Among the major social media platforms, TikTok sits in the top five for ad revenue, surpassing both Twitter (X) and Snapchat. Its growth trajectory suggests that by 2026, TikTok's annual ad revenue will hit $13.79 billion. So, we know that advertising on TikTok is effective in driving revenue. The question is, what is the best strategy for advertisers to take when running ads on TikTok? Two major ad types have emerged in the TikTok landscape, those being spark ads and in-feed ads. It is crucial for brands to pick the optimal ad type for their business to ensure their ads are resonating with users and achieving the results they are looking for by investing in the platform.
TikTok Spark Ads vs. In-Feed Ads
Spark ads are very similar to a boosted post in Meta. These are TikTok videos that were initially posted organically by a creator or the brand itself, and are then boosted by the brand to achieve desired results. In-feed ads, on the other hand, do not exist anywhere on the organic side of TikTok and are built from scratch by the brand by uploading an asset, assigning ad copy, populating a landing page, etc.
Both types of ads can be effective depending on the brand and their specific goals, but each comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
Given the organic nature of Spark ads, they tend to look more natural on the For You Page and align more with what users are used to seeing, and engaging with, while scrolling on TikTok. A major limiting factor to spark ads, however, is that content that makes up a spark ad, specifically the video asset and ad copy, cannot be edited on the ad level and must remain identical to the organic post from which the ad was derived. While the CTA button and landing page offer some customization options, the core content of Spark ads is fixed. Additionally, TikTok Spark ads have many of their clickable elements direct to a brand’s organic TikTok page instead of a landing page.
In-feed ads, on the other hand, provide a lot more levers that can be pulled to manufacture exactly how the TikTok ad appears. For example, brands can adjust the ad copy and video asset at their leisure to cater toward the specific audience they are targeting. In-feed ads also include the option to integrate a product feed, enabling ads to be displayed in a catalog format that showcases products directly within the ad. However, these ads can sometimes appear less natural on the platform, depending on the creative asset, and may fall victim to an immediate scroll once users recognize the content as sponsored.
Optimizing TikTok Campaigns: Spark Ads and In-Feed Ad Comparison
Revel Interactive has run TikTok Ads for multiple clients in 2024, using a mix of spark and in-feed ads to hit desired client objectives. Looking at data YTD, there are some clear advantages to each ad format.
It’s important to note that all of the ads in our data set were run as part of website conversion campaigns, optimized towards hitting a specific on-site conversion goal instead of general awareness or traffic. Each client also targeted different audiences based on their customer profile.
CTR Winner: Spark Ads
Spark Ads had the highest average click-through rate compared to non-spark ads. On average, spark ads had a 64% higher CTR in comparison to their non-spark ad counterparts. Our spark ad results for CTR also exceeded the TikTok Ads platform benchmark of 0.84%.
View Rate Winner: Spark Ads
Looking at view rate, we found that spark ads also won on this metric. Spark ads saw 17% of impressions hit the 25% mark of a video, while in-feed ads saw 7% of users.
CPM Winner: In-Feed Ads
In a change from previous stats, non-spark ads averaged a lower CPM than spark ads (40% lower on average). It’s important to note that while the CPMs are higher for Spark ads, this doesn’t mean they’re less effective overall given the better engagement performance.
Conversion Winner: Spark Ads
In a head to head test using four different video creatives, we tested an uploaded video version and a spark ad version of each creative. All ad creatives ran in all audiences, letting TikTok pick the best performers in the auction. Spark ads quickly rose to the top in this test, accounting for the majority of revenue over the reporting period. They had a higher CTR and achieved a higher ROAS throughout the test. In-feed ads had a lower CPM, but that increased efficiency in impressions didn’t matter when the engagement on the ads was lower.
Conclusion
Revel Interactive has found that spark ads can be a good ad type option for TikTok, especially for ads running on a lower budget (quality over quantity). Their higher CTRs and video view rates can help you get more out of your investment.
With larger media budgets, we’d recommend using TikTok Ads to test a variety of ad formats. In-feed ads and their efficient CPMs can help expand your reach cost effectively. Other ad types like brand takeovers, product feed based carousel ads, and collection ads can play together with classic in-feed and spark ads to hit potential customers at all parts of their purchase journey.
Ultimately, the decision about which ad type is best will depend on the goals for your campaigns. If your focus is growing your following and awareness on TikTok, Spark ads can be the perfect fit. If you are more focused on revenue (and have the ad dollars to support), a mixture of different types of in-feed ads will work great for you. If you’re not sure what your campaign goals should be, that’s where team Revel can help.
Photo: © Dragos Condrea from Getty Images