Solved: Is TikTok right for advertising my business?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out about using TikTok for your advertising.

It's a question that comes up a lot, and it's easy to see why with all the hype around it. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on this. The truth is, whether TikTok is right for you has less to do with the platform itself and more to do with some foundational bits of your marketing that need to be rock solid first. Get these wrong, and it doesn't matter if you're on TikTok, Google, or sending messages by carrier pigeon; you'll just be burning cash.

Let's get into it.

We'll need to look at your customer in a completely different way...

Most businesses, and frankly most agencies, start in the wrong place. They ask "Should we be on TikTok?" or "What's our budget for Google Ads?". These are the last questions you should be asking. The first, and only question that matters at the start is: "What is the specific, urgent, and expensive nightmare my ideal customer is living through right now?"

Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile your last marketing hire probably put together. "Companies in the finance sector with 50-200 employees" tells you absolutely nothing of value. It's a lazy shortcut that leads to generic ads that speak to no one. To stop wasting money, you have to define your customer not by who they *are*, but by the *problem state* they are in.

You need to become an obsessive expert in their pain. What keeps them up at 3 AM? What conversation with their boss are they dreading? What broken process is making their best employee threaten to quit? Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem.

Let's make this real.

-> If you sell a legal tech SaaS, your ICP's nightmare isn't 'needing document management'. It's a partner missing a critical filing deadline and exposing the entire firm to a multi-million-pound malpractice suit because a key document was buried in a shared drive. The feeling isn't inconvenience; it's raw professional fear.

-> If you're a fractional CFO service, your ICP's nightmare isn't 'doing the books'. It's staring at a cash flow projection that's basically a wild guess, wondering if they'll be able to make payroll next month while their competitors are confidently announcing their Series A funding round. The feeling isn't confusion; it's the cold dread of failure.

-> If you sell project management software for construction firms, the nightmare isn't 'disorganised projects'. It's a site manager discovering a subcontractor has installed the wrong grade of steel beams, causing a six-week delay that triggers massive penalty clauses and destroys the project's entire profit margin. The feeling isn't frustration; it's a career-damaging crisis.

See the difference? We're talking about pain that has a real cost—in money, in reputation, in stress. Once you have truly isolated that nightmare, and you can describe it better than your customer can, *then* you can start thinking about where to find them.

This work is the non-negotiable foundation. If you don't do it, you have no business spending a single pound on ads on any platform, let alone TikTok.

I'd say you need to find where they live online...

Now that you're obsessed with their nightmare, finding them becomes a much more logical exercise. Instead of just guessing, you can map out their digital life. Where do they go for information when that nightmare is flaring up? This is how you chose your ad platform, not based on hype.

There are really only two states a potential customer is in: actively searching for a solution, or passively going about their day, unaware that a better solution even exists. Your choice of ad platform depends entirely on which state you're targeting.

1. High Intent - Google Search Ads: If the nightmare is bad enough, they will actively search for a cure. The construction firm with the wrong steel beams isn't scrolling TikTok; they're on Google searching for "construction litigation lawyers" or "structural engineering consultants". This is where you use Google Ads to show up at the exact moment of need. It's often the most expensive traffic, but also the most qualified. Your job here isn't creative genius; it's to be the most relevant and trustworthy answer to their desperate query.

2. Passive Discovery - Social Media: This is where platforms like LinkedIn, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), and yes, TikTok, come in. People here are not looking for you. You have to interrupt their feed with something that resonates so deeply with their unspoken pain that it stops them scrolling. The choice between these platforms depends on how you can best identify your ICP:

• LinkedIn Ads: This is your tool when the nightmare is tied to a specific job title, industry, or company size. It's unparalleled for B2B targeting. You can target "Chief Technology Officers" at "SaaS companies" with "50-200 employees" with precision. It's expensive, but highly effective. I'm thinking of one B2B software client for whom we generated leads from decision-makers at a $22 CPL, which was a fantastic result for their high-ticket offer.
• Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram): This is more powerful than people give it credit for in B2B. You can't target job titles as well, but you can target interests and behaviours that are strong proxies. Do they follow industry publications? Are they members of certain professional groups? Have they shown interest in competitor software? For another B2B software company, we used Meta's broader targeting to drive 4,622 registrations at an incredible $2.38 each. It can definately work when you get the targeting and messaging right.
• TikTok Ads: And now we get to TikTok. TikTok is a discovery platform supercharged by an algorithm that's terrifyingly good at figuring out what people are interested in, even if they don't explicitly state it. It works best when your message can be delivered in a creative, engaging, and often educational-but-entertaining format. You can't just run a boring corporate ad. You could run a video showing "3 signs your cash flow is about to kill your business" or a quick, snappy case study. The targeting is less precise than LinkedIn, but its power is in getting your message in front of people who don't even know they need you yet, planting a seed for the future.

The key takeaway is this: the platform is a tool, not a strategy. The strategy is to intersect your customer's life at the right moment with the right message. Your nightmare ICP research will tell you which tool to pick up.

You probably should fix your offer first...

Let's assume you've nailed your ICP's nightmare and picked the right platform. You could still fail spectacularly. In fact, most do. The number one reason I see campaigns fail, time and time again, is a weak, arrogant, and self-serving offer.

I'm talking about the "Request a Demo" button. Or "Contact Us for a Quote".

These are perhaps the most arrogant Calls to Action ever conceived. They presume your prospect, a busy, stressed-out decision-maker, has nothing better to do with their time than book a slot in their calendar to be sold to. It's a high-friction, low-value proposition that instantly positions you as just another commodity vendor clamouring for their attention. It screams, "Give me your time, and I *might* show you something valuable." It's a deal no one wants to take.

Your offer has one job and one job only: to deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. You must solve a small, real piece of their problem for free to earn the right to solve the whole thing for money.

Here's what a powerful offer looks like:

• For a SaaS Company: The gold standard is a free trial with no credit card required. Or a genuinely useful freemium plan. Let them use the actual product. Let them experience the transformation firsthand. When the software itself eliminates a small part of their daily nightmare, the sale becomes a formality. This creates Product Qualified Leads (PQLs), people who are already convinced, not Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) for a sales team to chase for months.
• For a Service Business/Agency: You are not exempt. You must bottle your expertise into an asset that provides instant value. For a marketing agency, this could be a free, automated website audit that uncovers their top 3 SEO opportunities. For a data analytics firm, a free 'Data Health Check' that flags the biggest issues in their database. For us, as a B2B advertising consultancy, it's a completely free 20-minute strategy session where we audit their failing ad campaigns and give them actionable advice. We solve a real problem for free.
• For a High-Ticket Product: Offer a valuable guide, a webinar, or a calculator that helps them make a better decision. If you sell complex lab equipment, offer a free guide on "How to Write a Winning Grant Proposal for New Lab Funding." If you sell enterprise software, create an ROI calculator that shows them exactly how much they could save. You're not selling the product; you're selling the intelligence that surrounds the product.

Your offer must shift the risk from the buyer to you. Instead of asking for their time and money, you are giving them value with no strings attached. This builds trust and demonstrates your expertise in a way no sales pitch ever could. Fix your offer before you spend another penny on ads. A great offer with mediocre ads will always beat mediocre offer with great ads.

You'll need a message they can’t ignore...

Once you have a killer offer, you need to wrap it in a message that speaks directly to the nightmare you've identified. Generic, feature-led copy is the kiss of death. No one cares that your software "leverages AI-powered synergy" or that your service is "best-in-class". They care about their problems.

Here’s how you translate your ICP research into ad copy that works, using a couple of proven frameworks.

For a High-Touch Service Business: Use Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS)

You don't sell "fractional CFO services"; you sell a good night's sleep. Your ad needs to twist the knife a little before offering the cure.

• Problem: "Are your cash flow projections just a shot in the dark?" (States the core issue)
• Agitate: "Are you one bad month away from a payroll crisis while your competitors are confidently raising their next round?" (Makes the problem feel more painful and urgent)
• Solve: "Get expert financial strategy for a fraction of a full-time hire. We build dashboards that turn uncertainty into predictable growth. Get your free Financial Health Check today." (Presents the solution and the high-value offer)

For a B2B SaaS Product: Use Before-After-Bridge (BAB)

You don't sell a "FinOps platform"; you sell the feeling of relief and control.

• Before: "Your AWS bill just arrived. It’s 30% higher than last month, and your engineers have no idea why. Another fire to put out, another tense meeting with finance." (Paints a vivid picture of their current nightmare)
• After: "Imagine opening your cloud bill and smiling. You see exactly where every pound is going, and waste has already been automatically eliminated. You look like a hero." (Shows them the promised land)
• Bridge: "Our platform is the bridge that gets you from chaos to control. Start a free trial and find your first £1,000 in savings in the next 15 minutes." (Positions your product as the vehicle for transformation, with your powerful offer)

For High-Ticket Physical Products: Attack the "So What?"

Don't just state the spec; state its consequence. Every feature needs to answer the question, "So what?".

• Feature: "Our new mass spectrometer has a 0.001% margin of error."
• So What? (The Ad Copy): "So your lab can publish results with unshakeable confidence, securing more grant funding and attracting the top talent that other labs can only dream of. That's the power of precision."

This kind of messaging works because it's rooted in the customer's world, not yours. It shows you understand their challenges on a deep level, which is far more persuasive than any list of features.

You should stop paying to find non-customers...

This might be the most controversial thing I say, but it's one of the most important. I need to tell you the uncomfortable truth about "brand awareness" campaigns on platforms like Meta and TikTok.

When you set your campaign objective to "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are giving the algorithm a very specific, and very literal, command: "Find me the largest number of people inside my target audience for the lowest possible price."

The algorithm, being the ruthlessly efficient machine that it is, does exactly what you asked. It scours your audience and seeks out the users who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively least likely to ever pull out a credit card and buy something.

Why? Because those users are not in demand. Their attention is cheap. Other advertisers, the smart ones running conversion campaigns, don't want them. So the platform sells you their cheap, leftover attention at a bargain price. You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product. You get impressive-looking numbers for reach and impressions, your vanity metrics look great, but your bank account doesn't move.

For a venture-backed behemoth with millions to burn, maybe this makes sense. For a business that needs to see a return on its investment, it's poison.

The best form of brand awareness for a growing business is a competitor's customer switching to your product and raving about it. That only happens through conversion. Awareness is a byproduct of having a great product that solves a real problem, not a prerequisite for making a sale. That is why, for 99% of businesses, you should *always* choose a campaign objective that is as close to the money as possible: Leads, Signups, Trials, or Purchases. Let the algorithm go to work finding people who actually take action. They might cost more per impression, but they are infinitely more valuable to your business.

We'll need to look at the maths that actually matter...

This brings us to the final, critical piece of the puzzle. The question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Lead (CPL) go?" but "How high a CPL can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer lies in its counterpart: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

If you don't know this number, you are flying blind. You're making decisions based on feelings and flawed metrics like CPL in isolation. Calculating your LTV is what turns advertising from a cost centre into a predictable growth engine.

The formula is simple. You just need three numbers:

1. Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What do you make per customer, per month?
2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue? (Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold) / Revenue.
3. Monthly Churn Rate %: What percentage of customers do you lose each month?

The calculation is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

For example, let's say your SaaS product costs £500/month (ARPA), you have an 80% gross margin, and you lose 4% of your customers each month (churn).

LTV = (£500 * 0.80) / 0.04
LTV = £400 / 0.04 = £10,000

In this example, each new customer is worth £10,000 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. This number changes everything.

Now you have the truth. With a £10,000 LTV, a healthy 3:1 LTV:CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) ratio means you can afford to spend up to £3,333 to acquire a single customer. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a customer, you can afford to pay up to £333 for that qualified lead.

Suddenly, that £250 lead from a CTO on LinkedIn doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like an absolute bargain. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth. It frees you from the tyranny of cheap leads and allows you to confidently invest in acquiring the right customers, knowing exactly what they're worth.

This is the main advice I have for you:

So, back to your original thought: "Maybe also TikTok". As you can see, it's the tip of a very large iceberg. Getting your paid advertising to work isn't about picking a trendy platform; it's about building a robust, customer-centric system. If you just jump onto TikTok without this foundation, you are almost guaranteed to lose money. Here's a summary of the strategic steps I would take.

As you can probably tell, this is a lot more involved than just boosting a few posts. It requires a strategic approach, deep customer insight, and rigorous testing. It's a process, and getting it right can be the difference between stagnating and scaling rapidly.

This is where expert help can make a huge difference. An experienced paid advertising consultant or agency doesn't just manage your ads; we implement this entire strategic framework. We help you uncover the customer insights, craft the offers and messaging, and build the campaigns that turn ad spend into a predictable source of revenue. We've seen what works (and what doesn't) across hundreds of campaigns and can help you avoid the costly mistakes most businesses make when they go it alone.

If you'd like to chat through how these principles could be applied specifically to your business, we offer a free, no-obligation 20-minute strategy session. We can take a look at what you're doing now and give you some concrete, actionable advice you can take away and use immediately.

Hope this has been helpful and gives you a much clearer picture of what it takes to succeed with paid ads.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh