HOW TO LEVERAGE TIKTOK'S ATTRIBUTION MODEL

Following my BrightonSEO talk on Attribution for Marketers, I was altered that TikTok had a slightly secret feature within its Ad Manager. Like a bull to a red flag, I was fully invested. Mainly because this model allows advertisers to customise their attribution window for better tracking and performance.

Below I’ve explored how this feature works, and how to unlock its true benefits.

But, before we get started here’s a quick pulse on some key terms:

Attribution – A reporting path that allows advertisers to know the steps users are taking after clicking and “viewing” an ad.

Attribution window – The physical time (either in hours or days) it takes from a user click to when they convert.

Conversions – The desired action was taken by a targeted user, such as visiting a website, downloading a presentation or making an enquiry.

Now that we have the terminology and lingo down, let’s dive into TikTok’s unique attribution features.

UNPACKING TIKTOK'S ATTRIBUTION MANAGER

When it comes to ad campaigns, no two objectives are the same. The goal for one may be to increase purchases for a particular product, or to raise brand awareness.
Brands across the TikTok hemisphere may also have opposing conversion journeys based on their industries, audience personas and content style.

TikTok has rolled out a customised attribution window to enable advertisers, brand creators and business owners to more accurately track performance and assess campaign results. The default setting for Attribution across the majority of the social platforms is a seven-day click and one-day view window. This means that a user must convert within seven days of clicking an ad or 24 hours of viewing an ad for the conversion to register within TikTok’s ad manager.

Within TikTok, advertisers can now set different windows:

1, 7, 14, 28 days for clickthrough attribution

You can switch it completely off or set it to 1 or 7 days for view-through attribution

When is it valuable to pick a one-day versus 28-day attribution window?

Well, it all depends on the goals of your campaign, the industry you’re in, and expected user consideration periods.

Say you’re a B2B legal firm with an ad campaign to convert free users into premium members. One-day conversions are probably unlikely given the product types and level of onboarding. However, a 28-day clickthrough probably seems more practical given that this particular legal industry deals with longer consideration periods and a prolonged prospecting journey.

For example, an eCommerce brand during Black Friday may set up a 24-hour attribution window when running a Jewellery sale.

So you are hooked. I am assuming your next question will be how do I access this feature within TikTok’s Ads Manager.

Let me show you…

Select "Manage your Attribution Settings."

You will also see the option to customise your attribution window when creating a campaign. It should show up under the "Bidding and Optimisation" settings.

IN OTHER TIKTOK NEWS...

On October 13, TikTok held its second yearly event called TikTok World, where it shared a range of ad tips, insights, and previews of new promotional features that will open up new traffic and lead generation opportunities for businesses, creators and marketing managers in the app.

Here’s a look at all the major announcements from the event:
TikTok announced a new ad objective called ‘Focused View’, which will see advertisers charged based on attention and engagement.

As explained by TikTok:
“Focused View is the next generation of our current Video View campaign objective on TikTok Ads Manager. With Focused View, brands only pay when users have voluntarily watched an ad for at least 6 seconds or when they interacted with the ad within the first 6 seconds (whichever comes first). This means that ads are shown to users who are truly paying attention and voluntarily engaging with the brand.”
Source: https://www.tiktok.com/business/en-US/blog/tiktok-world-focused-view

This method is pretty similar to how YouTube charges for ads (only once a viewer has watched for 5 seconds), so in terms of industry norms, it’s not revolutionary. But it could be a valuable consideration on TikTok, where swiping by is a habitual practice, and most ads likely do get passed over very quickly.

TikTok also added some new elements to its Lead Gen ads offering, including increased customisation for Lead Generation forms, and a carousel display to highlight specific messaging.

The key takeaway here is: paid media teams (like ours) running TikTok ads for clients can now optimise these paid social campaigns with even more reliable data to understand your audience and better leverage this data to enhance conversion rates!

Have you got a TikTok Advertising strategy yet? If you’re ready to jump in with both feet and need some support, let us know - we’d love to hear from you.