TikTok Advertising Costs (2025): Pricing, Strategy, & Tips

TikTok advertising costs in 2025 range widely. CPC typically falls between $0.17 and $1 for all industries, depending on factors like audience targeting and creative strength. 

In this article, I’ll share how TikTok ads work, what I’ve seen for pricing, and how different formats compare. I’ve tested campaigns across different budgets and seasons, so I’ll also cover minimum spends, seasonal spikes, and hidden costs that can lead to wasted budget.

Expert take:

Creative quality plays a big role in TikTok advertising costs. When a video opens with a strong hook, I’ve seen CPCs fall close to $0.20 and CPMs stay in the lower $3 to $4 range. 

Weaker ads tell a different story, with clicks rising toward $1 and CPMs climbing to $7 during busy seasons. According to Gupta Media’s June 2025 report, the TikTok ads average $0.31 cost per link click (CPLC) and $6.16 CPM, which line up with my own results.

Disclaimer: The information in this article, including costs and other figures, is subject to change. While we strive to keep our content current and accurate, we recommend always consulting official sources for the most up-to-date and authoritative information before making important decisions.

How TikTok ads work

TikTok ads work through an auction system that weighs both your bid and the quality of your ad. Every time there’s a chance to show an ad, advertisers compete for that placement. The highest bid does not always win, because TikTok also considers how engaging and relevant the creative is. 

I’ve had ads with lower bids win auctions when the video drove strong interaction, even against competitors spending more.

TikTok campaign structures: Campaign > ad group > ad

TikTok structures campaigns in layers so you can control different parts of the setup without rebuilding everything from scratch. Each layer serves a specific role:

• Campaign: This is where you choose the overall goal, like conversions, traffic, or app installs. The campaign layer sets the purpose of everything beneath it.
  
  
• Ad group: This sits under the campaign. Here you decide who sees the ads, how much you’ll spend, where they’ll appear, and when they’ll run. Ad groups let you test different targeting options while keeping the same campaign objective.
  
  
• Ad: This is the bottom layer. It’s the actual creative people see, which are the video, caption, and call to action. You can upload multiple ads inside an ad group to test which creative works best.

I like this layered setup because it gives me room to experiment. I can test different audiences at the ad group level or try new videos at the ad level without having to rebuild the entire campaign.

Bidding strategies on TikTok

TikTok gives you two bidding strategies, namely cost cap and maximum delivery. 

With cost cap, you tell TikTok the average cost per action you’re aiming for, and the system tries to keep results near that number. I’ve used this when I had strict cost-per-acquisition (CPA) goals. 

Maximum delivery spends the budget to get as many conversions as possible, even if the CPA fluctuates. I lean on this when I want to scale fast and I’m less worried about cost per conversion.

TikTok advertising cost in 2025 by format

TikTok ad pricing isn’t fixed, and the numbers can swing depending on audience, format, and season. I’ve reviewed the recent reports, articles, and internal data to arrive at these numbers. 

To make it easier, here’s a table so you can look at it at a glance:

Let’s dive deeper into the differences by format. Here’s how much it costs to advertise on TikTok:

• In-feed ads appear directly in the “For You” feed and look like regular TikToks. I’ve seen CPCs range between $0.20 and $1, with averages closer to $0.30 when the creative is strong. CPMs usually land between $3 and $7, though I’ve found cheaper options under $3 in January and closer to $7 in Q4.
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• TopView ads take over the screen the moment someone opens the app. TikTok doesn’t publish prices (you have to negotiate with their reps), but it usually starts at around $20,000 to $30,000 per day in major markets, depending on the market and the season. I haven’t run one myself because of the cost, but I’ve seen brands use them during big launches.
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• Spark Ads boost existing posts, whether they come from your own account or a creator’s. Costs usually track with in-feed ads, landing around $0.30 to $1 CPC. When I’ve promoted posts that already had organic traction, CPC stayed low and engagement held steady. When the original post was weaker, the cost rose quickly and results dropped off.
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• Branded effects include interactive elements like AR filters and stickers that users can add to their own videos. Prices vary since TikTok often sells them as part of larger branded packages, which can cost five figures. From what I’ve seen, they work better for engagement and community participation than for direct conversions.
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• Branded missions let advertisers invite creators to produce content around a campaign. You set the brief, creators submit videos, and you can choose which ones to run as ads. Costs vary since they depend on creator rates and the scale of the campaign, but in my experience, they’re also usually part of a broader influencer or branded package.

Factors that impact TikTok ad cost

We’ve talked about how much TikTok advertising costs, but not the factors that shape those prices. Here are the main things that can change what you spend:

Audience targeting complexity

If you go too narrow with targeting, like focusing on one city or a tight interest group, you’ll often see CPC climb close to $1. When you keep things broad, clicks tend to get cheaper and impressions cost less because you’re not competing as heavily with other advertisers. 

I’ve found it works better to start broad, gather data, and only narrow down once I know which audiences respond.

Time of year and seasonal spikes

Ad costs swing with the calendar. The cheapest CPMs usually show up in January when fewer brands advertise, while Q4 pushes prices higher. 

I’ve seen CPMs stretch closer to $10 around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. To keep campaigns affordable, plan ahead by setting aside more budget for Q4 or launch earlier in the year before holiday competition drives costs up.

Creative quality and engagement

TikTok rewards ads that hold attention. Ads with a strong hook and early engagement can drop CPC down near $0.20. Weaker creatives do the opposite, where costs rise and delivery slows. I’ve learned that testing different hooks and video styles early pays off because the better your creative, the cheaper your campaign becomes.

You can use a tool like Bestever to analyze your creative performance. It helps you spot which parts of a video drive engagement and which ones lose viewers. We designed it to break down ads frame by frame, so you know exactly what to tweak before you spend more budget.

Manual vs automatic bidding

Bidding type affects pricing because it changes how TikTok’s system prioritizes your ads. With cost cap, you’re telling TikTok the average cost per action you’re willing to pay. That keeps CPA closer to your goal, but if your bid is lower than your competitors', delivery slows. This means you risk missing placements. I’ve had campaigns stall out when my cap was too strict.

With maximum delivery, TikTok opens the faucet and spends to get as many conversions as possible. That usually gives me faster results and more volume, but the tradeoff is higher or less predictable costs. I’ve seen CPAs creep up quickly when competition was heavy.

I tend to use cost cap when running retargeting campaigns because I want tight control over CPA. For big launches or when I need quick scale, maximum delivery makes more sense even if the price per conversion rises.

The many benefits of advertising on TikTok

From running my own campaigns, I’ve noticed several advantages that set TikTok apart from other platforms. Here’s what I noticed over the years:

• Younger, highly engaged audience: TikTok’s core audience is Gen Z and younger Millennials. They often engage with content through comments, duets, and stitches instead of just scrolling past. When I targeted products toward people in their early twenties, I saw interaction rates that outperformed the same ads on Meta.
  
  
• Strong connection between organic and paid content: User-generated videos often gain traction on their own. Spark ads make it possible to take those posts and give them paid support. I’ve boosted a creator’s video that already had strong engagement, and with paid spend, it reached double the audience while keeping costs low.
  
  
• Viral potential: TikTok’s algorithm gives almost any video a chance to go viral if it resonates. I’ve had a product demo clip spread outside the target group just because it tied into a trending sound. That kind of unexpected reach is something I don’t usually get from YouTube or Meta campaigns.
  
  
• Vertical video focus: The app is built for vertical video, which matches how people naturally hold their phones. So, ads feel more like part of the feed instead of an interruption. In my own campaigns, I’ve noticed that this format keeps watch time longer compared to banner or horizontal ads.
  
  
• Lower CPMs in many cases: Outside of Q4, I’ve often paid less on TikTok than on Meta or YouTube. For one awareness campaign, CPMs averaged under $4 on TikTok, compared to $8 on Meta. That gap gave me much more reach for the same budget.

How TikTok ad costs compare to Meta and Google

I’ve run ads across all three platforms, and the pricing looks different depending on where you go. Gupta Media’s 2025 data and WordStream’s benchmarks give us a good baseline:

Every platform has its pros and cons, and I’ve found they each serve different jobs depending on what I need from a campaign. Here’s how each platform compares to TikTok:

TikTok vs Meta

Meta still dominates when it comes to precise targeting. If I need to build a lookalike audience or retarget people who abandoned carts, Meta gives me more control. TikTok, on the other hand, wins on creative momentum. Trend-driven, UGC-style videos often stretch further than I expect, especially with Spark ads turning organic content into paid pushes.

TikTok vs YouTube

YouTube is where I go when I want longer storytelling. Tutorials, demos, and in-depth explainers hold attention well there, and CPMs can run lower than Meta’s. TikTok plays a different game. It thrives on speed and short hooks that capture attention in the first few seconds. I’ve seen product demos on TikTok go viral simply because they matched a trending sound, something I can’t replicate on YouTube.

TikTok vs Google Display

Google Display Network (GDN) offers broad reach, with CPMs that typically fall between $2 and $7 based on industry reports. WordStream’s benchmarks show the average CPC at about $0.63, which makes Display cheaper per click than Meta but often higher than TikTok’s average of $0.31.

Performance still depends heavily on targeting and creative. TikTok ads usually carry a higher CPM, averaging $6.16, but they use motion, music, and cultural trends to pull people in. That creative approach often translates into stronger engagement from younger audiences, something Display struggles to match even with lower headline costs.

Creative fatigue and hidden costs that eat your spend

There are extra costs around TikTok ads that never show up in the dashboards. I learned early that CPM and CPC don’t tell the whole story.

Production is the first cost. If you’re working with creators or influencers, their fees stack on top of the ad budget. I’ve paid more for production and influencer partnerships than for the media spend itself on certain campaigns. Those numbers don’t appear in CPM or CPC, but they matter when you’re planning a realistic budget.

Then there’s creative fatigue. TikTok ads burn out faster than ads I’ve run on Meta or YouTube. A video might work well for a few weeks, but performance often drops once people have seen it too many times. I’ve had CPCs double just because an ad ran too long without a refresh. 

That means you need to factor in the cost of making new creatives regularly, not just the spend to promote them.

If you don’t plan for these extra expenses, you can underestimate what a campaign really costs. I’ve found it’s better to set aside part of the budget specifically for new creatives and production. That way, I’m not caught off guard when performance drops and I need to rotate in fresh content.

What TikTok advertising costs deliver at different budgets

Numbers make more sense when you see how they play out in real campaigns. Here’s what I’ve actually gotten at different spend levels:

• $1,000 budget: At a $5 CPM, that equals about 200,000 impressions. With a CTR of around 2%, you can expect 4,000 clicks. If CPC averages $0.30, that lines up closely. I’ve seen campaigns in this range bring in 3,000 to 4,000 site visits.
  
  
• $5,000 budget: At the same $5 CPM, you get about 1 million impressions. With a 2% CTR, that’s about 20,000 clicks. When I’ve spent around this level, CPC came in closer to $0.40 because the audience pool narrowed. That brought the total closer to 12,000 to 15,000 clicks.
  
  
• $10,000 budget: This kind of spend usually gets around 2 million impressions and 25,000 to 30,000 clicks at midrange CPCs. At this level, I’ve had to rotate creative more often because fatigue sets in faster with a broader reach.

These are not guarantees, but they show how spend translates into visibility and clicks. TikTok scales well at the lower ranges, but once you push into five figures, the extra costs of new creative and influencer content start to take a bigger share of the budget.

Best practices for engaging TikTok ads

There are a few things you can do to make your TikTok ads more effective. These are the ones I’ve seen improve results in real campaigns:

• Grab attention in the first three seconds: People scroll quickly, so the hook needs to land right away. A bold line, a question, or a clear visual usually helps. For example, in one test I did, an ad that started with the product in use held viewers longer than a slower version that built up to the reveal.
  
  
• Use UGC-style content with trending sounds: Ads that look like regular TikToks usually get more engagement. When I boosted a short clip that used a trending sound, it blended naturally into the feed. I noticed that post picked up more shares compared to the same video with generic audio.
  
  
• Keep videos short and mobile-first: TikTok’s vertical format favors concise content. I’ve found ads under 20 seconds tend to deliver stronger results than longer cuts. It might be a good idea to keep your videos on the shorter side when it makes sense.
  
  
• Add captions for accessibility: Many users scroll without sound. Adding captions helped me keep completion rates steady since people could still follow the message even with their phones on silent.
  
  
• Refresh creatives often: TikTok audiences see the same ad multiple times in a short window, and performance usually dips after a couple of weeks. When I rotated in new versions every 10 to 14 days, costs stayed stable and my CTR didn’t drop as quickly.

How Bestever can help make your TikTok Ads more cost-efficient

Many factors affect TikTok advertising costs, from how you target your audience to the time of year you run a campaign. Bidding strategy and your creative’s strength also play a big role in what you end up paying.

At Bestever, we focus on ad insights. You can upload your TikTok creatives, see how each frame performs, and get clear recommendations to improve engagement and reduce wasted spend.

Here’s how Bestever can help you:

• Analyze your ads' effectiveness: Bestever’s Ad Analysis Dashboard gives you instant feedback on an ad's Visual Impact, Brand Alignment, Sales Orientation, and Audience Engagement. It’ll even break down each element in detail. 
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• Get suggestions to improve every frame: If an ad isn’t hitting the mark, ask Bestever to tell you what’s wrong and get instant, actionable suggestions on what to do to fix it. No more guessing or wasting time, your team can start fixing those issues asap. 
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• Understand your audience: Bestever’s audience analysis tools go beyond sharing standard demographics, helping refine both targeting and messaging. You can share your website URL or integrate it with your ad manager, and it’ll quickly let you know who wants to hear more from you. 
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• Rapid asset generation: Fetch AI-generated images, stock photos, and video clips that all fit your brand voice. Then you can share the creatives with your team to make multiple ad variations faster.

• Instant feedback loop: Know immediately why an ad variant underperforms, then pivot before wasting your budget.

Want to see how this works in practice? Let our team show you how Bestever can help you get a closer look at how you can optimize your TikTok creatives.

 Schedule a free demo of Bestever now.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the minimum budget for TikTok ads?

The minimum budget for TikTok Ads Manager is $50 per campaign per day and $20 per ad group per day, though these amounts can vary by country. If you use TikTok’s managed service, the minimum is usually around $500 per campaign. These numbers cover media spend only, not production or creative costs. TikTok may also update them over time as the platform evolves.

How much do TikTok ads cost per click?

TikTok ads cost between $0.17 and $1 per click on average. Strong creatives and broader targeting usually lower CPC, while narrower audiences or weak hooks push it higher. Industry reports show TikTok’s average cost per result stays lower than Meta’s CPR in many verticals, which can make it a strong option for testing.

Are TikTok ads more affordable than Facebook?

Yes, TikTok ads often deliver cheaper CPMs than Meta, especially outside of Q4. Facebook usually charges more but gives you tighter targeting and retargeting options. If your audience skews younger and your creative is engaging, TikTok can be the more efficient choice. Marketers sometimes compare results across platforms using tools like Google Ads benchmarks to understand relative costs.

What is the average CPM on TikTok?

The average CPM on TikTok is around $6.16 as of June 2025, according to Gupta Media. CPMs can dip to $2.97 in slower months like January and rise to $6.28 on Cyber Monday or $6.30 in May during seasonal peaks.

Can small businesses advertise on TikTok?

Yes, small businesses can run TikTok ads effectively with a modest daily budget. Even a smaller budget is enough to test in-feed or Spark ads to see if your creative resonates. Many brands in ecommerce advertising start this way, focusing on one or two strong videos before scaling.

How do you know if your TikTok ads are profitable?

Your TikTok ads are profitable if your return on ad spend (ROAS) exceeds your break-even ROAS. All you have to do is compare your ad revenue to your ad spend.