Why is My New TikTok Ad Account Not Spending: Reasons and Solutions?

Thanks to the active users and smart recommendation system, TikTok has recently developed into one of the fastest-growing places for advertising videos. As a leading digital marketing agency that successfully serves hundreds of international brands, we totally understand that though starting a new advertising campaign on TikTok can be quite exciting, nothing can compare to the feeling of disappointment when you set up your ads only to discover that your new TikTok Ad account not spending. Don’t be so stressed because you are not online. This issue is quite popular and it affects many advertisers, especially those new to the platform. In this article, we will help you understand the reasons behind and how to handle them for successful campaigns.

Understanding TikTok Ad Delivery

Before you dive deeper and start to discover why your new TikTok Ad account not spending, let’s take a quick look to understand the way TikTok Ad delivery works to choose which ads to show first.

How TikTok Ad Delivery Works:

TikTok Ad delivery works based on:

• TikTok Ad Auction Process: The ad that meets TikTok’s conditions of the bid amount, the creative of your video and copy, and the estimated action rate will appear in a live bidding round when someone opens the TikTok. The ads with the top‑scoring wins will show immediately.
• Engagement‑Driven vs. Data‑Driven Delivery: TikTok relies on real-time engagement, therefore, the ad with strong early engagement will exit the learning phase faster and spend more smoothly.
• Account Factors That Affect Delivery: 3 account-level elements that can slow or halt spending are the account history (Established accounts with consistent results win more auctions), spend velocity (Large or sudden budget increases reset learning and pause spending until the algorithm relearns), and the learning phase (Each ad set needs roughly 25 conversion events to stabilize delivery), respectively. To avoid delivery gaps, ramp budgets gradually, limit major bid edits, and let each ad set collect enough data before making changes.

The Difference Between TikTok Ad Not Spending and Not Delivering

TikTok ad not spending and TikTok ad not delivering are 2 different problems that any advertiser can face when running ads. However, many advertisers, whether they are business owners or even seasoned advertisers, feel confused when talking about that. As a digital marketing expert at GDT Agency with over 10 years of experience managing social media advertising campaigns, I can explain it simply to all of you as:

• TikTok Ads not delivering: No delivery means that TikTok doesn’t show your ads in front of your target audience, and therefore, you don’t get any impressions.
• TikTok Ads not spending: Means that the ad campaign is active but not consuming its allocated budget.

→ Therefore, the core difference between the two is that “not spending” implies the ad is active but unproductive, while “not delivering” means the ad isn’t shown at all. 

8 Reasons Your New TikTok Ad Account Not Spending & How To Fix Them

Now with a clear understanding of TikTok’s delivery, I believe you are ready to identify and resolve why your new TikTok ad account not spending. Let’s move on to the 8 main reasons and how to fix them:

Low Budget:

Your ads won’t run if your budgets are too low. TikTok requires a minimum spend to ensure smooth delivery (the minimum budget is $50 at the campaign level and $20 at the ad group level). If you set budgets below these thresholds, your campaigns and ad groups will not receive any impressions.

Solution for Low Budget:

First of all, you need to ensure your budgets exceed TikTok’s stated minimums, which are $50 per day for the campaign level and $20 per day at the ad group level. When you create a campaign on TikTok, you can set a clear daily budget that meets the minimum budget requirement of TikTok in Ads Manager. Ads Manager will show an error if it’s set too low.

Low Bidding:

Bidding is the amount you’re willing to pay per result. For optimal advertising placement, it’s crucial to balance your bidding price with the market. If you bid too high, you can make your ads show, but you can burn your budget quickly. If your bid is too low, it will reduce the chance of your ad showing. This could be the driving factor behind your TikTok ad not spending.

Solution for Low Bidding:

To ensure your bid stays competitive, it’s essential to consider your competitors’ bidding prices and adjust your bids accordingly. 

First, you can try some fresh ad creatives to see whether the results spend better or not. If this doesn’t work, access into your Ads Manager and take a look at your bids.

Try switching from “Lowest Cost” to “Cost Cap” and incrementally increasing the number until your ads begin to show. However, you need to be careful not to set more money than you’re willing to spend on one action. 

Ineffective Targeting and Audience Overlap

If you target the wrong audience or the same people multiple times, your ad groups end up competing with each other. That internal bidding increases costs and prevents your budgets from being fully spent.

• Using too many targeting criteria can negatively impact the TikTok ads distribution algorithm, making it difficult for TikTok to allocate your ads to the right audience.
• Overly specific targeting can limit the reach of your TikTok ads, resulting in poor visibility and less interaction.
• If you’re targeting too broadly, TikTok may show your ads to users who are not interested in your product or service. This will lead to poor ad delivery.

Solutions for Ineffective Targeting and Audience Overlap

First of all, you should carefully choose the target ad group’s criteria and characteristics to avoid overly specific features that can result in targeting too deeply. In TikTok Ads Manager, you can create Lookalike Audience by selecting one of your high-value custom audiences as the source for TikTok to find similar users.

Then expand the audience in each ad group to let TikTok automatically broaden your audience slightly beyond your specified targets, increasing reach and improving delivery efficiency by finding additional relevant users.

In Audience Manager, remember to check your Audience Overlap report on a weekly basis. If two ad groups share more than 30% of their potential reach, merge or further exclude one group and monitor how delivery and cost metrics respond over the next 48 to 72 hours.

Low Quality Ad Creative and Engagement

One of the most popular mistakes made by advertisers, especially new ad accounts, is using the same content on other platforms or outdated content for advertising to repost on TikTok. These types of content often fail to engage users because TikTok’s distribution algorithm prioritizes users’ experiences. A video that has poor hooks, pixelated footage, or missing sound/music, does not adhere to TikTok’s standard format or deliver irrelevant content, the advertising will likely not reach users or spend inefficiently.

Solutions for Low Quality Ad Creative and Engagement

You have to optimize every element of your creative to match TikTok’s best practices and keep uninterested audiences from seeing your ads. By optimizing your videos to fit TikTok’s format, utilizing sound and trends to capture viewers, and excluding audiences unlikely to engage, you’ll enhance engagement signals and get your ad spending back on track.

TikTok Ads learning phase

The TikTok Ads learning phase is the first stage of ad delivery when TikTok discovers new audiences to help your ad groups reach the most potential customers. When your TikTok ads aren’t spending, it means the system is still learning who to target. 

During the learning phase, the algorithm collects data to identify users most likely to convert. It is an experimental process, which is why TikTok will not spend all your budget. It needs time to find the best audience and the best way to allocate your budget.  

Solution for Optimizing TikTok Ads Learning Phase

To quickly get your ads spent, you need to pass the TikTok learning phase, and gaining at least 50 conversions is a great goal for you. You can observe your ads for a few days, optimizing your bid, broadening your audience, and considering new ad creatives. You’ll enhance engagement signals and get your ad spending back on track.

Ad Approval Delays and Policy Issues

No matter how well your campaign is built, if your campaign falls under TikTok’s trigger policy, it can get delayed. Normally, ads are reviewed in 24 hours, but complicated creatives or high volumes can push that to 48 hours or more. If your ad is in “Pending” status, it won’t spend until approval is cleared. You can find out more useful information about approval status via our dedicated article: TikTok Ads Account Not Approved: 9 Reasons and How to Fix Them Quickly.

Solution for Ad Approval Delays and Policy Issues:

Before you hit “Submit” to submit your campaigns, run your creative through a simple checklist to catch policy issues early. By running your ads through these steps, you’ll cut down on hold‑ups and keep your campaign spending. Keep testing variants and refining your checklist as TikTok updates its policies, and you’ll maintain steady delivery without surprise pauses.

Ad Format and Placement Issues

Low spend can occur if your format or placement of your ad doesn’t align with TikTok’s top-performing options. With various in-feed formats and placements available, some ads may underperform if they don’t match your campaign goals or creative.

Solution for Ad Format and Placement Issues:

You can focus on TikTok’s main In‑Feed ad formats and let the algorithm find the best spots for you. By this way, you can choose the right format and placement to avoid the low spend status. 

Negative Engagement

Finally, if your video receives a lot of negative engagement, such as negative feedback about the content or landing page, TikTok won’t deliver your ads.

Solution for Negative engagement:

In this case, you can turn off the comment. Otherwise, you need to closely look at these comments and see what you should improve. So, you have a winning chance to improve the audience-watching experience and also maximize ad results. 

Expert Tips for New TikTok Ad Account to Avoid Not Spending Status

Now you have a comprehensive look at the reasons and how to deal with the TikTok ad not spending status. For a new TikTok ad account, let’s take a quick look at some expert tips to help your ads spending effectively.

• Account Setup: First of all, remember to complete full business verification before you launch your ads, adding multiple verified payment methods and learn about TikTok’s advertising policies thoroughly.
• Campaign Strategy: You should start with a simple campaign at first, then optimize gradually and monitor the metrics of performance daily.
• Creative Development: You should develop multiple creative variations and regularly refresh creative content
• Consider Using TikTok Agency Account: TikTok agency accounts possess unique capabilities that can instantly transform no-spending campaigns into high-performing. 

Conclusion

A new TikTok ad account not spending is just a temporary issue that can be solved with proper solutions. We hope that this guide can help you as well as your TikTok ads spend effectively and achieve your advertising goals.

If you need help with your TikTok advertising strategy, don’t hesitate to contact GDT Agency to get a consultation with highly experienced TikTok marketing professionals. We can help you optimize your campaigns for maximum performance and ROI.

Follow if you find it useful