Introducing TikTok Video Editor: Easily create native video ads in your browser

April 02, 2021
TikTok Video Editor is an online smart editor that gives advertisers access to a suite of TikTok-style editing features.
TikTok Video Editor: Easily create ads in your browser

Not long ago, creating impactful branded video content was expensive and time-consuming. In order to shoot a short video you'd need a full production team, equipment, venue, talent, and often weeks or months of pre- and post-production. Often these costs were prohibitive for businesses that didn't have large creative teams or marketing budgets.


TikTok has changed all that. Not only by providing intuitive in-app shooting and editing tools--where anyone can produce a TikTok easily in the moment, with just a few taps--but also through the unique culture spawned by our community, where no-frills authenticity is prized over perfection. This refreshing new approach to short video has opened a new world to brands big and small, lowering cost barriers and giving them more freedom to be creative, be real, show their quirky side, and try out new things. And those that have embraced the change have been rewarded with much closer connection to customers than was possible before.


Today, we're excited to make this process even easier for brands. TikTok Video Editor is an online smart editor that gives advertisers access to a suite of TikTok-style editing features. It allows you to quickly and accurately produce native-feeling content with TikTok-style elements, including popular music, fonts, colours and more. You can easily add custom subtitles, crop assets, and cut scenes exactly how you want in moments.


With TikTok Video Editor, you can enjoy:

  • Flexibility: customize different elements of your marketing materials frame by frame

  • Convenience: easily and intuitively produce ad videos in minutes

  • Accuracy: edit each frame with specific text, music and other creative elements


How to use it

TikTok Video Editor can be found under the 'Create a Video' menu on your TikTok Ads Manager dashboard, or from the Ad Creation menu when setting up a campaign.

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Step 1: 🎞 Select your materials. You can choose from existing materials in your asset library or upload video and images from your computer. Once your assets are ready, you can drag them into the bar below to start editing.

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Step 2: 🎶 Add a soundtrack. Click on the music note icon to enter the music editing page. From there, you can either upload your own soundtrack, or choose from a library of popular copyrighted music. TikTok Video Editor is even able to recommend music for the style of your video and place it at a suitable time on the track. Y​ou can adjust the volume of the music or the original video by clicking the music or media track and dragging the volume slider.


Step 3: 📝 Add text. Click on the text icon to enter the text editing page. If you've spent time on TikTok, you'll know that overlaying text onto video is a popular way to get information across--whether to highlight key points, or to caption speech with subtitles for the hearing-impaired. From the text page, you can choose from a number of different font styles and colours to add to your video. ​Choose a style you like and you will see a text box; from here you can change font, size, color and background, or drag the text around to any position within the video.

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As a rule of thumb, limit text per frame to what a user can easily read within the time that it displays. D​on't include large chunks of text unless they're captioning the speech in the video--otherwise information overload could affect your CTR.


Step 4: 🎨 Post-production. TikTok Video Editor offers the following tools to fine-tune your ad:


  • Transitions: In true TikTok style, you can add transitions between two frames - just click the transition icon at the top to open up the library of options. You can add transitions either by clicking the + icon in the media track, or by dragging your chosen transition to where you want it on the media track.

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  • Effects: You can also choose from effects to layer over your video, by clicking the magic wand icon in the top toolbar. Make sure you have at least one asset loaded up to edit, otherwise the effects can't be applied.

  • Object Eraser: You can remove objects from the frame by selecting the eraser icon from the toolbar. Use the white cursor to wipe over an object, then click the check mark to finish and start erasing--a countdown timer will show up on the screen with the estimated time to completion.

  • Split Audio Track: You can remove or separate the audio track from a video by clicking on the media track and selecting 'Split Audio Track'.

  • Multi-layer Edit: After adding an asset to a media track, click the asset on the preview screen. It will be framed by black positioning dots, which allow you to resize or move it to your preferred size and position.

  • Crop to size: By default, Tok Video Editor creates videos for mobile-first portrait orientation. But don't worry if your assets don't fit--you can easily adjust them to 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9 aspect ratio using the cropping tool. You can also select the aspect ratio of the final output from the dropdown below the preview screen.


While editing, you can toggle the 🎭  Masking view at any time to see how your ad appears with the TikTok app interface. This allows you to make sure that important text and images are viewable behind text and icons.

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We're excited to see brands use TikTok Video Editor to unleash their creative side. It's one of several free creative tools that we offer to make ad creation a breeze. If you're stuck for inspiration, read our tips for getting creative on TikTok, or browse top-performing ads from around the world in the Top Ads section of our Creative Center.

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