Avi Kumar

TikTok Ads Audience Selection and Types

Want to learn all the ways to target your audience for TikTok Ads? Here is a comprehensive breakdown of Targeting Options.

Audience Types:

  1. Based on Targeting filters
  2. Custom Audience
  3. Lookalike Audience

Available Filters for Targeting

Demographics:

Location: (United States)

50 US states + Washington DC

Gender
  • Male
  • Female
Age
  • 13-17
  • 18-24
  • 25-34
  • 35-44
  • 45-54
  • 55+

Audience size by age group

Age groupEstimated reach
All ages85,828k-104,920k
13-17<1K
18-2438,812k-47,438k
25-3421,222k-25,939k
35-4415,805k-19,318k
44-546,556k-8,013k
55+3,433k-4,197k

Interest & Behavior:

Interest list:

Brands can target users based on their Interests

  • Apparel & Accessories
  • Appliances
  • Apps
    • Audio & Video players
    • Online shopping
    • Photography
    • Social
      • Chatting
      • Messaging
    • Tools
  • Automobiles
  • Baby, Kids & Maternity
  • Beauty & Personal Care
    • Cosmetics
    • Skin Care
    • Wig/Hair styling
  • Education
  • Financial Services
  • Food & Beverag
    • Beverage
    • Food
  • Games
    • Board Games
    • Combat
    • Educational
    • Match- three
    • Shooting
    • Sports
  • News & Entertainment
    • Board Games
    • Anime
    • Car news
    • Celebrity
    • Health & wellness
    • Movie
    • Other news
    • TV Drama / TV Series
    • Culture & Art
      • Dance
      • Music
      • Other culture & Art
  • Pets
  • Sports & Outdoors
    • Sports equipment
    • Outdoor equipment
  • Tech & Electronics
  • Travel

Behavior list:

Video related actions

  • Watched to End
  • Liked
  • Commented
  • Shared

Category list

Users who watched videos about the topics below within a specified time period in the past

  • Creativity & Leisure
    • Art
      • Drawing & Painting
      • Other art
    • Home & Garden
    • Life hacks
    • Oddly satisfying
      • Slime & ASMR
  • Culture & Education & Technology
    • Education
      • School education
    • Motivation & Advice
    • Technology
      • Photography
      • Tech product
  • Entertainment
    • ACG
      • Comics & Cartoon/Anime
      • Cosplay
      • Voice Actor
      • VTube
    • Entertainment culture
      • Cultural recreation
      • Entertainment news
      • Movie & TV
      • Music serials
    • Games
      • Non – video games
      • Video games
    • Derivative
  • Family & Emotion
    • Family
      • Family
      • Baby
  • Fashion
    • Beauty & Care
      • Beauty
      • Hair
      • Nail
      • Other beauty
    • Other fashion
    • Outfit
  • Lifestyle
    • Daily Life
      • School & Campus
      • Selfie
    • Food
      • Beverage & Making
      • Food & Cooking
      • Mukbang & Test
    • Travel
  • Nature
    • Creature
      • Cute pet
      • Livestock & Poultry
      • Other animal
    • Natural Environment
      • Natural landscape
  • Performance
    • Drama acting
    • Funny
    • Lipsync
    • Talent
  • Society
    • Environmental protection
    • Occupation
    • Social news & Events
    • Street Interview & Social experiment
  • Sport & Outdoor
    • Fitness & Health
      • Fitness
    • Outdoor activity
      • Fishing & Hunting & Camping
    • Sport
      • Extreme sport
      • Sport News
      • Traditional sport
    • Transportation
      • Car & Truck
      • Other transportation

Time period

  • 7 days
  • 15 days

Device:

Operating system

  • Android
  • iOS

Can be targeted by OS versions

Connection type

  • WIFI
  • 2G
  • 3G
  • 4G

Carriers

  • US: AT&T
  • US: Sprint
  • US: T- Mobile
  • US: Verizon

Device price

  • No limit
  • Set a range

Custom Audience

Customer file:

Upload a customer file to match the customer base with already existing TikTok customers. The match will be used to create an audience

Engagement

Create a list of people who saw, clicked, or engaged with the content posted

Event

  • Click
  • Impression
  • 2 Second video view
  • 6 – Second video view
  • Video view at 25%
  • Video view at 50%
  • Video view at 75%
  • Video view at 100%

No of days

  • 7 days
  • 14 days
  • 30 days
  • 60 days
  • 90 days
  • 180 days

App activity

Create a list of people who downloaded the app, or took specific actions such as purchase

Event

  • Install
  • Day 2 Retention
  • Add payment info
  • Add to cart 
  • Add to wishlist
  • Launch App
  • Checkout
  • Complete Tutorial
  • View content
  • Create group
  • Create Role
  • Generate Lead
  • In-App Ad click
  • In-App Ad impression
  • Join group
  • Achieve level
  • Loan apply
  • Loan Disbursal
  • Login
  • Purchase
  • Rate
  • Registration
  • Search
  • Spend credits
  • Start Trial
  • Subscribe
  • Unlock Achievement

No of days

  • 7 days
  • 14 days
  • 30 days
  • 60 days
  • 90 days
  • 180 days

Website activity

Using TikTok pixel to create a list of people who visited or took specific actions on the website

Event

  • Page view
  • Button click
  • Form submission
  • Phone Consultation
  • Download button click
  • Complete payment
  • Online consultation
  • User registration
  • Product details page view
  • Add to cart
  • Details page view (Form)
  • Button click (Form)
  • Details page view (Phone consultation)
  • Button click (Phone consultation)
  • Details page view (App download)
  • Button click (App download)
  • Place an order

No of days

  • 7 days
  • 14 days
  • 30 days
  • 60 days
  • 90 days
  • 180 days

Lookalike Audience

Lookalike Audience can only be created using an existing custom audience

Source of Audience: As a input

System

  • Android
  • iOS

Placement

  • TikTok
  • Top Buzz & Buzz Video
  • Helo

Audience size

  • Narrow
  • Balanced
  • Broad

Location: As a input

Did we miss anything? Leave comments below and we will respond.
Need help with TikTok Ads and Marketing? Contact us!

How is the TikTok app different from its desktop version?

TikTok launched in 2016 as a video-sharing social networking app to make a variety of short form videos from genres like Entertainment, Education, Comedy, Sports, Learning, Travel, Beauty, Food etc, Since that time, it’s evolved into an established social network, and an ad platform, which exists on both mobile and desktop.

Videos on TikTok are very compelling due to the fact that they are short and replay in a continuous loop. You can add music and sound effects to your videos.

Video specifications

  • Aspect ratio: 9:16 or 1:1 with sidebars
  • File size: 287.6 MB for iOS devices, 72 MB for Android devices, 500 MB for TikTok Ads
  • Dimensions:1080 x 1920 px (Recommended)
  • Video orientation:Portrait, but also accepts Landscape ones
  • Supported formats: MP4 and MOV
Video length permitted:Min of 2 secs to Max of 15 secs for a single recording and up to 60 secs for several videos combined

While there is a desktop version, it has many limitations. Mobile provides the full feature set and typically a better experience for the majority of users. The table below is a list of the key feature differences between the two of them.

TikTok Mobile vs. Desktop Feature Set

ActivityMobileDesktopRemarks/Workaround
Upload videoYesYes 
Search - User accountYesNoPC:
https://www.tiktok.com/@USERNAMEHERE
Search - Specific tagYesNoPC:
https://www.tiktok.com/tag/KEYWORD-HERE
Upload video -
Add caption
YesYes 
Upload video -
Choose Music
YesNo 
Upload Video - TemplateYesNo 
Upload Video - SoundsYesNo 
Upload Video - EffectsYesNo 
Upload Video - StickersYesNo 
Upload Video - TextYesNo 
TikTok - LIVEYesNoPC: Loola TV
Manage multiple accounts/profilesYesNoA single user can manage upto 5 TikTok accounts directly from within the mobile app
Account controlYesNo 
Privacy/SecurityYesNo 
Content preferencesYesNo