Course Details & Tools

LEARNING TIKTOK ADS is a course that follows along as I figure out how to use TikTok Ads (not the social platform) to sell books from scratch. There are currently six parts; a finale email or video capping off the series will be released some time in the future.

Four notes:

1. If you want to share this with an author friend or group who isn’t subscribed to my newsletter, they can sign-up for the series via the form at the top of the main course page.
2. If you’re a member of one of my video courses then you can login to the Members Area here and mark the videos as complete / track your progress as you would with any of the paid courses. (You do not need to buy one of my courses or login to watch the videos.)
3. You can watch the videos at 1.5x to 2x speed by clicking the cog at the bottom right of the video player.
4. You can make the videos full screen by clicking the rectangle at the bottom right of the video player.

RESOURCES & TOOLS

TikTok

• TikTok Ad Policies and Compliance: reading platform policies is not the most exciting thing in life, but doing so reduces future headaches and problems by avoiding ad rejections or account shutdowns. Read the policies so you understand the platform’s guidelines and can thus ensure your ads and landing pages are compliant.

Pixel Installation

The pixel is just a piece of tracking code that allows an ad platform (like TikTok) to track a user’s actions after they leave the platform and then send that data back to the ad platform. This allows you to track and optimize for certain actions (called “events”) with the Conversion objective.

• WPCode Insert Headers and Footers: there’s no official TikTok WordPress plugin at the moment, so the easiest way to install the pixel is by inserting it into your website’s header. You can do this manually, but this plugin makes things a whole lot easier: just paste the pixel’s code into the header box for the plugin on the WordPress dashboard.
• You can also use Google Tag Manager (GTM) to install and manage your various pixels / tracking codes. Using GTM to manage your various tracking codes on a basic level is actually fairly straightforward, but it can get pretty advanced if you dive into the various options. The easiest way to install GTM is actually to first install the Insert Headers and Footers plugin, then copy and paste the GTM code into that. Then you can load your various tracking codes into GTM.

My Tracking Template

This is a tracking sheet and system you can use that doesn’t require anything beyond basic spreadsheet skills. For 99%+ of authors, this will be more than sufficient. The framework forms the basis of more advanced tracking, so it’s also expandable in the future as your skills and tracking needs grow.

If you’re a member of another paid course, note that this is the same template / video featured in those.

• Tracking Sheet (Google Sheet) | Tracking Sheet Walkthrough Video (46m)

Advanced Tracking Tools + Courses

• Google PageSpeed Insights: if you’re running ads to your site, then page speed plays a huge role in the cost / conversion / overall ad performance (e.g., slower loading sites cost you more and convert worse). You want your PageSpeed score to be 80+ on mobile (most ad traffic will come from mobile on all platforms, but TikTok especially since it’s basically mobile-only).
• Experte Bulk PageSpeed Analyzer: this is a useful free tool that analyzes the Google PageSpeed of multiple pages at once.
• Google Data Studio: data visualization tool for combining and analyzing data + creating reports (free)
• Google Data Studio Tutorial from Portermetrics: this is an excellent, comprehensive tutorial on Data Studio fundamentals (1h, free)
• Supermetrics: automatically exports raw data from your ad account into Google Sheets, thus allowing you to perform more in-depth analysis in Google Sheets / Google Data Studio and combine it with other data (e.g., your Amazon KDP sales reports). Available for Facebook and TikTok Ads. ($299/mo if you want TikTok Ads data since it requires the “Core” package; if you only want Facebook, it’s $149/mo)
• Google Sheets: The Comprehensive Masterclass: intermediate knowledge of Excel or Google Sheets (they’re 98% the same) is critical for performing more advanced ad tracking and analysis. This is probably the best course I’ve ever taken and will take you from beginner to advanced-intermediate Sheets user if you watch all the videos and actually do all the exercises. ($12 – $20; note this is the regular price, so wait for the “sale” if it’s currently $200)