TikTok Ads: The 2024 Guide for UK Fashion Brands

Right then. So you're running a fashion brand on Shopify in the UK and you want to use TikTok ads. Good. But let's be brutally honest from the start: most brands are getting it completely wrong. They see TikTok as a place for silly dances and viral sounds, chuck a bit of money at 'boosting' a post, get a load of views from teenagers with no money, and then wonder why their sales haven't budged. It's a quick way to set fire to your marketing budget.

The truth is, TikTok is one of the most powerful direct-response advertising platforms available to UK fashion brands today, if you treat it like one. It’s not about going viral. It's about putting the right product, in front of the right person, with a message that makes them stop scrolling and think "I need that". This isn't about luck. It's about strategy. Forget everything you think you know about 'brand awareness' campaigns. Awareness is what happens when someone buys your product and tells their mates about it. It’s a consequence of good marketing, not the goal of it.

So why are your ads probably doomed to fail?

There's an uncomfortable truth about most ad platforms, and TikTok is no exception. When you set up a campaign and tell the algorithm your goal is 'Reach' or 'Video Views', you're giving it a very clear instruction: "Find me the cheapest eyeballs possible." And the algorithm is incredibly good at its job. It will go and find you hordes of people within your targeting who are serial scrollers, people who watch everything but click on nothing, and who certainly never, ever buy anything. Why? Because their attention is cheap. No other advertiser wants them. You are literally paying to reach the worst possible audience for your brand.

This is the single biggest mistake I see. To make TikTok work for a Shopify store, you must switch your campaign objective to 'Conversions' and select the 'Complete Payment' or 'Purchase' event. Yes, the cost-per-impression will be higher. Yes, your view count will be lower. But you'll be telling the algorithm to ignore the time-wasters and hunt for people who have a history of actually buying stuff online. From the very first pound you spend, you're training the pixel to find customers, not just viewers. It's a fundamental shift in mindset that separates the brands that make money from those that just make noise.

Your offer is not a piece of clothing

Before you even think about filming a single video, we need to talk about your offer. And I don't just mean the product. The number one reason paid ad campaigns fail isn't bad creative or dodgy targeting; it's a weak offer. People don't buy a floral midi dress. They buy the feeling of looking amazing at a summer wedding. They don't buy a hoodie; they buy the comfort and identity that comes with it. Your ads need to sell that feeling, that solution to a problem.

What's the urgent problem your audience has? For fashion, it's often an event. A holiday, a festival, a birthday night out, a new job. "I have nothing to wear" is a genuine, recurring pain point. Your offer needs to be the immediate, obvious cure. This means turning your product into an irresistible package. It's not just "The Amelia Dress". It's "The Perfect Wedding Guest Dress | Free Next Day UK Delivery".

Your offer extends to the entire buying experience. In the competitive UK market, things like this are table stakes:

-> Free, Fast Shipping: If you're charging a fiver for 3-5 day delivery, you're losing to ASOS before you've even started. Build the shipping cost into your product price if you have to. Free and fast is a massive conversion driver.
-> Hassle-Free Returns: People are nervous about buying clothes online because of fit. A clear, simple, and preferably free returns policy removes that risk. Make it obvious on your product pages.
-> Payment Options: Klarna, Clearpay, etc. are not optional anymore, especially for younger audiences. Not offering 'Buy Now, Pay Later' is like not accepting credit cards.
-> Trust Signals: Your Shopify store needs to scream 'legitimate business'. That means high-quality product photos (on a model, not just flat!), detailed descriptions with sizing info, and customer reviews with photos. Without these, even the best ad in the world will lead to a bounce.

If your website is slow, confusing, or looks unprofessional, you have a leaky bucket. Pouring expensive ad traffic into a leaky bucket is a wierdly common but terrible idea. Many brands find they get visitors from ads but no sales, and often the problem lies squarely with the on-site experience. You have to fix the bucket before you turn on the tap. For UK brands in particular, ensuring your Shopify store is optimised for conversions is the first step before scaling any ad spend.

Creative is 90% of the battle, so stop trying to be perfect

Right, this is where most fashion brands really drop the ball. They take the polished, perfect, high-production-value video from their latest photoshoot, slap it on TikTok, and it bombs. Hard. Why? Because it looks like an ad. TikTok is a platform built on authenticity, personality, and lo-fi content. Your ads need to look like native TikToks, not like a TV commercial.

The undisputed king of creative for fashion is User-Generated Content (UGC). This means content that looks like it was made by a real customer. It builds instant trust and social proof. You don't need a huge budget. You need an iPhone and some good ideas.

Here’s what works:

-> Try-On Hauls: Simple, effective. Someone (you, an employee, a creator you work with) tries on a few different pieces and talks about the fit, the fabric, and how they'd style it. It answers all the questions a potential customer has.
-> "Get Ready With Me" (GRWM): A video showing someone building an outfit for a specific occasion (e.g., "GRWM for a bottomless brunch") featuring one of your key pieces.
-> Styling a Single Piece: Show one item, like a blazer or a pair of trousers, and style it in 3-5 different ways to show its versatility.
-> Behind the Scenes: Packing an order, showing new stock arriving, a day in the life at your small business. This builds a personal connection that big brands can't replicate.

The structure of a good TikTok ad is simple. You need a strong hook in the first 2-3 seconds to stop the scroll. This could be text on screen ("You need this dress for your next holiday") or the first line you speak. Then, get straight to showing the product in an engaging way. End with a clear Call to Action (CTA) like "Shop the link in bio!" or "Available on our TikTok shop now".

We've seen this time and time again. I remember one campaign for a women's apparel brand where we tested their slick, professional brand video against a simple, phone-shot video of a girl styling their new collection. The UGC-style ad drove a return on ad spend several times higher than the professional one, which barely broke even. The lesson is clear: authenticity sells.

How to actually target people in the UK who will buy

Targeting on TikTok can feel a bit basic compared to Meta, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The algorithm is incredibly powerful, and often, giving it some breathing room with broader audiences works best. Don't try to get too clever and layer 20 different interests on top of each other. Start simple.

Here’s a sensible approach for a UK fashion brand:

1. Start with Prospecting: This is where you find new customers. Create a new campaign with the 'Conversions' objective. Inside that campaign, create a few different ad sets to test audiences.

-> Ad Set 1 (Broad): This might sound crazy, but it often works. Target 'Females' (or your target gender), age 18-34 (or your target age range), located in the United Kingdom. That's it. Let the algorithm do the work. It will use the data from your pixel to find people who look like your existing customers.
-> Ad Set 2 (Interest Stack): Group related interests together. For a fast-fashion brand, you could bundle interests like 'ASOS', 'Zara', 'PrettyLittleThing', and 'Fashion Nova'. For a more sustainable brand, you might target 'Sustainable fashion', 'Everlane', and 'Reformation'. Keep the theme consistent within an ad set.
-> Ad Set 3 (Hashtag Targeting): Target users who have interacted with specific hashtags like #UKfashion, #summeroutfit, or #grwm. This can be quite effective at finding people with a demonstrated interest.

2. Move to Retargeting: This is where you make most of your profit. You're targeting people who have already shown an interest in your brand. You'll need a separate campaign for this, also optimised for conversions.

-> Ad Set 1 (Website Visitors - 30 Days): Target everyone who has visited your Shopify store in the last 30 days but hasn't purchased. Show them your best-selling products or a new arrivals video.
-> Ad Set 2 (Add to Cart - 14 Days): This is your hottest audience. These people were *this close* to buying. Target them with a sense of urgency. Maybe remind them of the item they left behind. Some brands test a small discount code here (e.g., "Still thinking it over? Here's 10% off"), but be careful not to train people to abandon carts.

When you're starting out, your main job is to feed the algorithm data. Don't turn off an ad set after one day because it hasn't made a sale. You need to let it run for at least 4-7 days to exit the 'learning phase' and gather enough data for you to make a sensible decision. A solid strategic approach to paid acquisition is about patient testing, not knee-jerk reactions.

The Numbers Game: Budgets, Bidding and Realistic Expectations

Okay, how much should you spend? And what results should you expect? The honest answer is: it depends. But I can give you some realistic goalposts for the UK market.

Budget: To give the algorithm a fair chance, you need to be spending at least £20-£50 per day *per ad set* when you're testing. If you can't afford that, it's better to test one ad set properly than three ad sets with not enough budget. Once you find a winning creative/audience combination, you can start to scale the budget up slowly (around 20% every couple of days) to avoid shocking the algorithm.

What to expect: It's going to be slow at first. Your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) will likely be high for the first week or two as the pixel gathers data. Your goal is to get it down to a profitable level. For a fashion brand, a good target ROAS is typically between 3x and 5x. This means for every £1 you spend on ads, you get £3-£5 back in revenue. Anything less than 2x is probably losing you money once you factor in the cost of goods, shipping, etc.

It can be tough to work out if your campaigns are actually profitable. This calculator can give you a quick idea of how your key metrics affect your return on ad spend.

Often, if you see lots of clicks but no sales, the issue isn't the ad, it's the website. It's a classic problem many Shopify owners face. They manage to get good ad traffic that frustratingly doesn't convert. This usually points to a disconnect between the ad's promise and the landing page's reality, or underlying trust issues with the site itself. Don't just blame TikTok; look at your whole funnel.

Your Starting Stratgey: A Simple, Scalable Campaign Structure

Don't overcomplicate things. You don't need dozens of campaigns. For most Shopify stores, one prospecting campaign and one retargeting campaign is all you need to get started and scale to a significant level. The key is to be methodical with your testing. Test your creative first. Find a few winning videos in your prospecting campaign, and then you can start testing them against different audiences.

I've detailed my main recommendations for a starting structure below. This is a solid foundation that will allow you to test effectively and find what works for your brand.

When you might want to call in an expert

Look, you can absolutely do this yourself. Everything I've outlined above is the exact playbook we use to scale UK fashion brands. But it takes time, a huge amount of attention to detail, and the nerve to stick with a test even when it's not working on day one. You have a business to run, products to design, and orders to ship. Managing paid ads effectively is a full-time job.

The difference with an expert or an agency is speed and experience. We've already made the costly mistakes, so you don't have to. We can look at an account and spot opportunities in minutes that might take you months to find. We know the benchmarks for the UK fashion market inside out, so we can tell you if your £25 CPA is a disaster or a bargain. We handle the entire process, from creative strategy and briefing to daily campaign management and reporting, letting you focus on what you do best.

If you're serious about growing your Shopify brand and you'd like an expert pair of eyes on your current advertising efforts (or lack thereof), we offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session. We'll go through your account, your website, and your goals, and give you a straightforward, actionable plan. There's no hard sell. Just honest advice from people who do this every single day.