Launching ads on TikTok
Launching to TikTok works just like launching to Meta - load media, choose where the ads go, add your copy, and launch. It runs on the same Ad Launcher; uplads just switches to TikTok's wording once you pick a TikTok advertiser in the account picker: you launch into ad groups (TikTok's equivalent of Meta ad sets) under an identity.
Before you start
- Connect your TikTok account in Configuration → Connections.
- Have a campaign and ad group ready in TikTok Ads Manager, or create them from the launcher: the Ad Groups card carries New campaign and New ad group, and you can duplicate an existing ad group from there too (see below).
The launch, card by card
- Pick the TikTok advertiser in the account picker at the top. The platform follows the account, and the identity picker (the TikTok account the ads run under) appears next to it.
- Load media. Click Load Media in the Ads panel and pick videos or images from the Media Library, Dropbox or Google Drive. Or promote a creator's existing post as a Spark ad instead (no upload, no copywriting) - see Spark ads below.
- Choose the ad groups in the Ad Groups card: the advertiser account, then the campaign, then one or more ad groups from the checklist (each row shows its status and budget). Every ticked ad group receives every ad.
- Write the copy in the Ad Setup card: your caption(s), the landing page URL, optional URL parameters (UTM) and a call to action. The Creative Enhancements section below it holds TikTok's per-ad options (Dark Post, Auto Enhancements, Creative Center, Disclaimer, AI-Generated Content).
- Launch. Check the ad names in the Ads panel, set Launch ads as Paused or Active, and click the Launch button. By default ads are created paused so you can check them in TikTok Ads Manager before they spend.
Captions, identity and call to action
The Ad Setup card mirrors Meta's:
- Identity - the TikTok account the ads post under, picked in the top bar. uplads loads your authorized identities automatically.
- Caption variants - add up to 5 captions and TikTok rotates them across your ads to find the best performer. TikTok hard-caps captions at 100 characters; the field shows a character meter, and uplads blocks the launch until any over-length caption is trimmed.
- Landing page URL + URL parameters - your destination URL plus optional
utm_…parameters appended to every ad. - Call to action - pick from TikTok's CTA list (Shop Now, Learn More, Sign Up, Download, and more).
You can also load a saved template with Load Copy or generate copy with Generate with AI right in the card - the same template library and AI dialog used for Meta launches.
Smart+ campaigns
uplads detects Smart+ (Upgraded Smart+) campaigns and labels them with a Smart+ badge in the campaign picker. They're fully supported - uplads launches into them through TikTok's dedicated Smart+ flow.
One difference: TikTok doesn't allow setting a call-to-action per ad on Smart+ via the API, so Smart+ ads inherit the campaign's call to action automatically. The Ad Setup card shows a note explaining this instead of the CTA dropdown. Captions still rotate (Smart+ ACO supports up to 5).
Spark ads - promote a creator's post
Spark ads (TikTok's branded-content / partnership format) put paid spend behind a creator's existing organic post, keeping their handle, caption, comments and engagement intact. You don't re-upload the video or rewrite the copy.
- In the Ads panel toolbar, click Spark Ads. The dialog offers two sources.
- Your posts lists the advertiser's own organic posts; pick one and click Boost this post. Creator code is for a post from someone else: the creator generates a Spark ad code from their post and shares it with you. Paste it into the Spark ad code field and click Save code. (uplads doesn't create the code - it comes from the creator's side.)
- Because the post is the ad, picking a Spark source replaces the media batch and the caption fields are not needed. Tick the ad groups and launch.
This is the same source mechanism as Meta's partnership ads; TikTok just calls it "Spark."
Duplicate an ad group
Need a fresh ad group to launch into without leaving the launcher? In the Ad Groups card, open New ad group and choose Duplicate ad group. uplads clones an existing ad group's settings (status, budget, targeting) into a new empty ad group - no ads - and selects it for you, ready to receive this launch's creatives. If the source campaign sets its budget at the campaign level, the copy inherits it. Smart+ campaigns take no hand-built ad groups, so duplicating one of theirs is the way in.
Automatic 9:16 resizing
If a video isn't already vertical (9:16), uplads automatically reformats it to TikTok's 1080×1920 with a blurred background fill - no manual editing. Videos that are already vertical are uploaded untouched. Images are uploaded as-is.
Naming
Your account's naming convention is applied to every TikTok ad, exactly like Meta launches - so names stay consistent across platforms. You can edit any name inline in the Ads panel before you launch.
Tracking progress
Each ad's status (queued → uploading → created, or failed with the reason) appears live in the Ad Launches tab below the launcher, the same as Meta.