How To Use the TikTok Creative Center (Complete Guide)

Apr 11, 2023

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George Howes

What is TikTok Creative Center?

The TikTok creative center is a free resource library for anyone looking to get their feet wet in digital advertising. Members can range from digital marketers, and small businesses to social media influencers and upcoming content creators.

Using this platform, users can discover the latest trends for hashtags, songs, and creators. You can also download video soundtracks, browse creative templates and utilize their ads dashboard to view competitor ads. It's a highly resourceful tool to strategically build a TikTok brand.

How to Access to the TikTok Creative Center

You don't necessarily need to be TikTok ads or video creator to gain access to the TikTok Creative Center. All you need is an email address to create an account. Alternatively, you can use your TikTok account to login.

Once in, you'll see the Creative Center's dashboard with a plethora of tools and resources. Most users tend to use the platform to analyze top performing content, gaining insights to create their own ad campaigns. However, there's much more to explore!

How to Use TikTok Creative Center's Features

With so many options, it can be a little unnerving if it’s your first time. Below we'll break down each section, so you know which one applies most to your brand.

Inspiration

The inspiration section does exactly what it promises - to inspire creativity. It is a library of top-performing ads which showcases TikTok’s best content. These can then be studied and applied for your own strategies, ensuring you're never creating an ad entirely from scratch.

Hover your mouse over 'Inspiration' to see the following subsections:

Top Ads Dashboard

This is the bread and butter of the TikTok Creative Center!

Here, you can filter through the best TikTok ads relevant in your industry by country, industry, campaign objective, likes, duration and date published. Alternatively, you can just type in your competitor's brand to see all running ads, along with other metrics such as views, likes and comments.

Besides analyzing them ads themselves, you can also click on 'See analytics' to view the following:

CTR (Click Through Rate)
CVR (Conversion Rate)
Cicks
Conversion
Remain

Each metric has a graph, showing frame by frame the performance of each ad. This informs you which parts of the ad people clicked and were intrigued by. If, for example, the CVR drops on a certain frame, you'll know that something wasn't quite right.

Other sections within the Inspiration tab include:

Keyword insights - Find script keywords that encourage users to click i.e play now, free shipping, download now etc.

Creative insights - Find specifically how top-performing ads increase engagement i.e a puzzle, earn rewards call to action, or interesting fact hook. Also click on the 'Best Practices' section to know TikTok's recommendations for types of ad content.

Creative strategies - A blog post section which offers creative tips for specific ad genres e.g food and beverage, beauty, games etc.

Showcases - TikTok's collection of top-performing ads, complete with backstories. These are essentially case studies, giving you an in-depth look at other successful campaigns.

Trend Discovery

Part of devising a smart marketing ad campaign is knowing what's working. Yesterday's trends which captivated the audience may not be so relevant today. As such, you'll need to be constantly on your toes to identify what the audience demands.

The Trend Discovery section was designed to make this easier, analyzing all relevant trends and figures on every aspect of the platform. These include hashtags, songs, creators, and more. By keeping up to date on current trends, your ad campaigns will always be in sync with what the audience wants.

Hashtags - Find which relevant hashtags are dominating the TikTok landscape. For example, if you run a floristry, try using the hashtag 'flowerchallenge' which has a total of 91 million views. For more metric data, click the 'See analytics' button on the right hand side.

Music - Are 80's soundtracks not cutting it with your target audience? This section lists the top trending songs, along with graphs showing interest levels received in recent months. Breakout hits can also be seen, which denote songs that have dramatically increased in popularity.

The following sections 'creators' and 'TikTok videos’ follow the same format, allowing users to analyze metrics and their overall ad creative to generate new ideas. By incorporating current TikTok trends, you’ll remain relevant in an ever-changing creative landscape.

Creative Tools

Not everyone's forte is video editing. You may have the greatest, most innovative ideas, but have no clue how to put it all together. That's ok, we're all special in our own way!

The Creative Tools section was designed to streamline the video-editing process. Whether you’re a complete newbie or pro, these editing tools are easy to use, and will save you a lot of time. They're also free, saving you on purchasing expensive video editing software.

Video editor - This simple editor is fairly self-explanatory, showing different icons to adjust the speed, add text and effects and transition clips. Simply upload your source clips, click on any of the icons to apply changes.

Video Templates - These save a tremendous amount of time in the ad-creation process. All you have to do is select a TikTok template you like, and add the relevant photos, text, cta's and music. It literally takes minutes.

Once your video is ready, you can monetize and start running campaigns right away. Easy as pie!

Audio Library

While TikTok doesn't allow mainstream music in video ads, don't let that discourage you. The Audio Library section has an expansive selection of royalty-free bangers to choose from!

Just as importantly, their filter options lets you identify the most successful songs on their platform. For example, if you want tried and tested soundtracks, click on 'TikTok Viral'. Alternatively, if you're a trend setter who doesn't settle for somebody's else's leftovers, 'Emerging artists' may be ideal.

Besides popular soundtracks, you can also filter themes such as Spring, Autumn, DIY and so on. These can be matched appropriately to your ad campaigns, ensuring songs and sounds never sound out of place.

How to Find Video Trends Using the TikTok Creative Center

Want a straightforward plan to stay ahead of the curve on TikTok video trends? Just follow the steps below.

1) Go to 'Top Ads Dashboard'

Hover your mouse icon over 'Inspiration' and select 'Top Ads Dashboard'. You'll then see an overview of the most popular videos on TikTok.

2) Filter trending results by given parameters

Filter the ads by location, industry, objective and so on. Alternatively, you can type a competitor for reference. Searched ads should align with your marketing campaign and creative messaging. The goal is to find and apply current trends that gravitate towards your target audience.

3) Analyze industry video ads

Click on 'see analytics' of the top performing ads and see which video frame has the most clicks. In this example for a fragrance and perfume product, we can see most clicks came in the end. You can now analyze potential strategies in which the ending video frame played a part.

We also recommend using other inspiration tools such as 'Keyword insights' and 'Creative insights'. You can then incorporate keywords or popular video concepts, to lure eyes and increase click-throughs.

4) Save your competitor's ad in the MagicBrief Library or TikTok Library

If you've installed the MagicBrief extension from the MagicBrief library, you can instantly save all competitor ads. Alternatively, you can also save the video in the TikTok Creative Center library. Saving your ads helps to consolidate all your research, ensuring no important ads are lost in the shuffle.

How to Use The TikTok Creative Center to Find Audio Trends?

While simply listening to your competitor's ads give you a feel for the industry, it's a little inefficient. You can’t waste time noting each individual song and sound, then manually locate them in a complex audio library. Furthermore, simply choosing the same soundtrack as competitors is a no no - be original and stand out!

Fortunately, TikTok Creative Center offers a nifty tool that makes finding audio trends a breeze:

1) Go to 'Music' under 'Audio Library'

The Audio Library section offers license-free songs and sounds to match with your video ads.

2) Browse top-performing songs that match your concept

Filter the songs by TikTok Viral, Emerging artists and themes. These provide you with popular tracks that can be paired with your video ads. Alternatively, if you know an artist who will perfectly represent your concept, you can also search by artist.

Proceed to click on ''Use in TikTok Video Editor' to swiftly incorporate the song in your video ad.

3) Alternatively, you can Go to 'Songs' under 'Trends'

Unlike the Audio Library, where you can filter songs by theme, the 'Songs' platform lets you see the tracks that are specifically trending. This enables you to efficiently select soundtracks that TikTok audiences love.

Note - Always select 'Approved for business use' to find songs you can legally use!

4) Investigate further by clicking on Song's Analytics

Once you've narrowed down your song choices, click on 'See analytics'. You can then view a graph demonstrating audience interest over time. Other vital pieces of information include regional popularity, age range and related videos.

In this example, we’ve used the sound ‘NASTY (Extended Version) by Russ.

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5) Copy and paste song or artist name in TikTok's audio library

Copy your chosen soundtrack and go back to 'Music' underneath 'Audio Library'. Paste the song or artist name in the search bar and click 'Search'. You can then save the song to TikTok's video editor by clicking 'Use in TikTok Video Editor' to use straight away!

TikTok Creative Centre Recommended Playlists

Save Ads from TikTok Creative Center

The TikTok Creative Center is a valuable resource for marketers and content creators looking to leverage the platform's immense popularity and highly engaged user base. The TikTok Creative Center is fairly similar to the Facebook Ad Library; it showcases TikTok's best-performing ads and gives a more detailed analysis of their performance compared to the Facebook Ad library.

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What to Look for when Saving Ads

When saving ad creative for inspiration and analysis, paying attention to specific elements contributing to the ad's effectiveness is essential.

A Strong Hook

One crucial aspect to look for is a punchy hook that immediately captures the viewer's attention. A strong hook can be a bold visual, a compelling statement, or an intriguing question that piques curiosity and entices users to continue watching.

Editing Pace

Additionally, pay attention to the ad's storytelling, pacing, and use of emotions, as these factors significantly impact viewer engagement.

By focusing on these elements when saving ad creative using tools like MagicBrief, you can build a robust swipe file in minutes that is valuable for crafting high-performing ad campaigns, ensuring your ads captivate your audience and drive the desired results.

User Generated Content

User-Generated Content (UGC) UGC often includes testimonials, unboxing videos, or lifestyle images that showcase the product in real-life situations. This type of content is particularly effective in advertising because it adds authenticity and relatability to the ad, helping to build trust with potential customers.

Can You Remove Your TikTok Ads From Top Ads?

Companies spy on their rivals’ ads - and it's perfectly legal. But if you refuse to give your competitors any sort of edge, you may want to withdraw your ad from the top ads list.

Do the following to ensure your TikTok videos don't show up in the TikTok Creative Center:

Log in using your business account.
Click on your Account and go to ‘Ad Authorization Management’.
Choose which ads you want to remove by clicking 'Withdraw'.
Your creatives should now be hidden from the Top Ads Dashboard.

Final Thoughts

The TikTok Creative Center is a wonderful resource for digital marketers, social influencers, and brands. It's a one-stop shop for the latest trends, insights and audio inspiration, which can catapult your social media marketing to the next level. With TikTok Creative Center, it's easy to make professional, trend-savvy video ads that really capture your target audience’s imagination.

Try it out today for your next TikTok ad and see how creative you can be! Good luck!

How To Use the TikTok Creative Center (Complete Guide)

What is TikTok Creative Center?