1. Connect your store
Install the TikTok app from the Shopify App Store and connect a TikTok For Business account. TikTok says the app sets up the TikTok Pixel and Events API in one step, with no changes to your site's code, syncs your product catalog, and lets you create conversion campaigns[1]. It isn't available in every market, so check the listing for your country[1].
The Pixel matters more than any setting that follows. Without purchase events coming through, you can't optimize a campaign for purchases at all.
2. Pick the campaign
For a Shopify store, the usual choice is a website conversion campaign optimized for purchases. TikTok's Smart+ Web Campaigns automate the setup, the audience and delivery. You still choose the location, the language and the bidding strategy, and you supply the creative[3]. If you use your catalog, its creative is included by default and you can add up to 30 more videos or images[3].
Automation moves the work from targeting to creative. When the platform picks the audience, the videos you give it are the main thing you control.
3. Set the budget
| Level | Daily budget | Lifetime budget |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign | More than $50 | More than $50 |
| Ad group | More than $20 | $20 × the number of days |
Source: TikTok[2]. If you set the budget on the ad group, one ad group needs more than $20 a day, about $600 a month. A budget set on the campaign needs more than $50 a day. Plan your test around that floor.
4. Make the videos
Specs
| Setting | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Aspect ratio | 9:16 recommended (1:1 and 16:9 accepted) |
| Resolution | At least 540×960 for 9:16; 1080×1920 is the safe choice |
| Length | Up to 10 minutes allowed |
| File | MP4, MOV, MPEG, 3GP or AVI, up to 500 MB |
| Ad text | No clickable links, @ mentions or hashtags in non-Spark captions |
Source: TikTok[4]. TikTok's safe zone changes with your caption length and any extra formats, and it publishes files to check against[4]. Our free safe zone checker is a quick first look.
Length
TikTok's 2021 research on creative that drives conversions found that videos of 21 to 34 seconds showed a 280% lift in conversions, and that for ecommerce a voiceover combined with the offer lifted conversions 87%[5]. The data is a few years old, so treat it as direction, but it's still the clearest published figure. Most product ads land between 20 and 35 seconds.
The first six seconds
TikTok's creative best practices say to state the value proposition in the first 3 seconds, hook viewers within the first 6, and keep on-screen text to 5 to 10 words per second[6]. Its creator research found that 90% of ad recall comes from the first six seconds, that showing the product throughout lifted recall 89% and purchase intent 47%, and that ending with a call to action lifted purchase intent 205%[7].
Put together, a product ad on TikTok should:
- show the product in the first frame, with one reason to care: the price, a result, a problem it solves;
- keep the product on screen the whole way through;
- use a voiceover that says the offer out loud;
- end with a clear call to action.
5. Spark Ads or regular ads
Spark Ads run an organic post, from your own account or a creator's with their permission, as an ad, keeping its likes and comments. Regular (non-Spark) ads are uploaded straight into Ads Manager, and their captions can't include links, @ mentions or hashtags[4]. If your organic posts already get engagement, Spark Ads let that social proof carry into the ad. If not, regular ads are simpler to test with.
6. Test more than one video
Upload several videos rather than one. For each product, make three versions with different openings, for example the problem, the price and a surprising detail, and let delivery shift spend to whichever works. Replace losers every couple of weeks. The same logic applies on Meta; our guide to creative fatigue explains how to tell when an ad has worn out.
The same 9:16 file works as an Instagram or Facebook Reels ad too. See Reels ads for Shopify products for Meta's safe zone, which is different from TikTok's.
Making the videos from your catalog
Framewright turns your Shopify products into 1080×1920 ad videos with the product and price on screen from the first frame, a voiceover that says the offer, and captions timed to each word. No filming and no AI actors. Or hand it off with the Ad Sprint: 30 ad videos, three hooks for each of 10 products, in five business days for $300.