5 Successful TikTok Ads That Are Crushing The Ad Game

Over the past year, TikTok has established itself as a powerful advertising platform for marketers for a number of reasons. Perhaps the biggest one is how seamless ads are on the app. In 2022, being authentic is crucial for success — and this goes for brands and businesses too. In-feed ads integrate video content into users “For You” feed, which often makes them indistinguishable from non-ad content, and branded hashtags and effects encourage authentic and effective user-generated content. 7 out of 10 users even state that TikTok ads are enjoyable, with 52% of users saying they actively shop on the app.

As well as creating original and authentic content that corresponds with trending hashtags, sounds and the latest memes for free then, TikTok ads enable you to create powerful, targeted ads to boost your brand and increase conversions — however this might look for you. 

Need inspiration to get started? These are some of the most successful TikTok Ads in recent months, that we think are crushing the authentic ad game. 

1. Marks & Spencers (M&S)

Not who you might think of when you think of TikTok, but the traditional retail chain is crushing their TikTok ads. M&S’s OmBall ad campaign — which they have also shared as a standard TikTok video —  saw great success. According to House of Marketers, over its first week, the ad received 12.7k likes, 606 comments, and 176 shares. In addition, the shared video version received 360 likes and 14 comments.

M&S also debuted their new Percy Pig Duvet Set in a standard TikTok video, which received 200k views, 23k likes and 1,000 comments in its first month. This follows the success of their Valentine’s paid ad campaign, which gained 18.5 million impressions, a 15%+ click-through rate, and an overall 15.47% engagement rate. 

Not to mention that individual store’s content has flown too. Through “unvarnished social media clips”, The Guardian reports, M&S gathers up to 3m views on store social media pages every week, with its stores in Yate, Bexhill and Gloucester all garnering more than 500,000 views a month. Indeed, through meticulous keeping up with trends and memes, the retail store is a must-look for those needing inspiration. 

2. Crocs

Love them or hate them, everyone's talking about them. Croc's TikTok success includes original music, brand-specific hashtags (like #CrocTok), and all-round entertaining content. Take their most recent video, which has gained a huge 1.3 million views, 107.1k likes, and 824 comments in less than a week. Although this looks like a more conventional ad, their attractive and engaging visuals draws users in with clear success.

The same goes for their "cozzziest sandals" campaign, which achieved 4.5 million views and 23.8k likes.

3. Benefit Cosmetics

Through a series of In-Feed Ads, which amassed a huge 7.7 million reach, 30.6m video views, and a 40% lower CPM than their benchmark, Benefit ran a successful campaign for the release of their Brow Microfilling Pen. The brand tested three creative concepts to determine which performed best: one native video from a TikTok creator showing how to achieve bold eyebrows, one featuring beauty influencer Patrick Starr, and one branded video showcasing close-ups of the product in action. All three played into a natively TikTok style, TikTok for Business explains, which drove massive engagement and conversions for the site.

Benefit also had creators complete the "Benefit Brow Challenge" to appear authentically on users For You feeds to drive optimum engagement. This generated 3,500+ hours of views and 1.4 million impressions off of just 4.5 minutes of creator content.

4. Lastminute.com

Looking to reach their target audience of Gen Z and Millennial holidaymakers, lastminute.com used a combination of both TopView and In-Feed Ads to ensure maximum reach — and reach is what they achieved! More than 10.5 million impressions were recorded during the TikTok ad campaign, with an engagement rate of 18%. People were genuinely interested in the highly creative content too, with 51,000+ total likes recorded, according to their TikTok for Business report.

Indeed, the TopView reached nearly 10.4 million views in just 24 hours, with more than 20% of viewers watching at least half of the entire 10-second video.

5. Coconut Lane

Coconut Lane is a fashion and lifestyle accessories ecommerce store from London. The brand deployed two successful TikTok ad campaigns; the first for their watch strap using In-Feed Auction Ads, and the second for Cocogym, again using In-Feed Auction Ads. 

These generated an impressive cost per click of £0.07 and £0.09, and increased engagement. The two ads generated 6,000 clicks, 3,000 likes and 600,00 impressions. Phoebe Parker told TikTok, “the ad had a ROAS of 11+ some days and drove a lot of traffic to our website. Now we know this creative is popular, we are using this to test new audiences and to find the best interests to utilise.”

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Need help with your ad creative?

We are Aura Ads, an ecommerce ad service designed for D2C eCommerce brands. We help clients sell more online and grow at scale with our bespoke video and static creative delivered on a monthly basis. Find out more about our TikTok ads services on our website or, for more tips and tricks from our experts, head over to our blog page.