Advertising on TikTok: costs, formats and rules in Austria

TikTok has long stopped being just an app for dance videos. By its own account the platform reaches 189 million people in the European Union every month, and since 15 June 2026 TikTok Shop has been available in Austria too.¹ For a restaurant, a studio or a club, the question is whether advertising on TikTok pays off and how to run it properly.

This post explains the formats, the minimum budget and billing, the rules that apply to younger audiences in the EU, and what matters for the video and for measurement.

How do you advertise on TikTok?

TikTok ads are created in TikTok Ads Manager. There you set up a campaign with an objective, below it one or more ad groups with budget and audience, and inside those the actual ads. Two formats matter for a local business, and both run between the videos in the feed.

Regular in-feed ads are uploaded directly in Ads Manager. TikTok recommends vertical 9:16, but also accepts 16:9 and square videos of up to ten minutes. The ad caption cannot contain links, @ mentions or hashtags.²

Example

Spark Ads turn an existing post into an ad. That can be a video from your own account or, with their authorization, another person's post, for example a creator's.³ The advantage: views, comments, likes and new followers from the ad count towards the original post and stay with your profile.³ Tapping your name leads to your profile; tapping the button leads to your landing page.³

Example

For a business with its own channel, Spark Ads are often the obvious place to start: a video that already does well organically gets more reach with a budget behind it.

How much does TikTok advertising cost?

There is no list price; TikTok auctions its ad slots. Only the minimum budget is fixed. According to TikTok, a daily budget must exceed 50 US dollars at campaign level and 20 US dollars at ad group level.⁴ A lifetime budget must also exceed 50 US dollars per campaign; an ad group then needs at least the number of days times 20 US dollars, so 620 US dollars for 31 days.⁴

Worth knowing when planning: TikTok states these values in US dollars. Many websites convert them one-to-one into euros. You see the amount that applies in your account currency when you create the campaign in Ads Manager. You cannot switch between daily and lifetime budget once a campaign is live.⁴

What an enquiry or a booking ends up costing depends on the audience, the competition and above all the video. So plan a test phase with a fixed amount. How to split an advertising budget overall is covered in A marketing budget that fits your business.

How is it billed?

TikTok offers three billing options. With manual payment you top up a balance in advance, and ads run only as long as it lasts. With automatic payment TikTok charges you once a billing threshold or bill date is reached. Monthly invoicing is only available to eligible businesses.⁵ Note that once you switch to automatic payment, you cannot go back to manual payment.⁵ For a first test, a prepaid balance is the safer choice because it caps spending.

Who can TikTok ads reach in Austria?

For local advertising you can choose countries, regions, cities and, where available, postcodes. TikTok points out that location is estimated from various signals and is not accurate in every case. Very small areas also reduce the number of impressions and can make each enquiry more expensive.⁶ For a café in Vienna's 7th district, the whole city is therefore often a better frame than three postcodes.

What applies to ads for under-18s?

The EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) prohibits online platforms from showing minors advertising based on profiling. The European Commission names TikTok explicitly as a platform that no longer allows such ads to minors.⁷ TikTok itself can be used in the EU from the age of 13.⁸

What that means in Ads Manager is spelled out by TikTok for the European Economic Area: if your audience includes people under 18, gender, interests and behaviours, spending power, household income, custom audiences and postcodes are unavailable. What remains is age, language, country and city, and device. The objectives lead generation and TikTok Shop sales are not offered.⁹ If you choose a mixed age group with detailed targeting, TikTok applies it only to people aged 18 and over; younger people see generic ads only.⁹

For a club, a bar or any 18+ offer, the simplest solution is to set the audience to 18 and over anyway. If you deliberately want to reach teenagers, for example as a sports club or a tutoring service, you work with broad reach rather than interests. The principle is similar to contextual advertising: the ad has to convince on its own, not through a profile of the person.

What belongs in the first seconds?

On TikTok, whether someone keeps watching is decided within seconds. TikTok recommends placing the hook in the first six seconds and introducing the actual offer within the first three.¹⁰ According to TikTok, a good structure is a hook, your unique selling points and a clear call to action at the end.¹⁰

The same guidance adds a few basics:¹⁰

• vertical 9:16, at least 720p, with sound or music,
• captions or text overlays that explain the content without sound,
• people in the picture, for example your team or your guests,
• a DIY rather than highly polished style that fits the rest of the feed.

For a restaurant or bar this means: don't open with the logo, open with what guests experience at your place. The logo and the next step belong on the end card, as in this post's cover. The difference between regular posting and paid reach is covered in Post regularly or run ads?.

How do you measure whether TikTok ads work?

Likes and views say little about whether someone books. For that there is the TikTok Pixel, a piece of code on your website that reports events such as a booking to TikTok. According to TikTok, it lets you measure website traffic and campaign performance and optimise campaigns towards such events.¹¹

In Austria there is a hurdle: under § 165 (3) of the Telecommunications Act 2021, such data may only be collected if the person has actively consented on the basis of clear information. The only exception is what is strictly necessary for the service the user requested.¹² The Pixel therefore belongs behind your cookie banner and loads only after consent. When a banner is required is covered in Cookie banners in Austria. This is not legal advice; clarify how to implement it in your case with your legal adviser.

A simple, non-technical method helps as well: a TikTok-only offer or code that guests mention when they book.

TikTok, Meta or Google?

Like Instagram, TikTok is suited to making an offer known that nobody is searching for yet. People who are already searching are more likely to find you on Google. The difference between search and social media advertising is explained in Meta Ads or Google Ads, which fits your business?. TikTok is especially worthwhile if you can produce videos regularly, because without good videos no budget helps.

bown plans TikTok campaigns for businesses in Austria, from the idea for the first seconds to measurement, and offers its work separately from the ad budget. Whether TikTok is the right channel for your business is something we clarify in a 30-minute first call.

Notes

1. TikTok Newsroom, "Digital Services Act: Our seventh transparency report on content moderation in Europe", 31 August 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.

2. TikTok Business Help Center, "TikTok Auction In-Feed Ads", last updated June 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.

3. TikTok Business Help Center, "About Spark Ads", last updated June 2026, accessed 20 October 2026. ^{2 3}

4. TikTok Business Help Center, "About budgets for ads in TikTok Ads Manager", last updated July 2026, accessed 20 October 2026. ^{2 3}

5. TikTok Business Help Center, "Available TikTok billing options", last updated June 2026, accessed 20 October 2026. ²

6. TikTok Business Help Center, "About location targeting", last updated October 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.

7. European Commission, "The impact of the Digital Services Act on digital platforms", accessed 20 October 2026.

8. TikTok, "Terms of Service" for the EEA, UK and Switzerland, section 4.3, last updated July 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.

9. TikTok Business Help Center, "About TikTok advertising restrictions for people under the age of 18", last updated October 2026, accessed 20 October 2026. ²

10. TikTok Business Help Center, "Creative best practices for performance ads", last updated June 2025, accessed 20 October 2026. ^{2 3}

11. TikTok Business Help Center, "About TikTok Pixel", last updated June 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.

12. RIS, Telekommunikationsgesetz 2021, § 165 (3), current version, accessed 20 October 2026.