8 Strategies for Targeting Audiences with TikTok Ads

Are you frustrated with increasing customer acquisition costs and unclear ROI, despite investing heavily in ads?

 If this sounds familiar, the solution may lie in TikTok's audience targeting. With over a billion monthly active users and ad revenue exceeding $11 billion, TikTok has evolved into a powerful channel for marketers.

TikTok’s appeal goes beyond its vast reach; its precise targeting capabilities offer unmatched engagement. Here are proven TikTok ad targeting strategies to improve your campaigns.

1. Leverage Broad Targeting to Maximize TikTok’s Algorithm

TikTok’s algorithm is designed to understand user preferences and optimize ad performance. By embracing broad audience targeting, you allow the algorithm to test and refine who responds best to your content.

When creating new campaigns, TikTok defaults to broad targeting. During the "Learning Phase" (the first 3–5 days), it tests your content with different audiences. According to TikTok, this approach can cut acquisition costs by up to 20% compared to overly restrictive targeting.

When to use broad targeting

• During the early stages of a campaign, when you're still discovering your audience
• When brand awareness is more important than precision
• When testing new creative strategies

Let the algorithm run its course before making major changes. Track metrics but avoid quick adjustments during the learning phase.

2. Use Demographic Targeting for Precise Segmentation

Demographic filters are key when your product appeals to specific groups. TikTok Ads Manager allows you to target users based on:

• Age: 13–17, 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55+
• Gender: Male or female
• Location: Countries, cities, DMA regions
• Language: Specific languages spoken
• Income levels: Available in select markets

Demographic targeting works best when your product aligns with a particular group. For example, luxury brands often succeed with younger users on TikTok. However, avoid overly narrow parameters that may miss potential customers.

3. Combine Interest and Behavior Targeting to Engage Users

TikTok offers two complementary targeting strategies: interest and behavior targeting.

• Interest targeting: Targets users based on long-term preferences in categories like fashion, beauty, food, and travel.
• Behavior targeting: Focuses on recent user activities, such as video interactions, hashtag engagements, and e-commerce behavior.

Combine both methods for the best results. For example, target fitness enthusiasts with content related to workouts, then layer in behavior targeting to focus on users who have recently shown high intent by engaging with fitness-related content.

4. Build Custom Audiences for Retargeting and Loyalty

Custom audiences are ideal for reaching people who already know your brand. You can create custom audiences based on:

• Customer lists: Upload emails, phone numbers, or device IDs
• Website visitors: Use TikTok Pixel to track users who visit specific pages
• App activity: Retarget based on in-app behavior

Retarget users who abandoned their cart or provide exclusive offers to existing customers to encourage repeat purchases. Break your audience into segments for more personalized messaging, and keep your data up to date to improve targeting accuracy. Tools like Pixis can help you reach new audiences with greater efficacy and precision. 

5. Create Lookalike Audiences to Expand Reach

Lookalike audiences are TikTok's way of finding users who resemble your existing customers. TikTok's algorithm analyzes the characteristics of a "source" custom audience to identify new users with similar profiles, behaviors, and interests.

When creating lookalikes, you can adjust the "similarity scale." Smaller lookalikes are more similar to your source audience but reach fewer people, while broader lookalikes give you larger reach with potentially lower similarity.

Start with high-value source audiences (repeat purchasers, top spenders) rather than general website visitors. Try layering lookalikes with interest or demographic filters for further refinement. Test different lookalike sizes to find the sweet spot between reach and relevance, and refresh your source audiences periodically to keep performance high.

The Woobles, a step-by-step crochet kit, used TikTok lookalike audiences as part of its marketing strategy. Combined with other marketing techniques, the results included lowering CPM by 25% and CPA by 18%. 

6. Activate Smart Targeting for Better Optimization

TikTok’s Smart Targeting uses AI to expand your audience beyond defined demographics, interests, or behaviors. It begins with your specified demographics, interests, or behaviors, then intelligently expands to reach similar users who might respond well to your content.

Benefits of Smart Targeting include:

• Algorithmic learning: The system gets smarter as it gathers performance data
• Reduced ad fatigue: Reaching new audience segments keeps your content fresh
• Real-time optimization: Adjustments happen automatically based on what's working

Smart Targeting works best when you want to discover new audience segments while maintaining some control over who sees your ads. It's useful when you’re ready to scale campaigns that have already shown promise with specific audience segments.

A case study highlighted that a direct-to-consumer brand in the vitamin supplements industry experienced a 23% increase in conversion rate and a 30% reduction in cost per acquisition after implementing Smart Targeting.

7. Implement Hashtag Targeting to Align with Trending Conversations

Hashtag targeting lets you reach users who have engaged with specific hashtags in the past week, connecting your brand to relevant conversations happening on the platform through TikTok ads audience targeting.

To make the most of hashtag targeting:

• Keep tabs on trending hashtags via TikTok's Discover tab or analytics tools
• Choose hashtags that naturally align with your campaign messaging
• Tap into cultural moments by leveraging event-based hashtags
• Consider location-based hashtags if geographical targeting matters for your brand

TikTok's Branded Hashtag Challenges (HTCs) have demonstrated remarkable engagement metrics. A notable example is Pepsi's campaign, which garnered over 3.1 billion views and achieved a 4.73% engagement rate.

Keep an eye on these metrics to gauge your hashtag targeting performance:

• Hashtag reach and engagement rate
• Follower growth from hashtag campaigns
• Video views per hashtag
• Click-through and conversion rates
• Trend consistency over time

The key to successful hashtag targeting is staying current. Keep in mind that hashtags on TikTok have an average lifespan of 3–7 days before engagement drops, so you'll need to regularly swap out stagnating hashtags for fresh trends.

8. Conduct A/B Testing to Validate Targeting Strategies

A/B testing is like having two different versions of your message, then seeing which one people respond to better. You create two variations of an ad that differ in just one element to determine which performs best in your TikTok ads audience targeting.

TikTok's native Split Testing tool ensures a fair comparison by randomly dividing your audience between variations while maintaining statistical accuracy (typically requiring a 90% confidence rate for valid results).

A/B testing helps optimize your targeting by:

• Directly comparing different audience segments side-by-side
• Looking beyond surface metrics to understand true performance
• Helping you quickly iterate based on solid data
• Giving you inspiration from analyzing what your competitors are doing right

For A/B testing, test only one variable at a time (audience, creative, or placement), make sure your sample sizes are large enough to be statistically significant, keep testing periods consistent, try using custom and lookalike audiences in your tests, and continuously monitor results and iterate based on what you learn.

Pay attention to these metrics during your A/B tests: Click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, return on ad spend (ROAS), cost per click (CPC) and cost per acquisition (CPA), impressions and reach, engagement rate, and video completion rate.

Craft a Dynamic TikTok Ads Audience Targeting Strategy

The most successful TikTok advertisers combine these targeting methods strategically, adapting based on campaign goals and audience behavior. They treat targeting as a dynamic, evolving process, constantly testing, learning, and refining for the best results.

TikTok’s algorithm performs at its best when given the right parameters. Going too broad can reduce precision, while being too restrictive limits the algorithm’s ability to discover new, high-potential audience segments.

Top-performing brands let the algorithm explore new opportunities while also making data-driven decisions to fine-tune targeting. 

Which TikTok ads audience targeting strategy will you explore first to supercharge your campaigns? Pixis can help you refine and automate your audience targeting, offering insights and optimization across your ad campaigns.