Lesson 4: Using hashtags and working with creatives

Anna Tagiltseva

19.08.2024 5 mins to read

Hello everyone, this is LeadRock!

In the previous lesson, we discovered that the reason for weak views and shadow bans lies in the creatives. Today, we’ll start discussing how to work with creatives and what changes to make — starting with hashtags!

Hashtags have been around since the platform’s inception but gained significant popularity only in 2024. By this time, the platform could no longer provide quality audiences for every account, so TikTok decided to “revitalize” hashtags and give them more functionality.

Today, you will learn how to work with them!

How to Choose Hashtags for TikTok

One of the key ways to find hashtags is to use TikTok’s official spy service. Before starting, enable a VPN with the desired GEO to get information for the selected region. In our case, this will be Mexico.

On the website, you can see a list of the most popular hashtags in the country:

By clicking on a hashtag, you can see a breakdown by age, regions, and video themes:

When selecting hashtags for a female audience, choose the following themes:

Baby, Kids & Maternity
Beauty & Personal Care
Food & Beverage
Household Products

We selected the following hashtags for our campaign:

Additionally, in this service, you can select trending music for your videos in the “Songs” section. Sound also affects audience targeting, so choose songs relevant to the selected GEO. For example, in Mexico, they are as follows:

The service also has an alternative — you can manually search for popular hashtags. First, find other accounts in your niche by searching with keywords in the local language.

For example, we used the hashtag #pérdidadepeso, which means “weight loss” in Spanish. This search yielded many accounts, many of which belong to our target audience.

Next, simply look at the videos from similar channels and select popular thematic hashtags. For the “weight loss” category, we compiled the following list of hashtags in 15 minutes. Feel free to use them:

#bajardepeso
#pérdidadepeso
#perderpeso
#comobajardepeso
#acelerarperdidadepeso
#comoperderpeso
#perdidadepesocausas
#adelgazar
#ejercicio
#foryou
#for
#comoadelgazar
#adelgazarrápido
#dietaparaadelgazar
#cardioparaadelgazar
#adelgazarrapido
#fy
#fyp
#fypシ
#viral
#obesidad
#obesity
#love

In the process of analyzing audience accounts, we found several videos that can be used as creatives:

When working with tags, it’s also helpful to promote your own hashtag — once it’s used in about 1000 videos, it will also start gaining reach. Just create a unique hashtag like #intuslim_fit and include it in your videos along with the target hashtags.

What to Avoid in Creatives

Finally, we highlighted some critical details that should not be in your creatives. Their presence can lead to suppression, halting views, or even account blocks:

Nudity: One of the most popular elements in “before/after” formats. Use models in clothing; TikTok can trigger even on bare shoulders.
Text: Excessive text in the video can cause issues. Ensure the text is concise and occupies no more than 50% of the creative.
Stickers: TikTok often flags stickers with arrows and similar elements that urge actions. Don’t overload your video with such stickers to avoid problems.
Spam Hashtags: TikTok may penalize videos with hashtags frequently used in violations. Be cautious with hashtags from ads and use those from regular users.
Stop Words: Words related to diseases or prohibited themes, such as “weight loss” in our case. Avoid these words in both text and audio.
Too Many Hashtags: Don’t use more than 5-7 tags per video — it attracts moderation attention and can lead to blocks.
Music: Tracks with copyright issues can cause problems. Always check the music before adding it to your video.
Logos: Company and brand logos in the video can lead to sanctions.

In the current environment, we recommend using subtle and native calls to action to avoid attracting TikTok’s attention.

Additionally, about once a week, we suggest refreshing your campaign setup — change the VPN, creatives, hashtags, descriptions, and domain. This should be the first step if several accounts in a row aren’t getting views.

Remember, the lifespan of a campaign largely depends on complaints about the creatives. Aggressive creatives can attract more traffic but will get blocked faster.

The best option is viral videos that don’t look like ads. After 20-50 accounts, they also burn out, but their lifespan and ease of use are much better than classic “in-your-face” ads.

Conclusion

To select the right audience and avoid blocks, it’s important to work with creatives and avoid mistakes. Today, you learned how to choose hashtags for your audience and what elements to avoid in creatives.

Continue following the course — in the next lesson, you’ll learn about traffic inflow and redirection schemes from TikTok!

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