TikTok ads for agencies: The ultimate guide for 2026

After nearly two decades of social ads, people are numb to them. This is while costs keep rising and users’ attention keeps getting more difficult to grab.

So you are right to look for ways to actually get results from your TikTok ads for agencies in 2026.

For agencies, TikTok gives you the infrastructure to run client campaigns properly through TikTok Business Center: manage accounts, access, billing, reporting, creators, and brand safety in one place.

There are also formats that make ads feel native instead of a salesman in their digital space.

This article breaks down what agencies need to know about TikTok ads agency accounts and how to run campaigns that actually convert.

Additionally, we’ll discuss the one and only factor that, without it, you can do everything right and still lose: Automation via streamlined data management.

The advantages of using TikTok ads for agencies

Agencies use TikTok because it’s built for managing many clients without the usual difficulties that come with such tasks. 

With TikTok Business Center, you can run your agency ad accounts, share assets, set permissions, and keep billing and reporting in one area.

Here’s what that looks like in real life:

• One dashboard for multiple clients: Control access, accounts, and assets without sharing logins or losing track of who did what.
• More orderly payments: Features like AutoPay help keep spending and billing smoother across your TikTok ads agency accounts.
• Better tracking for a privacy-heavy digital regulation: Use TikTok’s Pixel and Conversions API (server-side tracking) to measure results more reliably and feed the algorithm better data.
• Creative that doesn’t look salesy: Spark Ads let you boost real TikTok posts, keeping the social proof (likes, comments, shares) tied to the original content.
• Brand safety controls clients actually ask for now: Tools like Inventory Filter and exclusion lists give clients more control over what content sits next to TikTok agency ads.
• Smart+ Campaigns that reduce setup work: These automate targeting and optimization, which are extremely useful if you manage multiple accounts.
• An audience that tends to act: TikTok reports 92% of users take some action after seeing content (based on a Kantar study TikTok still cites). 
• Agency support programs: TikTok also runs programs like the Agency Incubator to help agencies level up their tools and work more strategically. You can enroll here:

How to create a TikTok ads agency account

1. Make a TikTok for Business login

You need this before you can create anything inside Business Center.

2. Create a TikTok Business Center and choose “I am an agency.”

Pick your country and region, set the time zone and currency, name your business, then create it. Always double-check time zone and currency. TikTok says that you may not be able to change key business info later.

3. Turn on security right away

Enable 2-step verification during setup (or right after). Agencies get hacked more because you touch many ad budgets.

4. Verify your business (do this early) 

In Business Center, click Verification, upload your company docs (TikTok lists examples like incorporation and registration papers, commercial register extract, VAT certificate). Verification helps reduce your account limits and friction later.

5. Add your team with the right permissions

On the Business Center, click Users, then Add Members. Give only the access they need (and assign finance roles carefully).

6. Connect client ad accounts (best practice: client-owned)

Have the client create their ad account, then you Request Access in Business Center using the client’s ad account ID. This keeps ownership clean and avoids billing issues later. (If needed, you can also create an ad account inside Business Center for a client.)

7. Set up billing (so campaigns don’t stop mid-flight)

Add a payment method and, if available, use Automatic Payment in Ads Manager, and select Tools. Then go to Settings and click Payments.

Important note: Don’t confuse this with how to set up a Creator Agency Business Center. That version is for China-based creator agencies only, and unless you are one, it doesn’t let you create ad accounts. Most marketing agencies want the standard Business Center.

How to run TikTok ads for agencies

Once you have set up your account, your focus should be on setup, strategy optimization, and the tracking system. 

TikTok rewards well-tracked campaigns and content responses, fast creative testing, and a simple campaign structure more than complex targeting.

1. Set up a strong foundation

After you have created a TikTok Business Center, you essentially run everything from there (people, permissions, assets, clients).

So make sure to keep your ad accounts client-owned when possible. It means that your clients create their ad account and grant your agency access through Business Center (clean ownership, fewer headaches). 

Business Center supports creating or requesting access to ad accounts.

Then, give teammates only what they need (ad delivery vs full admin). This avoids the question of who changed what? situations.

2. Tracking that still works in 2026

Set up a TikTok Pixel (for web tracking) using partner integrations when you can (Shopify, GTM, etc).

Always add Conversions API alongside Pixel for stronger conversion tracking and optimization (server-side helps when browsers get flaky).

Initially and routinely, confirm your key events (ViewContent, AddToCart, Purchase, Lead) are getting assigned correctly.

3. Pick the right campaign objective 

Here are some objectives to match what you want to achieve from your campaigns: 

• Sales: Use when the goal is purchases (website, app, or TikTok Shop). TikTok has been merging older conversion-style objectives into Sales for many accounts.

• Lead Generation (Instant Form): Use instant forms when you need leads fast and don’t want to rely on a landing page. For most service businesses and agencies, Lead Gen should be the default.
  • For clients: Instant Forms remove landing-page friction, capture intent fast, and drive a clearer path to booked calls and pipeline.
    
  • For the agency: It’s one of the quickest ways to build a repeatable system that moves from TikTok ads to lead generation and nurturing, and to closing deals.

Lead generation only pays off if you run it properly. It means to follow up fast in minutes, and use light qualification, just enough to protect quality, but keep a steady flow. 

Adding a Thank You screen to prompt the next step, such as booking a call, WhatsApp, email, etc., is also necessary. Automated data bridges to create this setup:

• Traffic: Use when the real KPI is visits, not purchases and leads (top-of-funnel, content testing, cheap learnings).

4. Build campaigns with simple rules 

Use this as a checklist for optimal campaign optimization. Ask yourself:

• Is my campaign’s placement correct?

Start familiarizing yourself with TikTok placement. Also, TikTok can extend to Search via Automatic Search Placement (it’s commonly on by default for new campaigns). 

• Are my budget minimums relevant? 

You need at least $50 per day for the campaign and $20 per day for the ad group for the campaign to function well. These numbers are suggested by TikTok.

• Have I set a budget style?

The general guidelines are to use CBO (campaign budget) when you trust the algorithm to move spend. However, you need to use separate ad group budgets when you need strict testing control.

5. Targeting agencies that actually scale with

When just starting out with TikTok ads for agencies, start broad (location, age if needed, maybe one constraint). This allows the system to find your buyers based on factors that match your profile, offering, and impressions you get.

While the algorithm is learning about your best buyers, you go ahead and put ‘specific interests’ in separate ad groups so you can read results clearly.

Then, use retargeting once you have volume (site visitors, engagers, add-to-cart). This is why you need to keep your CRM connected to TikTok, so it knows which targeted users actually bought or converted by going lower in your funnel. 

That means creating connections between your CRM and TikTok Conversions API, as well as TikTok custom audiences.

6. Create attributions for your ad groups

TikTok lets you choose, click, and view attribution windows at the ad group level. A common setup is 7-day click and 1-day view (or off), depending on the client’s sales cycle and how strict they want reporting. 

7. Creative that performs without looking like an ad

Each post and ad you create should win users’ attention in the first 2–3 seconds. If the hook is weak, nothing else really matters because they won’t stick around to find out.

Make ads that feel native (like a normal post with a non-salesy approach to what you are promoting. This could be a clear face-to-camera, captions on screen, quick cuts, and genuine product use by a client or another trusted influencer.

Use Spark Ads to boost organic posts (yours or a creator’s) while keeping likes and comments on the original post.

Also, you can speed up your testing process to find out what works and what doesn’t with Smart Creative, which mixes assets, text, and CTAs into multiple variations.

8. Optimization and scaling for creating an agency loop

Test multiple creatives first. And don’t optimize one mediocre ad into a bigger mediocre ad.

You need to give your tests enough time to stabilize (often a few days) before you cut or scale anything.

Once you have enough data to reflect on, scale by shifting budget to your best campaigns, duplicating top ad groups, and also refreshing creatives for them.

9. Automate lead handling 

If you use Lead Generation as your objective, integrate TikTok leads to a CRM right away. TikTok only stores lead data for 90 days. 

That’s why for an agency, using TikTok automation isn’t optional. TikTok supports CRM connections in Leads Center and introduces official partners like LeadsBridge to create those integrations.

With LeadsBridge, you can push leads in real time to a CRM and email tool, trigger follow-ups, and route leads to the right pipeline. 

Final thoughts

TikTok has become the main stage in digital advertising. The hard part isn’t getting ads live. It’s how to work with the algorithm without turning your campaigns into random experiments.

If leads, events, and results aren’t flowing into the tools your team uses every day, you’re basically paying for insight and then leaving it be.

The difference-maker is automation and what you actually do with the data you worked to collect. 

Find out all the TikTok data integrations you can set up in just a few clicks.