘create your own’ option, you will see more screens to choose the gender, age, location and interests of the people you want to target.

The Define Your Audience screen in TikTok Promote
The Edit Audience screen in TikTok Promote

4. Set your budget and duration

How long do you want your ad to run, and how much do you want to spend? Using two sliders, adjust the budget and duration for your ad to get an estimated total cost and reach, depending on the parameters you choose.

The Set Your Budget and Duration screen in TikTok Promote

5. Pay and start your TikTok promotion

For the last step, you’ll see an overview screen with a summary of your campaign details: the goal, audience, budget and duration and estimated views. If everything looks good, click the ‘pay and start promotion’ button to pay for your ad campaign and push it live.

The Overview screen in TIkTok Promote

How much does TikTok Promote cost?

A TikTok promotion campaign can range from $3 to $1000 per day, lasting one to seven days. Therefore, TikTok Promote could cost between $3 for a one-day campaign and up to $7,000 for a seven-day campaign.

Compared to regular TikTok Ads, which have a minimum budget of $50 at the campaign level and $20 at the ad group level, TikTok Promote has a much cheaper entry point.

If you’re a creator trying to grow on TikTok (and make it into the exclusive Creativity Program), boosting your content with TikTok Promote is an affordable way to get the followers and views you need to qualify. It’s also a helpful tool for brands who want to amplify a successful organic post with minimal time or financial investment.

The Budget and Duration screen in TikTok Promote shows the minimum budget and duration.
The Budget and Duration screen in TikTok Promote, showing the maximum budget and duration.

Is TikTok Promote worth it?

Should you throw some coins into TikTok Promote to boost your content? Like many marketing tactics, the short answer is, “It depends.” Here are a few of the benefits and drawbacks to help you decide.

Pros

  • Get your content in front of more people. TikTok SEO is beneficial, but social media algorithms are inconsistent, so paying to play could be worth it.
  • Maximize your organic content. TikTok’s traditional ad campaigns can be a bit tricky to set up. With TikTok Promote, your social team can turn any organic TikTok video into an ad in just a few clicks directly within the app.
  • Learn more about your audience. You’ll get insights to understand your audience better and learn how your video performed in reaching your goals.
  • Cost-effective. With a minimum spend of $3/day, it’s affordable to experiment with TikTok promotions without breaking the bank.
  • Expanded features. TikTok Promote allows small businesses that work with influencers to boost the creator’s content or LIVE videos to help increase their views. They also recently launched ‘Promotional Pack,’ a new buying type that allows users to purchase a guaranteed minimum amount of views, ensuring visibility.

Cons

  • Promoted videos have a “sponsored” tag. Since many social users have learned to spot and scroll past ads quickly, your target audience may not engage with a Promoted video as eagerly as organic content.
  • Spreading misinformation. TikTok Promote is so simple and inexpensive to use that some people can use it to amplify fake news. However, TikTok is cracking down on this issue by removing sponsored content from sensitive or divisive topic searches.

Why TikTok may not approve a promotion

If your video doesn’t meet TikTok’s standards, there’s a chance they may not approve it for promotion.

Here are some reasons why TikTok could reject your ad:

  • Intellectual property infringement. Avoid using copyrighted or trademarked elements in your ad and landing page without permission. These elements include brands, hashtags, copyrighted media, imitations and replicas.
  • Ad creative inconsistency. Your caption, text, images, videos and call-to-actions must be consistent with the product/service you are promoting. The prices quoted in the ad should also match what is on the website.
  • Misleading and inconsistent information. Your ads can’t contain exaggerated performances, promises or images.

How to track and analyze your TikTok Promotion performance

To understand the true impact of your TikTok promotions and continuously improve your strategy, robust analytics are essential. You need to track key metrics, understand what’s resonating and make data-driven decisions.

How to measure and analyze your TikTok performance with Sprout Social

Sprout Social offers comprehensive analytics and reporting tools that provide deep insights into your TikTok performance, helping you demonstrate ROI and refine your approach.

A screenshot of Sprout's TikTok Performance Report that demonstrates the number of published posts, views and engagements from one TikTok account.
  • Access unified TikTok Reporting: Sprout’s TikTok Reports offer a clear, consolidated view of your overall profile and individual post performance. Easily review data for each of your connected TikTok profiles, tracking key metrics like video views, likes, comments, shares, reach, engagement rates and follower growth across specific date ranges. This allows you to export detailed reports and truly understand how your content is contributing to your promotional goals.
  • Identify top-performing content: Quickly see which of your TikToks are driving the most engagement and views. This is critical for understanding what content to promote further or what types of content to create more of. Strategically, these insights are gold for informing your paid promotion strategy – why waste money boosting content that doesn’t resonate organically?
  • Understand your audience demographics (if available via API): Sprout can help you gain insights into your follower demographics and when they are most active on TikTok, enabling you to tailor your content and posting schedule more effectively.
  • Tag and categorize content: Use Sprout’s tagging features to categorize your TikTok posts by campaign, content theme or any other relevant metric. This allows for granular analysis of what specific types of promotional content are performing best, directly informing future budget allocation and creative direction.

By leveraging Sprout Social’s analytics, you move beyond vanity metrics to truly understand the business impact of your TikTok promotions. These insights are crucial for justifying spend, optimizing future campaigns and proving the value of your social media efforts to leadership.

Ready to make data-driven decisions for your TikTok strategy? Explore Sprout Social’s analytics and reporting features with a free trial.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

How to cancel a promotion on TikTok

Canceling a promotion on TikTok is easy. Go to your promoted video, tap the three dots in the upper right-hand corner and select ‘Close Promotion.’ Any unused promotional funds will be automatically refunded to your Promote balance for future promotions or withdrawn from your account.

The Close Promotion screen on a promoted TikTok

Accelerate your growth with TikTok Promote

TikTok Promote is a simple tool that gives creators and marketers the power to add a little fuel to their creative fire in TikTok promotions, getting their content working harder for them. Plus, its low minimum spend means it’s easy to test out on multiple videos and see which one performs best. However, while the feature may be affordable and easy to use, ad budget is often precious, and promoting posts should just be one piece of your larger strategy.

To maximize your investment and get expert guidance, check out our webinar to learn more about how to unlock the power of TikTok for your business.