TikTok ads targeting options

This guide is built from TikTok's Business Help Center, starting with About Ad Targeting in TikTok Ads Manager and the pages for each targeting type linked below. It covers targeting you set by hand in a standard campaign. If you are new to TikTok ads, start with our TikTok ads basics; for the automatic targeting inside Smart+ campaigns, see the Smart+ targeting section.

Where targeting lives and how options combine

Targeting is set on the ad group, during campaign creation. TikTok groups the options into demographics, audience targeting, advanced targeting (interests and behaviours), device and Smart Targeting, and notes that the targeting available varies by market.

Two rules decide how your choices add up. In TikTok's words, "Selections within the same dimension operate on OR logic", so picking the interest Beauty and the hashtag #makeup reaches people who match either one. "Selections across dimensions operate with AND logic", so choosing Female and 25-44 reaches only people who are both. Every extra dimension you fill in therefore shrinks the audience, while extra choices inside one dimension widen it.

TikTok's About Audiences page describes the two starting points: narrow targeting, where the system finds the best people within your settings, and broad targeting, where you leave the options blank and let the algorithm look for customers you did not know about.

Demographics

Option	What TikTok offers
Age	13-17, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55+
Gender	Male, Female
Location	Country or region, state or province, city, DMA (US only) and, where available, zip or postal code
Language	The language of the person's TikTok app and/or the language TikTok predicts from what they watch
Spending power	People grouped by their purchase behaviour through TikTok ads
Household income	US only

TikTok's age and gender page says these come from what people enter when they sign up, and that TikTok "may also infer attributes based on the information we have about a user, like their activity on TikTok". On language, the targeting page adds one automatic case: for App Promotion, Lead Generation and Sales campaigns, if you choose All languages, TikTok detects the language of each creative and shows it to matching users, even when one ad group holds creatives in several languages.

Location targeting

TikTok's About location targeting page says the selection is used "to find people located in or regularly in the selected location", based on a variety of signals, and that delivery and accuracy are not guaranteed in every case. The points that matter when you plan:

• You can add up to 3,000 locations per ad group, where available.
• TikTok "does not support the exclusion of locations or zip codes"; it recommends selecting the places you want instead.
• Zip code targeting is for areas smaller than a city or DMA, such as a business that serves part of a city. Zip+4 is not supported, and in Canada you use only the first three characters of the postcode.
• A zip code may not be targetable because it is invalid, restricted by ad policy or not launched in that area.
• Very small areas "can significantly reduce the number of impressions and clicks delivered, and may result in a higher CPA."
• Some advertisers fall under TikTok's housing, employment and credit ad policy, which limits targeting.

Interests, purchase intent and behaviours

These sit together in the Interest & Behavior section of the ad group and come in four kinds:

• Interests: TikTok's interest targeting page describes them as based on people's "long-term interests and interaction with content on TikTok". You search the categories by keyword. TikTok recommends several specific categories for "a balanced to broad audience", and notes interest targeting is not supported on TikTok Pangle.
• Purchase intent: people "actively searching or engaging with content for specific categories of products and services". TikTok's set-up page lists it for the Lead Generation, App Promotion, Website Conversion and Product Sales objectives, says it isn't available for every category, and suggests adding the parent category if the audience is too narrow.
• Behaviours: recent actions in the app. The behaviour targeting page says video behaviours cover engagement with organic videos in the past 15 days (watching to the end, likes, comments, shares) by category, and creator behaviours cover following or viewing the profiles of a type of creator in the past 90 days.
• Hashtags: people who viewed given hashtags on TikTok in the past 7 days.

TikTok sets interests and behaviours side by side like this:

	Behaviour targeting	Interest targeting
Logic	Based on user behaviour	Predicted by machine learning from long-term past behaviour
Time frame	Recent (7/15 days)	Longer term
Content	Organic	Organic and paid
Suits	Hands-on advertisers	Hands-off advertisers

If you are unsure which categories to pick, Targeting Recommendation suggests Interest & Behavior categories based on similar advertisers' ad groups and your own account. It appears only after you choose a location, does not show for brand-new accounts or where TikTok lacks industry data, and is not offered once an ad group has been edited after set-up. After a campaign runs, the interest page suggests checking results by interest: a user can hold several interests and all of them show in your report, so an interest that brings many conversions but that you never selected is a candidate to add.

Custom and lookalike audiences

Audience targeting lets you include or exclude your own lists. TikTok's About Custom Audiences page lists the sources: customer file, engagement with your TikTok content, app activity, website traffic, lead generation, business account and Shop activity. A custom audience needs 1,000 matched users before you can use it in an ad group. TikTok names three uses: retargeting leads or past engagers, excluding recent customers, and building lookalikes. Website traffic audiences rely on the TikTok Pixel, and lead audiences on TikTok lead generation forms.

Lookalike audiences find people who resemble a custom audience. The source needs at least 1,000 people, and you pick a size: Narrow (closest match, smallest), Balanced or Broad (more reach, "moderate similarity"). The size depends on the market you choose and the user base there. The same ideas on other platforms are in our guides to Meta custom audiences and Meta lookalike audiences.

Device targeting

The device options are connection type (Wi-Fi, 2G to 5G), operating system (iOS and Android) and version, device model, device price (from no limit up to more than $1000), mobile carrier and internet service provider. TikTok says ISP targeting uses each person's most-used ISPs over the past 30 days and is approximate, because it maps IP addresses to known ISP addresses. Device targeting is useful when an app needs a minimum OS version or an offer is tied to one carrier; otherwise each device filter is another AND condition that shrinks the audience.

Smart Targeting and broad targeting

Smart Targeting lets TikTok "deliver ads outside the designated Interest & Behaviors or Audience settings if it likely improves ad performance". It has two parts. Per TikTok's how-to page, Smart Interest & Behavior is on by default once you pick an interest or behaviour, and Smart Audience is off by default and switched on with a checkbox under your audience. Points to know:

• It leaves the rest of your settings alone: "Smart Targeting will not affect other targeting variables you have selected, such as age, gender, or location."
• The ad group starts with your exact settings and expands only when the model expects better results, with "no set time" for that.
• The audience size estimate does not change when you turn it on, but delivery can go beyond it.
• It works with auction bidding for Video views, Community interaction, Traffic, Lead generation, App install and Web conversion, and not for Global App Bundle or TikTok Pangle placements.

TikTok's About Broad Targeting page goes further: set only the constraints you need, aiming for a Fairly Broad estimate, which it defines as an audience that can reach 80% or more of a country's user accounts. TikTok claims such audiences average 15% lower CPA and 20% higher conversion rates than narrower ones, and advises checking whether any detailed targeting actually beats broad.

Limits when under-18s are included

TikTok's under-18 advertising page lists restrictions in North America, Latin America, the EEA, Switzerland, the UK, Indonesia and Turkey. When an audience in those places includes people under 18, gender, spending power, household income, audiences, interests and behaviours, and zip or postal code are unavailable; age, language, country or city and device (except device price) stay. The Lead Generation and TikTok Shop sales objectives are unavailable too. If you mix under- and over-18s with detailed targeting, TikTok applies the detailed targeting only to people 18 and over and shows generic ads to the rest. For age-restricted products, the age targeting itself is the first control to set.

Reading the audience size estimate

The audience size estimate is based on your targeting, your placements and how many people were shown ads in TikTok's apps over the past 30 days. It labels the result:

• Too Narrow or Narrow: too small, performance will vary, consider widening.
• Balanced: an appropriate size.
• Fairly Broad: relatively large; you may add criteria for more targeted delivery.

It counts user accounts, not people, and is not a reach forecast; the Reach Estimator below it does that job. It leaves out under-18s even though ads can still reach them, and a custom audience created or changed in the last 24 hours can throw it off. TikTok also says not to compare it directly with third-party numbers.

Saved audiences

Once a combination works, Saved Audience stores it for later ad groups. Click Save new audience at the Audience Targeting step, name it, and reuse it from the dropdown; saved audiences live under Tools > Audience Manager. You can save location, language, gender, age, interests and behaviours, OS and versions, device model, connection type, carriers and custom audience inclusions and exclusions, up to 100 saved audiences. Editing one after you apply it turns it into a new audience, and an audience may only partly apply if it conflicts with the campaign objective.

How we set TikTok targeting

This part is our own practice, not TikTok guidance:

• We start with location, language and age, plus exclusions of recent customers, and keep interests off the first ad group so there is a broad baseline to compare against.
• We test interests or behaviours in a separate ad group rather than stacking them on the baseline, so each result answers one question.
• We build custom audiences early, because the 1,000-match minimum takes time to reach on a new Pixel or a small customer list.
• For clients whose audience includes teenagers, we plan around the under-18 limits before writing the brief, not after the targeting is greyed out.

If you want help planning or running TikTok campaigns, see our services.

Frequently asked questions

What targeting options does TikTok Ads Manager offer?

Demographics (age, gender, location, language, spending power, household income in the US), interests, purchase intent, behaviours and hashtags, custom and lookalike audiences, and device options such as OS, device model, price, carrier and connection type. Smart Targeting can expand some of these.

How do multiple TikTok targeting options combine?

Choices within one dimension use OR, so either one qualifies. Choices across dimensions use AND, so people must match all of them. Each extra dimension narrows the audience.

Can I exclude locations in TikTok ads?

No. TikTok does not support excluding locations or zip codes, so you select only the places you want. You can exclude custom and lookalike audiences.

How big must a TikTok custom audience be?

A custom audience needs 1,000 matched users before you can use it in an ad group, and the source for a lookalike audience needs at least 1,000 people.

Does Smart Targeting override age, gender or location?

No. TikTok says Smart Targeting only expands interests, behaviours and audiences, and does not affect age, gender or location settings.

For more on TikTok advertising, see our guides to TikTok ads basics, TikTok Smart+ campaigns, the TikTok Pixel and TikTok ad review.