TikTok: A New Platform with Great Opportunities and Strict Moderation
TikTok is a relatively new social network that has quickly gained popularity comparable to giants like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, thanks to its unique content delivery format. As of early 2024, the platform has over 1.5 billion active users. These numbers, combined with powerful targeting tools and organic promotion opportunities, make TikTok especially attractive for traffic arbitrage.
However, TikTok's strict moderation requires publishers to approach their work carefully. To run campaigns successfully, avoid bans, and achieve positive ROI, it's essential to consider the platform's specifics. The Traffic Heroes team has prepared a brief guide to help navigate TikTok moderation.
Factors Triggering Moderation in TikTok
When reviewing new accounts and campaigns, TikTok moderation analyzes the following aspects:
- Ad themes
- Creatives
- Targeting settings
- Landing pages or apps
- User history and traces indicating "gray" traffic
Let’s dive into these points in more detail.
1. Themes
The most challenging themes to moderate are finance and health.
- Medical ads are most easily run on the U.S. and Canadian markets. In other regions, stricter requirements apply to documents, creatives, and targeting.
- Topics related to cryptocurrency, gambling with real money, and trading platforms are either strictly regulated or outright prohibited.
2. Creatives
Creatives for ads must be:
- Unique. Avoid using images or videos from spy tools, as this may lead to copyright claims and bans.
- Unlinked to banned accounts. Using creatives from previously blocked accounts increases the risk of new campaign bans.
- Compliant with TikTok's ad content guidelines.
Mistakes Leading to Bans:
- Promises of results or “before and after” images (especially in nutra or health-related themes).
- Mentioning earnings or using images of cash.
- Superlatives (“the best,” “#1”).
- Calls for engagement (likes, reposts).
- 18+ or sexualized content.
- Using TikTok’s logo in creatives.
Tip: Create unique creatives for each account to avoid blocks.
3. Targeting Settings
- Follow the rule "1 email — 1 geo — 1 setup."
- Avoid keywords related to prohibited themes (crypto, gambling, adult, etc.).
4. Landing Pages
Landing pages must align with the content of the ad. If the creative mentions discounts or limited-time offers, these should also be present on the website and match in price, percentages, and dates.
Important! Moderation checks the entire path to the final landing page. For example, if your ad mentions a car wash in Los Angeles, but the landing page leads to a driving school in Nevada, this can result in a block.
5. User History
TikTok tracks account histories via digital fingerprints, which include:
- Email, phone number, IP address, cookies, browser metadata.
- If you’ve had bans on previous accounts, ensure no connection to new ones: avoid using the same creatives, data, or devices.
Best Practices for Traffic Arbitrage in TikTok
- Avoid misleading tactics.
- Do not use prohibited elements (money, 18+ content, TikTok logo).
- Create original creatives.
- Make creatives unique when transferring them between accounts.
- Run health-related themes only on the U.S. and Canadian markets.
- Avoid working with financial themes.
What to Do If Your Account Is Banned When Working with White Themes
- Ensure accounts are created with unique emails.
- Avoid using creatives from previously banned accounts.
- Don’t launch campaigns with offers that caused previous bans.
- Check keywords to ensure they don’t involve prohibited topics.
If the above steps don’t help, take additional measures to eliminate connections with banned accounts:
- Use anti-detect tools (1 email = 1 profile).
- Change URLs in trackers.
- Invest in high-quality proxies.
By following these recommendations, you can minimize the risk of bans and achieve stable traffic performance in TikTok.