Want to maximize your ad performance on TikTok? Understanding TikTok ads targeting options is crucial for reaching the right audience and increasing conversions. In this guide, Mainn Media will explain thoroughly all the TikTok ads targeting options, as well as provide you with some best practices for optimizing your TikTok ad targeting strategy, ensuring your campaigns achieve the highest engagement and ROI.
What are TikTok Ads Targeting?
TikTok ads targeting options refer to the set of audience segmentation tools available within TikTok Ads Manager, enabling advertisers to precisely define and reach their desired audience. These options allow businesses to tailor their ad delivery based on factors such as demographics, interests, user behaviors, and geographic locations.
By utilizing these targeting settings, advertisers can optimize campaign performance, increase engagement rates, and improve their return on ad spend (ROAS). With the right approach, businesses can not only increase conversions but also ensure their ads appear to users who are genuinely interested in their offerings.
All TikTok Ads Targeting Options
TikTok Ads Manager provides advertisers with a range of powerful TikTok Ads targeting options to reach their ideal audience. These targeting methods allow brands to optimize ad delivery based on demographics, audience data, interests, behaviors, devices, and smart targeting solutions powered by AI.
Demographics targeting
Since 2023, TikTok Ads targeting has expanded its demographic targeting capabilities, now offering five key filters: gender, language, age, location, and spending power. These refined options provide a more precise way to define and reach the most relevant audiences for your brand.
Gender: Choose between male or female audiences.
Language: Target users based on their TikTok app language preference.
Age: Select from multiple age brackets, including 13-17, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, and 55+.
Location: Advertisers can reach users by country, state, city, or even Designated Market Areas (DMA) in the U.S.
Spending power: Use behavioral ad targeting to focus on users with proven purchase activity within the TikTok ecosystem.
These filters help businesses ensure they are targeting the right market. For instance, if a luxury fashion brand wants to advertise high-end products, targeting users based on spending power can improve conversion rates. Combining demographics with other TikTok Ads targeting options enhances campaign effectiveness and prevents wasted ad spend.
Audience targeting
TikTok ads audience targeting plays a key role in optimizing campaign success by enhancing ad performance. While this targeting option is optional, TikTok even recommends skipping it to let the platform’s algorithm automatically identify the most relevant audience for your ads. However, if precise targeting has proven effective for your campaigns, you can refine your audience selection using the Include and Exclude fields in TikTok Ads Manager.
Include: Selecting this option signals TikTok to incorporate characteristics from your existing Custom Audience or Lookalike Audience, which can be sourced from customer files, engagement metrics, app activity, and more.
Exclude: This option allows you to prevent TikTok from targeting users who match specific attributes of your Custom or Lookalike Audiences, ensuring you focus on fresh prospects.
TikTok offers two specific audience selection methods:
Custom audience
Custom audience targeting enables advertisers to re-engage previous customers by uploading customer data. This method is particularly useful for TikTok retargeting strategies, as it allows brands to reconnect with users who have already shown interest in their products or services.
There are 6 ways to create a Custom Audience:
Customer file
Engagement
App activity
Website traffic
Lead generation
Business account audience.
To optimize this strategy, businesses should integrate website traffic, app activity, and ad engagement data into their TikTok Ads Manager. This approach helps refine audience selection, ensuring ads reach the most engaged and likely-to-convert users.
Lookalike audience
Lookalike audiences for TikTok Ads help businesses expand their reach by targeting users with characteristics similar to their best-performing customers. This method analyzes demographic data, interests, and behaviors to find new, highly relevant prospects.
For optimal accuracy, you need your source audience to consist of at least 10,000 individuals and provide detailed, precise data about your audience.
Advertisers can also adjust the lookalike audience size to balance precision and reach:
Specific: Focus on users very similar to existing customers.
Balanced: A mix of precise targeting and broader reach.
Broad: Targets a wider audience to discover new potential buyers.
Interests & behaviors targeting
Interest-based advertising on TikTok helps brands reach users who engage with specific content categories, while behavioral ad targeting allows advertisers to show ads to users based on past interactions. These categories include:
Interests: Users are grouped based on content they frequently watch.
Purchase Intention: Advertisers can target users actively researching or purchasing related products.
Video Interactions: Retarget users who liked, commented, or watched similar content in the past 7 or 15 days.
Creator Interactions: Target users who have engaged with specific TikTok creators.
Hashtag Interactions: Utilize trending hashtag bundles to reach relevant users.
By leveraging these targeting options, brands can align their ads with users’ online behaviors, increasing engagement and conversion rates.
Device targeting
Device targeting enables advertisers to refine their TikTok Ads targeting based on users’ device type, operating system, internet connection, and mobile carrier. This ensures ads are shown to users most likely to have an optimal experience with the product or service.
Key device targeting options include:
Operating system (OS): Target Android or iOS users based on OS versions.
Device model: Narrow down by smartphone brands such as Apple, Samsung, or Xiaomi.
Connection type: Filter users based on WiFi, 4G, or 5G networks.
Carrier and ISP: Deliver ads based on users’ mobile providers.
Device price: Target audiences based on their phone’s price range to align with product positioning.
For example, a mobile gaming company might target high-end device users to ensure their app runs smoothly, while a budget-friendly brand might focus on mid-range device owners.
Smart TikTok ads targeting options
TikTok’s smart targeting options use AI to enhance TikTok Ads targeting beyond traditional filters. This feature dynamically adjusts audience reach based on real-time ad performance, ensuring optimal results.
Targeting recommendation
TikTok’s targeting recommendation tool analyzes past ad performance to suggest Interests & Behaviors categories aligned with a brand’s audience. These recommendations help advertisers refine their targeting without relying solely on manual inputs.
To enable this feature, advertisers can navigate to “Recommended categories” under the Interest & Behaviors section in TikTok Ads Manager. Selecting the top recommendations expands the audience while maintaining relevance.
Smart targeting
Smart targeting includes two AI-driven features: Smart Audience and Smart Interest & Behavior targeting. This feature initially applies the selected audience parameters but dynamically broadens targeting as the algorithm identifies higher-performing user segments.
Smart Interest & Behavior: Enhances ad performance by automatically adjusting audience interest categories.
For best results, advertisers should start with a defined audience and let TikTok’s AI refine their targeting over time. Smart targeting works best for auction-based campaigns and objectives like traffic, conversions, lead generation, and app installations.
Best Practices For Targeting In TikTok Ads
Mastering TikTok Ads targeting options is essential for running high-performance campaigns that drive engagement and conversions. By following the strategic targeting best practices below, you can optimize audience reach, refine ad delivery, and improve overall campaign efficiency.
Begin with a broad audience approach
When launching a new campaign, it’s best to start with broad targeting to allow TikTok’s algorithm to collect data and optimize delivery. Instead of restricting audience selection too early, let TikTok Ads targeting identify potential high-value users based on initial engagement and ad performance. This strategy helps you avoid missing out on untapped market segments and allows for organic audience discovery.
Once performance data accumulates, analyze behavioral ad targeting metrics such as video views, clicks, and conversions. Gradually refine your targeting by layering in interest-based advertising on TikTok, demographics, and engagement history. This approach ensures your campaign remains flexible while maximizing TikTok audience segmentation potential.
Leverage manual targeting controls for precision
For advertisers seeking more control, TikTok Ads Manager provides manual targeting options that allow precise audience adjustments. These settings let you define parameters such as age, gender, location, language, device type, and spending power to refine ad delivery. When used strategically, manual controls can prevent budget waste and ensure ads are seen by the right users.
However, it’s crucial not to over-restrict targeting too soon. Combining TikTok ads targeting options with behavioral ad targeting enables a more dynamic approach. Test different settings to find the right balance between custom audience targeting and broad reach, ensuring your campaign delivers optimal engagement.
Utilize smart targeting for AI-driven optimization
Activating Smart TikTok Ads targeting options allows advertisers to leverage TikTok’s machine learning algorithms to optimize ad reach. Smart targeting dynamically adjusts audience selection beyond predefined settings, ensuring ads reach users most likely to engage based on real-time performance data.
To maximize this feature, start with a structured bidding strategy in TikTok Ads and let TikTok’s AI fine-tune audience selection. Smart targeting is particularly beneficial for lookalike audiences for TikTok Ads and interest-based advertising, as it expands beyond traditional targeting constraints to discover high-converting users.
Build and refine custom & lookalike audiences
Custom audience targeting allows brands to reconnect with engaged users by leveraging data from website traffic, app activity, engagement history, and customer lists. This approach enhances TikTok retargeting strategies and increases conversion rates by focusing on users already familiar with your brand.
Meanwhile, lookalike audiences for TikTok Ads enable businesses to scale by reaching users with similar traits to existing customers. Advertisers should experiment with different lookalike audience sizes, ranging from specific (1%-3%) for highly targeted reach to broad (4%-10%) for greater expansion.
Measure and compare advanced targeting performance
After implementing advanced TikTok Ads targeting options, advertisers should continuously analyze whether these refined techniques outperform broad targeting. Use TikTok Ads Manager analytics to track key metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and return on ad spend (ROAS) to determine effectiveness.
If advanced targeting does not significantly improve performance, consider adjusting audience parameters or returning to a broader approach. TikTok retargeting strategies, behavioral ad targeting, and interest-based advertising on TikTok should be tested in different campaign phases to identify the most efficient combination for your brand.
Common Issues With TikTok Ads Targeting & How To Solve Them
Advertisers, even experienced ones, often face challenges with TikTok ads targeting that impact campaign performance. Let’s explore common pitfalls faced and solutions for better results.
My audience size is too narrow and generating 0 revenue
Over-segmenting your audience can limit ad reach and cause TikTok Ads targeting to become too restrictive, leading to poor performance. Signs of over-segmentation include low impressions, high CPM (cost per thousand impressions), and minimal engagement. When your audience is too small, TikTok struggles to find enough users who match your criteria, making it difficult to scale effectively.
How to fix?
To address this, widen your TikTok Ads targeting options without sacrificing relevance. Consider using broader interest-based advertising on TikTok, testing lookalike audiences for TikTok Ads, or enabling TikTok’s smart targeting recommendations. Instead of hyper-specific targeting, allow TikTok’s AI to optimize audience selection, ensuring your ads reach users who are both relevant and scalable.
I failed to retarget my audience from previous campaigns
One of the most valuable TikTok Ads targeting strategies is leveraging past campaign data for retargeting. Without proper custom audience targeting, businesses miss the opportunity to re-engage users who have already shown interest. A lack of updated data from previous campaigns can result in ineffective ad performance and wasted budget.
How to fix?
To improve TikTok retargeting strategies, ensure that your custom audience lists are consistently updated. Sync data from website traffic, app activity, and video engagement metrics to create high-quality retargeting lists. Pair this with lookalike audiences to expand your reach while maintaining relevance.
I am uncertain about the performance of my ad
If you’re unsure how well your campaign is performing, take a look at some key metrics that indicate ad effectiveness. Poor results in CTR (click-through rate), CPM, and conversion rates can signal that your TikTok Ads targeting needs adjustment. Without analyzing performance, you may continue running ads that aren’t delivering results.
How to fix?
This is when A/B comes in handy! You can test different audience sizes, interest categories, and behavioral ad targeting options to identify what works best. To ensure effective testing, we advise you to create a structured approach and clearly outline the hypothesis or key question you aim to address through the test.
Wrap-up
Mastering TikTok ads targeting options is essential for running high-performing campaigns that drive engagement and conversions. If you found this guide helpful, don’t forget to share this post and follow us for more expert tips on running successful TikTok ad campaigns!
