TikTok holds its advertisers to a high standard, and because of that, each ad is reviewed to determine if it complies with ad creative policies and local regulations. But with so much information on the internet, it's easy to get lost. It’s important to know what could harm your brand and bring advertising issues, and finding good practices to follow can make a great difference.

To help you with your advertising experience, we have created a list of the most common problems with TikTok advertising and ‌ways to solve them. 

Issues with creatives

Many people think that technical problems experienced when creating an ad cause its poor performance. But in most cases, the video is the problem. If it doesn’t catch attention in the first 3 seconds, and if viewers don’t interact with it and scroll down right away, the algorithm will automatically reduce the visibility of your ad. 

So, it’s crucial to have an interesting video and make it look as organic as possible. Changing the videos in your ads once a week is also recommended. The TikTok algorithm loves when you refresh your campaigns with new videos, and it will push them more.

Budget issues

Since the competition is high, it’s important to set your budget higher ($50-$100/day). Always make sure to have enough money on your ad account. Otherwise, your ad’s performance will be lower. The algorithm will try to save money, and it will reduce the visibility of your ad so it can last longer. It’s good to occasionally increase the budget based on the ads’ performance, but not more than 20%.  

Strategy problems

When creating a campaign, it’s imperative to start with broad targeting. If you start with a narrow audience and use the targeting options, the campaign will probably perform badly. This is because the algorithm needs time to collect the data and learn how your audience interacts with your ad. The best practice is to start with the View Content optimization event and wait for it to collect 50 conversions and pass the learning phase. After that, you can move on to another optimization event, such as Add to Cart and Complete Payment. 

Exaggerated, overstated, or misleading claims about product performance  

To err is human, but you should avoid it in your advertising. For example, TikTok ads with the following ad or caption text issues would fail review: 

• grammar mistakes 
• spelling errors like "rfom" instead of "from" 
• using symbols in place of letters like "S@le" 
• excessive and distracting capitalization “S.a.L.e” 
• text/logos that have been covered by stickers/mosaic 
• incomplete text in videos/pictures

Do your best to avoid these common problems with TikTok advertising. Be careful and double-check each time before starting a new campaign or running ads. Also, you should hire a good copywriter who can write quality content with persuasive copy that sells.  

Issues with audio quality or video/image 

It's most likely that your TikTok ad will fail ad review if:

• It contains poor audio quality, or it’s hard to understand
• It doesn't contain audio at all
• It has low resolution and blurry video/image
• A part of a video/image is covered up with black bars or pixelation 

The best way to ensure your ad doesn't fall into this category is to be familiar with universal best practices for video ads on TikTok and adjust your ads accordingly.

After all, the TikTok app is where new musical trends and dance moves are born, and its Commercial Music Library has over 150,000 royalty-free tracks. 

The product and price in the ad are not consistent or relevant to those on the promoted website 

This is one of the common problems with TikTok advertising to avoid at all costs! Your ad and product website shouldn't have inconsistencies; otherwise, your ad will not pass the ad review. 

Here are some of the most common mistakes regarding inconsistencies. Pay attention to them, and you can successfully learn to avoid them: 

• The ad is irrelevant to the product website. Let's say you run an ad with a particular product, and it draws your potential customer's attention. Yet, the moment the customer goes on the website, the product of interest is nowhere to be found, and the catalog shows an entirely different item than the one displayed in the ad. 

Showing product A in your ad and offering product B on the website is why your ad won’t pass the review, and it's a terrible marketing practice. 

• The ad says "up to 50% off," but the product website states that there is only "up to 30% off". No one likes being lied to, and the audience is no exception. Feeling fooled will cause your potential customers to never consider purchasing at your store again, and it's a bad move for your brand image. 

We always recommend being truthful, and the right audience will find its way to you. 

• The website is too vague to determine if the ad is relevant to the products featured on the promoted website. For example, your ad features a "clothing brand," but the website features generic images of a "large city." Just like we said in the previous examples, it feels misleading and ungenuine and won’t bring good results.   

In conclusion, if you follow these instructions and avoid these common problems with TikTok advertising, your ads will pass the ad review process. If your ad brings in fewer genuinely interested people who will bring conversions, that will always turn out better for you than "scamming" people into your website and creating a bad brand image.

The promoted website doesn’t function properly or contain the information required by local regulations 

The most common issues within websites are: 

• A website doesn't function properly or comes out as a 404 page  
• A website isn't mobile-friendly  

And don't forget to add your contact information, refund policy, and a clearly stated privacy policy. If you don't do that, your ad will fail review. 

The ad contains a third-party logo  

We can all agree that seeing a bunch of logos in one video ad won't be pleasing to our eyes, but it's not only for aesthetics that you should avoid this practice. Advertisements that use any unauthorized third-party logo would fail review. 

Here are some examples: 

• Ads that feature a TikTok logo 
• Ads claiming that the product is a "TikTok Bestseller" 

 The ad contains sexual or shocking content 

Although the content that provokes shock value or has sexual elements will cause strong reactions and can quickly become viral, you shouldn't fall into this trap. TikTok ads that use sexual or shocking content will very likely fail review. 

Stay aware of common problems with TikTok advertising and avoid: 

• Ads with over suggestive or sexually provocative scenes and behavior 
• ​Ads showing gruesome or graphic images that are likely to shock or scare users 

Conclusion

We hope that this blog cleared any possible confusion and gave you an insight into advertising practices that can help you grow your business on TikTok. 

If you have any doubts or questions regarding the common problems with TikTok advertising, visit Pendulum Ads and book a free consultation with our specialists. 

About the author

Marko Dabović is a TikTok Specialist at Pendulum Ads, and he’s interested both in Amazon PPC and TikTok Ads. Marko is fully dedicated and focused on reaching clients' goals and business growth.