The best time to run TikTok ads is the stretch of weeks when demand for your product is rising. Hour of day matters much less, and your own results show your best hours better than a general chart. TikTok Ads Manager lets you set a date range, pick hours and schedule budget changes, which is how you fit spend to that stretch.
The general case for timing ads to demand, across every platform, is in the best time to run ads. This post sticks to TikTok's own scheduling options and how to use them.
What scheduling options does TikTok Ads Manager offer?
TikTok Ads Manager sets the schedule at the ad group level. You either choose a date range to run the ad group or run it continuously from a start date.
Inside that schedule, dayparting lets you choose when in the day ads deliver. Dayparting is the practice of showing ads only at chosen hours of the day or days of the week. On TikTok you pick one of two settings:
- All day, which runs ads across the whole day for the scheduled dates.
- Select specific time, which runs ads only during the periods you pick. Each period can be from half an hour to 24 hours long.
Times follow the time zone set on your ad account, and you cannot change that time zone after registration. TikTok's Time Zone Converter lets you enter times in your local time zone or your target market's, and it converts them to the account time zone for you.
For a fuller picture of how dayparting works on each platform, see what is dayparting.
What is the best time of day to run TikTok ads?
No hour of the day is best for every product on TikTok. The best hours for your ads are the ones your own buyers convert in, and they differ by product and audience.
Start with All day. Once the ad group has run for many weeks, look at results by hour and see if some hours clearly underperform. A few quiet evenings prove nothing. If the pattern holds across weeks, try Select specific time with the weak hours left out.
Charts that name one best hour for TikTok average huge numbers of unrelated ads. A game accessory and a meal kit do not sell at the same hour, so a general chart tells you little about yours.
Why does the hour matter less than when demand rises?
The hour matters less because it only moves ads around inside a day, while rising demand changes how many people want your product at all. The same ad reaches more ready buyers in a week when something in their lives gives them a reason to buy.
Say you spend $600 over a month on TikTok. Moving $60 of it from late night to evening changes when a small slice of your ads appear. Moving most of the $600 into the three weeks when buyers have a reason to look changes the whole campaign.
On TikTok, demand for consumer products tends to rise with build-ups like these:
- Home sales climbing for a third month, so new owners shop for storage organizers and wall shelves.
- Grocery prices rising for several months, so households try meal prep containers and bulk-buy snacks.
- Preorders building ahead of a game console's release, so buyers want controllers and headsets ready on the first day.
- Rents rising for consecutive months, so more people move into smaller places and look for space-saving furniture.
Each one grows for weeks before buyers act. That gives you time to set a date range and step up the budget before most buyers arrive.
Which approach to TikTok ad timing should you use?
Time TikTok ads to demand windows first, and use dayparting inside those windows once you have data. Each approach answers a different question.
| Approach | What it answers | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| Dayparting with Select specific time | Which hours convert best in your account | When it is worth spending |
| Running all year at the same budget | How to keep ads delivering steadily | Weeks when many more buyers are ready |
| Scaling on last week's results | Which ad groups worked recently | Demand that already peaked, and demand about to start |
| Timing to demand windows | When buyers have a reason to act, and who they are | Hourly patterns, which you tune afterward |
A demand window is a stretch of time, with a start and a stop, when demand for a specific product is rising.
How much can you raise a TikTok ad budget at once?
TikTok advises raising a budget by no more than 40% per adjustment while a campaign is in the learning phase, and no more than 30% once it has exited. It also advises against adjusting more often than every two days.
Those limits shape how you scale into a window. Starting from $50 a day, 30% steps two days apart take you to $65, then about $85, then about $110. Roughly doubling your starting budget takes three steps and at least four days, so the first step has to come before the window opens or right as it does. Verdius finds each window ahead of time, so you know when to take that first step.
Should you use a daily or lifetime budget on TikTok?
Use a lifetime budget on TikTok when you know the start and stop of the stretch you want to cover, and a daily budget for ongoing ad groups. TikTok itself describes lifetime budgets as best for campaigns with a fixed duration, such as launches and events.
A lifetime budget is the total amount you are willing to spend over the whole schedule. TikTok says it may not spend evenly across the days, and it pauses delivery once the ad group reaches the budget. A daily budget is the average amount you want to spend per day.
Decide before you launch. Once a campaign or ad group is live, you cannot switch between daily and lifetime budgets.
Can you schedule a TikTok budget increase ahead of time?
TikTok lets you schedule a change to an ad group's daily budget. The change takes effect at about 12:00 AM the next day in your account's time zone, and you must set it before 11:55 PM.
Smart+ Sales campaigns with a daily budget also have budget scheduling. It lets you plan up to 10 separate increase periods, as far as three months ahead, and the periods cannot overlap.
How do you use TikTok scheduling inside a demand window?
Use TikTok scheduling inside a demand window by matching the ad group's dates to the window, then fine-tuning hours only after the window has produced data. A simple order:
- Set the ad group's date range to the window's start and stop, with a lifetime budget if you know the total you want to spend.
- With a daily budget, schedule budget changes in steps of 30% or less, two or more days apart, and start them before the window opens.
- Run All day for the first part of the window.
- Check results by hour once you have enough conversions, and switch to Select specific time only if some hours clearly lag.
- When the window closes, lower the budget in steps or let the date range end.
Aim your targeting at the buyers the build-up creates. If a window comes from new homeowners, write ads about setting up a new place and aim the audience at people who just moved. Verdius gives you the audience for each window (age, income, location and interests) in the terms ad platforms already use.
How do I know when to start TikTok ads if I sell a consumer product and demand for it rises and falls through the year?
Work out what happens in a buyer's life right before they need your product, then watch whether that event is becoming more common week after week. Several weeks of movement in the same direction is the start of a window. Verdius does this watching for you and sends an alert when a window for your product opens.
How does Verdius help with TikTok ad timing?
Verdius is software that predicts when demand for a product will rise and who to target then. For TikTok advertisers, it gives you the dates to put in an ad group's date range and the point to start stepping up the budget.
For each product, Verdius gives you:
- Optimal windows to run ads, each with a start and a stop, ranked against each other.
- The events behind each window, such as home sales climbing for a third month for storage organizers.
- The audience to reach, in the terms ad platforms already use.
- Alerts when a window opens and when it closes.
It reads your TikTok account and the other ad platforms you connect, and never launches, edits or pauses ads. See how Verdius finds windows, or the pricing page for plans that see further ahead.
So when is the best time to run TikTok ads?
The best time to run TikTok ads is while demand for your product is rising. Set the ad group's dates to that window, raise the budget within TikTok's step limits before the window opens, and use Select specific time only when your own results by hour justify it.