During our recent webinar with Amnesty International UK, we received more brilliant questions than we could answer live. Below, we’ve included all the questions raised – along with responses and further context from the Forward Action and Amnesty International UK teams.
1. What is TikTok’s policy on social issue or political advertising, and how did you navigate those restrictions in your campaign? Was the ad approval process difficult – especially for content that could be seen as political or aimed at policymakers?
TikTok does not allow paid political ads. This includes anything referencing elections, legislation, or calls to action to policymakers. However, broader “social issue” ads are allowed if they focus on awareness, not advocacy.
Ad approval can be strict. Even light references to policy or activism may be rejected – which is why the engagement tools work so well, because they are one step removed from the activism ask.
It’s possible to work around this by keeping messaging values-based (e.g. community, impact, hope) rather than explicitly political.
Organic content and influencer partnerships remain viable routes for cause-related messaging.
2. How could this approach be applied to highly sensitive campaigns? And how would you recommend using TikTok for charities that have a really hard time collating and creating video content due to the nature of the cause?
Highly sensitive campaigns would definitely require a different tone, and approach, but there’s a lot of transferable thinking about what’s the step removed from the action you want people to take.
Think about what are the routes in – are there shocking statistics around your cause area, or is there a more empathetic approach where you can bring storytelling and solidarity to the fore?
Is there a member of staff who’s comfortable in front of the camera who can have a go at some presenter-led videos?
3. Do you segment your email and WhatsApp comms towards gen z too? Or do they get emails the same as the rest as your email list?
Everyone we recruited via the tool went on the same email welcome series and WhatsApp welcome series (if they’d opted in!).
Amnesty has plans to update the WhatsApp journey for these new subscribers with content that’s more relevant to this new audience.
4. Did Amnesty International just test this tool, or have you also run petition or handraiser campaigns directly on TikTok before? I’d be really interested to hear how the conversion rates and CPL compared.
Not on this project – we only tested the Identity Check tool. We’d also love to do some comparisons around this to understand what asks drive action on the platform.
5. What do you think is the minimum ad spend on TikTok for a campaign like this?
It really depends on how your campaign performs. This was a platform test. Our approach on projects like this is to start small with your budget, between £200-£300 a week to get your campaigns optimising and get some initial results in.
Once you have your initial data, take it week by week with your budget. If you’re seeing a CPL you’re happy with, consider increasing your spend to drive scale. If you’re seeing poor conversion rates or very high CPLs, look at the pain points in the journey before you increase your spend.
6. Have TikTok offered any free credit to play around with?
As far as we know there’s no specific program for free TikTok credits for UK charities. However they do offer free training and courses to upskill and sometimes there are new advertiser credits available so worth looking at!
7. Does having a big TikTok following/reach really help? Compared to being a new charity on the channel with a smaller audience.
TikTok’s algorithm prioritises content performance over follower count.
For organic content – the “For You” page isn’t follower-based, it’s interest-based. So having a big following helps a bit with baseline engagement, but not massively.
A large following gives credibility and social proof, encouraging more people to follow or engage. Loyal followers can provide an initial engagement boost (likes/comments) that helps a video reach wider audiences.
As a smaller account you’ll need to spend more time testing different hooks and formats to find what resonates. But in theory, a TikTok can just as easily go viral from a small account vs a big one.
For paid ads – it’s more of a level playing field. TikTok ads are distributed by ad auction, not organic influence, so your follower count doesn’t affect paid reach or delivery. And what matters is creative quality, targeting, audience fit, and engagement signals (CTR, watch time, conversions).
8. How granular can the targeting be on TikTok? What kind of characteristics or behaviours did you pick out?
There’s lots of audience targeting options on TikTok. Demographic targeting, interest based targeting, behaviour targeting and location.
We targeted Broad, Charity interest and lookalike audiences.
In terms of who we recruited with this targeting – it was 53% women, 47% men. 98% were brand new to Amnesty.
The TikTok audience remained engaged in the supporter journey (clicking to take follow up actions) at higher rates than audiences on other platforms we tested on (Instagram and Facebook).
9. What exactly does that cost per lead cover?
We calculate cost per lead as media spend/opt-ins.
10. Why is TikTok so expensive in comparison to Meta?
It’s two fold – the platform and the audience.
TikTok users prefer to stay in-app in the app’s own environment. It’s the way the app was designed, which is very different to platforms like Facebook where users are very used to leaving the site when they click on links.
This makes taking people off-app to take action and opt in harder and it can be more expensive.
We also know Gen Z can be more reluctant to give out their personal details and opt into communications. So targeting this audience specifically can be more expensive too.
That’s all for now – but do get in touch if this has sparked any ideas and you’d like to talk them through! We are always up for a chat.