TikTok Ads for e-commerce: Spark Ads and TikTok Shop campaigns

Many brands open a TikTok Shop, get a few organic videos that work and then stall: they don’t know how to turn those spikes into steady sales. That’s exactly what advertising is for, giving a push to content that already persuades. Here we look at how Spark Ads work, how Shop campaigns have changed with GMV Max and which metrics to watch.

What Spark Ads are

Spark Ads are ads built on organic posts that are already live, from your account or a creator’s. Unlike a standard ad, the video stays tied to the original profile: likes, comments and shares stay on the post, and viewers can visit the profile and follow it.

To use a creator’s video you need their authorisation. Usually the creator generates a code in the app and shares it with the brand, which enters it in TikTok Ads Manager. The creator also chooses how long to grant usage for. That’s why it pays to ask for authorisation in the collaboration brief, as we explain on the page about our TikTok Shop agency.

Why they work well:

• they look like native content, not adverts;
• they draw on the creator’s credibility;
• engagement builds up on the original post instead of being scattered;
• they let you test quickly which video holds up beyond the organic audience.

TikTok Shop campaigns: GMV Max

Until recently you could choose various separate formats to push the Shop (product ads, shoppable videos, LIVE). Since July 2025 TikTok has made GMV Max the default, and in practice the only, campaign type for promoting TikTok Shop products. Campaigns already running in the old formats could stay on, but new ones are built with GMV Max.

How it works in practice:

• you set a ROI target (sales generated divided by spend) and a budget;
• the system automatically handles audience, bids and choice of creative;
• it uses the content available for the Shop: brand videos, affiliate videos, product pages;
• there’s one version for products and one for LIVEs.

Manual control over targeting and individual ads is very limited. The work shifts to three levers: the ROI target, the budget and above all the quality and quantity of content you feed the campaign.

Features and format names on TikTok change often. Before setting up a campaign, check what’s available at that moment in your Ads Manager and Seller Center.

Spark Ads and GMV Max together

The two aren’t alternatives. Spark Ads remain useful for campaigns with other objectives (traffic, awareness, followers) and for testing individual videos. GMV Max is the engine for Shop sales. Authorised creator videos become fuel for both.

Native creative: what works on TikTok

On TikTok creative matters more than targeting. With campaigns increasingly automated, it’s almost the only thing you really control. What we see working in the projects we run:

1. A hook in the first seconds: a problem, a question, a visible result. If the video starts slowly, people scroll on.
2. Product in hand, in use: a video shot on a phone in the kitchen beats a perfect render.
3. A person talking: a face and a voice build trust.
4. One message per video: one benefit, one use case.
5. Vertical format, good audio, captions: many people watch with the sound off.

A good way to feed your campaigns is to organise content by type. For each main product, aim to have at least:

• a demo video showing how it’s used;
• an honest creator review, with pros and cons;
• a comparison or before-and-after video;
• a video tied to an occasion (season, holiday, promotion).

That way, when one format wears out, you already have another ready to put into the campaign.

Creative fatigues quickly. A video that does well for two weeks can drop off suddenly. You need a steady flow of new content, and this is where creator affiliates become the cheapest source of material.

How to test without burning budget

Testing on TikTok never stops. A routine that works:

• start with a realistic ROI target, calculated from margin, and a daily budget that lets you gather data for a few days;
• don’t change everything every day: automated algorithms need time to learn;
• add new videos at a regular pace and remove those that don’t spend or don’t convert;
• use Spark Ads to check a new video before betting on it.

Example of setting the target: if a product leaves you £10 of margin on a £40 price (before advertising), to break even you can spend up to £10 per order. Break-even ROI is 40 divided by 10, so 4. If you set the target below that, every ad-driven sale costs you margin. Sometimes that makes sense for a launch, but it has to be a conscious decision.

The metrics to watch

• GMV: the gross value of attributed sales. Useful, but on its own it doesn’t tell you whether you’re making money.
• ROI: GMV divided by ad spend. It’s the indicator GMV Max works on.
• Cost per order: spend divided by orders. Compare it directly with margin per unit.
• Total Shop sales: advertising often lifts organic and affiliate sales too. Look at the total, not just what’s attributed to ads.
• Returns and cancellations: high GMV with lots of returns is less impressive than it looks.

The same reasoning used on Amazon between ACoS and TACoS applies here: what counts is the ratio of ad spend to total sales, not just the return on a single campaign. You’ll find more on how we set budgets on our TikTok Ads page.

What to do now

Gather the 5 or 10 best videos you already have (yours or creators’), ask for authorisation where needed and work out the break-even ROI for your main products. Then open a GMV Max campaign with a target close to that figure and commit to uploading new content every week. After a month you’ll know which videos and which products deserve more budget.

Frequently asked questions