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TikTok Ads Tutorial for Your Online Store: Your First Campaign Step by Step, the Real Minimum Budget and the Extras to Turn Down

Vincent Fredet·Founder of Scale Ova
Updated on ·16 min read
TikTok Ads Tutorial for Your Online Store: Your First Campaign Step by Step, the Real Minimum Budget and the Extras to Turn Down

This tutorial assumes your TikTok pixel is installed and verified. If not, start with install your Meta and TikTok pixels on Shopify.

TikTok sells some products within hours, and loses others money for weeks. The difference comes down to two things: does your product show well in short video, and do your videos speak TikTok's language? The rest is keeping the default settings from spending your budget for you.

The TikTok screens and rules quoted here were checked in its help center on September 23, 2026. TikTok is rolling out a new campaign creation flow account by account: depending on yours, you'll see the "Manual campaign / Smart+ campaign" choice or a single unified flow. This tutorial gives the path for both.

When TikTok is the right choice

TikTok works when your product can be understood in a few seconds of video:

  • It demonstrates: a kitchen gadget, a cleaning tool, a clever accessory.
  • It transforms: skincare, storage, decor, with an honest before and after.
  • It tells a story: a routine, an unboxing, a reaction, a surprising use.

TikTok is a weaker first choice if your product is hard to show, if your category's claim rules limit what you can say (health, weight loss), or if your budget can't carry a one-week test. In those cases, choosing your channel based on your product helps you find a better option.

Start with organic. Post videos of your product on a TikTok account for a few weeks. They cost nothing, they show you which angles hold attention, and the best ones will become your ads.

TikTok Shop is a different tool. If you sell through a TikTok Shop, its ads run through GMV Max, the only campaign type supported for TikTok Shop ads since July 2025. This tutorial is about your Shopify store: ads that send people to your website.

Step 1: the account and the pixel

  1. Install the free TikTok app from the Shopify App Store, and connect your TikTok for Business account, your Business Center and your TikTok Ads Manager account.
  2. Choose the Enhanced or Maximum data sharing level: from Enhanced up, the purchase is also sent from the server (Events API), not only from the browser.
  3. Place a test order and check in Events Manager that the purchase comes through once, with the right amount. TikTok renamed this event Purchase, and the old name, CompletePayment, is still supported.

The step-by-step test and the UTMs to add are in install your Meta and TikTok pixels on Shopify.

Step 2: a Sales campaign, set up manually

In TikTok Ads Manager, click Create ad and choose the Sales objective, with Website as the destination. Traffic or Video views objectives find people who click or watch, not buyers.

Then, two cases depending on your account:

  • You see the campaign type choice: pick Manual campaign. According to TikTok's help center, the Smart+ option may be on by default: turn it off.
  • You have the unified flow, where TikTok merged manual and Smart+: choose the Ad group budget strategy, the option TikTok gives for a manual campaign.

In the ad group, choose Purchase as the optimization event and leave Set target CPA off: with no cap, TikTok seeks the most purchases your budget can support. You don't know your real cost yet, and a target CPA set too low would block delivery.

Why not start with Smart+? Smart+ automates the audience, placements, videos and budget. For a Smart+ campaign to a website, TikTok itself recommends at least six creatives, seven days without edits, and a daily budget of 10 to 30 times your usual cost per purchase. With an $18 maximum cost, that's $180 to $540 a day, far from a first test. Smart+ also builds variations of your videos, and you no longer know which angle sold. It has its place later, once you have winning angles and purchases to give it.

Step 3: what's the minimum budget for TikTok Ads?

TikTok sets two minimums for a daily budget:

Level Minimum
Campaign, only if you give it a budget over $50 a day
Ad group over $20 a day

But TikTok advises leaving the campaign budget open at first: "For your campaign budget, leave it open initially." With no campaign budget, only the ad group minimum applies. A campaign with a single ad group starts at $20 a day, about $140 over a week.

Then work out your budget from your margin, as with Meta. Your maximum acquisition cost is what you can pay in ads for one sale without losing money: what's left of the price after product, shipping, payment fees and taxes. The break-even ROAS calculator works it out with your numbers. Give each video 2 to 3 times that cost over seven days. With an $18 maximum cost:

Videos tested 7-day budget (2 to 3 × $18) Per day
3 $108 to $162 $15 to $23
4 $144 to $216 $21 to $31

If your number falls below TikTok's minimum, the minimum wins. And if even that minimum strains you for a week, start with organic.

TikTok, for its part, recommends at least 10 times your cost per purchase for a purchase-optimized campaign, or $200 if you don't have one yet. That's the budget that helps an ad group finish its learning phase. For a first test, you accept not finishing it, and you judge each video on its cost per purchase after seven days.

Later, when you scale up, TikTok advises raising the budget by 40% at most during the learning phase, 30% at most after it, and no more than once every two days. The full method is in scale your ads without breaking them.

Step 4: leave the audience open, turn down the extras

TikTok adds default settings that widen delivery or change your videos. For a first test, you want the opposite: to know which video sells, to real people, on TikTok.

What you leave open

Setting What you choose Why
Audience Automatic targeting, with only the audience controls: your country, your language, 18 minimum With little data, a broad audience lets TikTok find the buyers. Hand-picked interests shrink it with no guarantee
Budget Ad group budget, no campaign budget The minimum stays at $20 a day, and you know exactly what you spend
Comments On On TikTok, comments are part of the video. Reply, and hide abuse

What you turn down

1. Off-TikTok placements: TikTok Ad Network and Global App Bundle. By default, placement is automatic. Your ads can then run on TikTok Ad Network (formerly Pangle), a network of nearly 400,000 apps from other publishers, and on Global App Bundle, apps such as CapCut. In the creation screen, a box promises a 10-15% lower cost per result with automatic placement.

A lower cost says nothing about quality. One advertiser targeting Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and the UK describes a CPM of €0.20 to €0.40, and in Shopify zero-second sessions with not a single add to cart. The answer that keeps coming up in the thread: those are off-TikTok placements, restrict to TikTok only.

Path: in the ad group, Placements section, choose Select placement, keep TikTok checked, and uncheck Global App Bundle and TikTok Ad Network. Do it when you create the ad group: TikTok states that placement can't be changed once the ad group is created. If the manual option doesn't show up on your account, advertisers report that TikTok support can unlock it.

TikTok Ads Manager: an ad group's Placements section set to Select placement, with TikTok checked and Global App Bundle and TikTok Ad Network unchecked, under a box recommending automatic placement
Select placement, TikTok only: the box recommending automatic placement gets ignored.

2. Automate Creative. In the ad's creative section, an Automate Creative toggle hands your videos to TikTok's AI: quality enhancement, music swaps, resizing, sound effects added in the first 15 seconds, and other enhancements being tested with some advertisers. Leave it off. According to TikTok's help center, this setting can't be changed once the campaign is published: you'd have to create a new one.

3. Recommended and AI-generated creatives. When you add your videos, the window may open on a Recommended tab: assets pulled from your product page, and an Auto-generated for you module with AI-made videos built from your URL. Don't select anything, and leave both auto-add toggles off, since they inject new creatives while the campaign runs. Take your videos from your TikTok posts or your creative library.

The TikTok Ads Manager creative window, Recommended tab: no recommended or auto-generated video is selected, and both auto-add toggles are off
Recommended tab: nothing selected, and both auto-add toggles stay off.

TikTok also combines the videos and texts within one ad to build others. To keep an exact pair, its help center advises adding a single creative and a single text to each ad: run one ad per video.

On r/TikTokAds, advertisers running Smart+ describe 50 to 70 AI-generated variations built from their videos. An email from TikTok support, quoted by one of them in early 2026, acknowledged that there was then "no available setting at the account or ad group level" to fully opt out. That's one more reason to stay manual for this test.

4. Recommendations. On the right of the creation screen, a panel scores your ad group and suggests applying its recommendations: automatic placement, a campaign budget, a higher budget, six more creatives. In the budget section, another box promises a 5-10% lower cost per result with a campaign budget strategy: that's the campaign budget with its $50 minimum, and TikTok then splits the money for you. Every recommendation pushes toward more spend or more automation. Read them, but don't apply any during the test.

Do all this before you publish: placement, attribution settings and Automate Creative can't be changed afterward.

Step 5: videos that look like TikTok

This is where it all happens. On TikTok, a video that looks like an ad gets skipped in a second. What works:

  • Jump straight into the scene: no intro, no logo, the product or the problem from the first frame.
  • Shoot on a phone, vertically, with a real person and real hands.
  • Talk like on TikTok: natural, direct, looking at the camera.
  • Subtitles and readable on-screen text.
  • Three or four angles: the problem, the demonstration, the before/after, the reaction.

Name each ad with its angle, format and version ("problem_video_v1"): that's the name you'll read in the results and in your UTMs.

Avoid copying a trend unrelated to your product. A trend that doesn't show what your product does entertains, but doesn't sell. Hook and structure principles are detailed in ad creatives that work.

Spark Ads: promote an existing video

Spark Ads turn an already-published video into an ad, on your account or a creator's. The ad keeps the account name, likes and comments, and the engagement gained during the promotion goes to the original video.

It's the best way to go from organic to paid: when one of your videos does well on its own, promote it. For a creator's video:

  1. The creator opens their video in the TikTok app, taps the three dots, then Ad settings and Generate, and sends you the code.
  2. In Ads Manager, when adding the ad's creatives, open the TikTok posts tab, click Add post and paste the code. You can add up to 20 at a time.

Two traps flagged by TikTok: the caption can't be edited once the video is authorized, and a private video becomes public as soon as it's used in a campaign.

Step 6: launch, then don't touch anything for seven days

According to TikTok, volatility usually starts to decline after about 25 results or 7 days in the learning phase. At $20 to $30 a day, you probably won't reach 25 purchases in a week. That's normal for a first test, and it doesn't stop you from judging each video.

During those seven days, TikTok asks you to avoid pausing, edits that restart learning, and unreasonable budgets. After three days, only check that everything works: delivery, clicks, visits reaching Shopify, purchases coming through.

A check to run from day two. Compare TikTok's clicks with the visits from TikTok in Shopify's reports, thanks to your UTMs. A CPM of a few tens of cents, zero-second visits and no adds to cart point to low-quality traffic: check that the ad group really runs on TikTok only.

Step 7: read your results

In the ads tab, add the missing columns, then look in order, video by video:

  1. Retention: 2-second video views, 6-second video views and Average play time per video view. If few people get past the first seconds, it's the hook.
  2. Clicks: do viewers click? If not, the video entertains without making people want to buy.
  3. Adds to cart and purchases: do visitors buy? If not, it's the product page, the price or shipping.
  4. Cost per purchase, compared with your maximum cost: that's what decides.
TikTok Ads Manager, Ad tab: four videos with their 6-second views, purchases and cost per purchase after seven days
Seven days, four videos, $165 spent: only one sells below $18.
Video After 7 days Decision
problem_video_v1 4 purchases at $14.35, below $18 Keep it, that's your winning angle. Prepare two variations, and if it's posted on your account, promote the post as a Spark Ad
demo_video_v1 The most watched, 2 purchases at $29.90 It holds attention but sells at a loss. Cut it, and keep its opening for a new version that ends on the price or the offer
before_after_video_v1 1 purchase at $36.20, twice your $18 Cut it
reaction_video_v1 390 six-second views, $11.60 spent TikTok nearly stopped delivering it: the hook doesn't hold. Cut it, or redo its first two seconds

A heavily watched video isn't necessarily a video that sells. Judge on purchases, not views.

TikTok's purchases aren't your orders. Depending on your attribution settings, TikTok counts a purchase after a click, but also after a simple view of the ad, or after a view of at least 6 seconds. Always compare with the orders Shopify attributes to TikTok through your UTMs. The attribution window is set when you create the ad group, in the Optimization and bidding section, and can't be changed afterward. The full diagnosis is in read your campaign numbers.

Costly mistakes

  • Leaving automatic placement on: part of the budget goes outside TikTok, on clicks you never find in Shopify.
  • Launching Smart+ on a small budget: it builds variations, mixes your videos, and TikTok recommends 10 to 30 times your cost per purchase per day for it.
  • Setting a campaign budget for no reason: the minimum goes from $20 to $50 a day.
  • Recycling a Facebook ad without adapting it to TikTok's format and tone.
  • Running only one video and concluding TikTok doesn't work.
  • Judging on views rather than purchases.
  • Applying recommendations during the test: every significant edit restarts learning.
  • Sending traffic to a page that's slow on mobile: on TikTok, all traffic is mobile.

No store yet? You can generate it with Scale Ova from your product, look at it and change it for free, and only pay when you publish it on Shopify.

FAQ

What's the minimum budget for TikTok Ads?
Over $20 a day per ad group. The $50 minimum only applies if you set a budget at campaign level, and TikTok advises leaving it open at first. A campaign with a single ad group therefore starts at $20 a day.
How much does a TikTok Ads campaign cost?
You set the budget. For a first test, plan 2 to 3 times your maximum acquisition cost per video over seven days: with $18 and four videos, $144 to $216 for the week. The number that matters after that is the cost per purchase.
Smart+ or manual campaign to start?
Manual. For Smart+, TikTok recommends a daily budget of 10 to 30 times your cost per purchase and at least six creatives, and Smart+ builds variations of your videos: you no longer know which angle sold. Keep it for later, once you have winning angles.
How do I turn off Pangle in TikTok Ads?
Pangle is now called TikTok Ad Network. In the ad group, Placements section, choose Select placement, keep TikTok, and uncheck TikTok Ad Network and Global App Bundle. Do it at creation: placement can't be changed afterward.
How do I stop TikTok from creating AI ads?
Leave Automate Creative off, select nothing in the Recommended tab, turn off both auto-add toggles, and run one ad per video with a single text. On Smart+, advertisers report that variations still appear: one more reason to stay manual.
How long is the TikTok learning phase?
According to TikTok, volatility usually starts to decline after about 25 results or 7 days. Avoid pausing or editing the ad group during that time.
How do I get a Spark Ads code?
The creator opens their video in TikTok, taps the three dots, then Ad settings and Generate. They send you the code, which you add in Ads Manager with Add post.
Why do my TikTok ads get clicks but no sales?
First compare clicks with visits in Shopify: zero-second visits point to off-TikTok placements or low-quality traffic. If the visits are real, the problem is on your page: product page, price, shipping or checkout.
TikTok Ads or Facebook Ads to start?
TikTok if your product shows well in action and you can shoot videos regularly. Meta if you mostly have photos and a tight acquisition cost. Choosing your ad channel compares the two, and your first Meta Ads campaign gives the same method on Meta.

Sources

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