TikTok Ads work spectacularly for some businesses and fail reliably for others. Knowing which camp you're in saves months of wasted spend.
Products that demo well in video. Apparel, beauty, home goods, gadgets, supplements, food.
18-34 is the strongest, though older demos (35-55) are growing.
If you can produce or source 10+ new creatives per week, TikTok compounds. If not, skip.
Products that creators would post about organically. If your product fits trend content, TikTok amplifies.
Impulse purchases work. High-consideration ($500+) products convert worse.
Wrong audience. Even if decision-makers are on TikTok personally, they don't buy enterprise software there.
Luxury goods, financial products, high-ticket services. Intent and context don't fit.
You can't run TikTok with 3 polished videos. Without pipeline, don't start.
UGC and creators dilute brand voice. If your brand is precise-tone, TikTok fights you.
Some compliance restrictions make native-looking ads hard (pharma, finance, alcohol in certain markets).
Look at organic TikTok search for your product category. Are there native videos about it? Are creators already making content in your space?
$5-10K total test budget over 3-4 weeks. Iterate creative. Measure positive signal. Scale only if proven.