TikTok Ads and paying customers
TikTok Ads reports conversions inside its attribution windows, which can include views as well as clicks. A paying customer is someone whose payment reached you and stayed. Small numbers and in-app browsing make TikTok campaigns especially easy to misjudge.
What does TikTok Ads report?
Impressions, clicks, cost and conversions recorded by its pixel or events connection, inside the click and view windows set for the campaign. As on other platforms, the conversion is whichever event you chose, often a sign-up or a lead.
How can TikTok Ads numbers mislead?
- View-through conversions count people who watched but did not click.
- Links often open inside the TikTok app's own browser. If the person later signs up from another browser, the click and the sign-up can lose each other.
- New campaigns often have only a few paying customers, too few to rank. The table says so instead of guessing.
Why small counts get no verdict: how many customers you need before judging a campaign.
Sources, TikTok Ads Help: view-through attribution, the in-app browser and conversion differences and the ttclid click identifier.
Which TikTok Ads export do we need today?
During early access we work from export files you choose to send. From TikTok Ads we need one campaign report. From your own systems we need the records that connect a click to a payment.
| File | Columns | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok Ads campaign report | Day, campaign name, campaign ID, cost, clicks, platform-reported conversions | A report exported from TikTok Ads as CSV, covering the last 90 days |
| Sign-up or lead records | Date, email or customer ID, UTM tags, and the ttclid click identifier if you store it | Your product database, form tool or CRM |
| Payments | Customer email or ID, payment date, amount, refunds | A Stripe payments export, or closed-won deals from HubSpot |
Direct read-only connections are being built. They need TikTok Ads's approval before we can offer them, so today everything runs on exports. Step by step: matching payments to ad clicks with exports.
Is Datarithms an official TikTok partner?
No. Datarithms has no partnership with TikTok and no special access to its data. We read the same reports you can export from your own account, and only the ones you send us.
Related pages
- LinkedIn Ads and paying customersLinkedIn leads and conversions, lead forms, long sales cycles, and the export we need.
- How many customers you need before judging a campaignWhy Datarithms gives no verdict below 30 paying customers, with an example.
- Last-click vs platform attribution in plain termsWhat each attribution method credits, and why Datarithms starts from payments.
- How it worksThe matching rules behind the weekly table: last ad click within 90 days, refunds within 14 days excluded, no verdict under 30 paying customers.
Want your own table?
Tell us which ad platforms you use and roughly what you spend. We reply by email within two working days.
Early access: we prepare your weekly table with you from your own exports while the direct connections are built.