TikTok Brand Guidelines 2025: Everything You Need to Know to Stand Out

TikTok is more than just a powerful tool for brand marketers. With over 60% of users logging on to the platform to discover new brands and products, it’s become a must-have in every advertiser’s media mix. TikTok offers endless opportunities for brand recognition, but the real challenge is building a content strategy that feels both authentic to your brand and native to TikTok’s unique culture. 

Brand guidelines are the foundation for creating a lasting impact on TikTok. In this article, we’ll walk through the core TikTok brand guidelines in-depth to help your business nail down the must-haves for powerful content on social media’s fastest-growing platform.

Table of Contents

Importance of TikTok’s Brand Guidelines

Essential Components of TikTok Brand Guidelines

Strategies for Enhancing Brand Identity

FAQ

Final Thoughts

Importance of TikTok Brand Guidelines

On TikTok, where new trends and content are constantly filling our feeds, brand guidelines are a lighthouse that shows the way for advertisers. When used with care and consistency, they ensure your visuals and messaging strike the perfect balance to drive measurable results. Following brand guidelines on TikTok will help you foster brand familiarity, and when used consistently with memorable content, your audience can easily recognize, connect, and engage with your business. Over time, this helps cultivate a deep and loyal customer base. 

As advertisers, we know that frequency is a core building block of strong brand results. But without consistent visual elements or messaging tied to your brand, frequency and repetition don’t mean anything. It is when your audience can associate visual elements or messaging with your brand that you finally begin building trust, and as a result, can drive results. Brand guidelines keep us on track towards building this critical association. Over time, this consistent recognition, paired with the right strategies, is a driver of loyalty. Familiarity helps users feel more comfortable with your content and enables them to engage and even convert. 

But let’s be clear – trust cannot be built by consistency alone. Your message must also be memorable. In a sea of content, brands that fail to stand out will quickly fade into the background. TikTok’s highly creative environment requires brands to be bold while remaining authentic to their identity. Without a unique and clear set of brand guidelines to follow, even the most consistent content strategy won’t stick.

So, think of brand guidelines like the bass in a song – not always obvious, but take it away, and the whole track feels empty. Whether it’s through the use of specific colors, fonts, logos, or visual styles, having a clear set of TikTok brand guidelines ensures that every ad you serve on the platform feels cohesive and is instantly identifiable.

Essential Components of TikTok Brand Guidelines 

There are several key components of TikTok’s brand guidelines. Below, we’ll focus on each of them, from core visual elements like logos and color palettes to staples like tone of voice and content formatting. For optimal performance, it’s essential to apply these guidelines thoughtfully and consistently.

Logo Usage

TikTok brand guidelines recommend having between 3-5 brand cues in the beginning and middle of your ads. Your logo is perhaps the most important of these brand cues (along with product imagery and video). 

It’s important to ensure your logo is visible early and throughout every ad–you have less than three seconds to capture a user’s attention, so your logo being present during that window is imperative.

Ideally, we recommend keeping your logo on the screen throughout the entire video because, as we know, every second counts! You’ll want to make sure you have as much time as possible to familiarize your audience with your brand’s core identifier. 

Size and placement are also important considerations. Your logo should be noticeable, but it shouldn’t dominate the content itself. Position it strategically – typically, we recommend in a corner, but it’s most important that it is within TikTok’s safe zones. 

Lastly, make sure you’re maintaining a clear space around your logo to prevent clutter. Our Tip: Have at least the logo’s height as padding.

Color Scheme

The right use of colors in your creative can either act as an instant recognition signal, or help to keep a user drawn to your content for longer than they would have watched otherwise. Using your brands primary and secondary colors consistently in your creative not only adds visual appeal, but it also reinforces your branding subtly and subconsciously. 

As a general TikTok brand guideline, you should use primary colors as the dominant shade for text, backgrounds, and key visuals. For accents like icons, buttons, or borders, use your secondary colors to add depth and maintain brand consistency (without distracting from the most important elements of your content). Our Tip: Aim for a 70:30 ratio between primary and secondary colors.

Typography

We can’t emphasize enough how important optimizing your content for sound-off viewing truly is. And just as importantly, the fonts you choose in your text overlays matter more than you may think. Not only is your typography essential for readability, but it also reinforces your brand’s visual identity and voice on TikTok. Most importantly, subtitles and on-screen text are critical for ensuring your content is accessible to everyone on TikTok.

For the best results, TikTok brand guidelines suggest sticking to one easily readable and recognizable font for key messaging. Ideally, this should be your brand’s main font that is prominent in all other branded materials, including your logo (if applicable) and website. If you have a secondary font that makes sense to use in headings or subheadings, you may use it, but do so minimally to maintain clarity and avoid overload. As a rule of thumb, make sure not to use more than two fonts. 

Our Tip: Make sure not to overdo it on the text overlays. Just include voiceover subtitles and any other callouts that are necessary to your video’s story. 

Content Format

Adhering to best practices for video length, aspect ratio, and visual style is absolutely essential for maximizing impact on TikTok. And on a platform that thrives on short, punchy content, understanding the specs that should be guiding your creative team is critical for ensuring the ads they produce are performant. 

TikTok’s most engaging videos are typically between 10 and 60 seconds. Typically, we see branded content drive stronger results when kept under 30 seconds. Creator content and Spark ads tend to have a stronger ability to maintain users’ attention for longer durations, so 15 to 60 seconds for these ads is a solid benchmark to aim for. While TikTok does allow longer content, sticking to short-form videos will ensure your message stays sharp (and accounts for our rapidly declining attention spans).

This probably goes without saying, but make sure you’re using a 9:16 aspect ratio for every video you publish to TikTok – organic or paid. Maximizing screen real estate is imperative, as is promoting content that feels native to TikTok’s platform. 9:16 content is a non-negotiable on TikTok.

Lastly, don’t forget about your visual style and editing. TikTok is known for its fast-paced, bite-sized narratives. The TikTok brand guideline here is to prioritize clear, high-quality visuals, quick cuts with smooth transitions, and bold, picturesque moments that make your videos pop. 

Our tip: Prioritize authenticity over perfection. TikTok thrives on raw, relatable content, so try not to over-polish your videos. Remember, we’re trying to strike a balance between your brand’s feel and what’s organic to TikTok. We all appreciate brands that feel genuine, so embrace imperfection to connect on a more personal level with your audience.

Hashtags

Hashtags have always been crucial for discoverability, but relevance is the true key. Using hashtags that are directly related to your content, industry, or niche helps categorize your posts and enables TikTok’s algorithm to serve them to the right audience. The more relevant your hashtags, the more likely your content is to reach engaged viewers. For example, let’s say you are a running shoe brand promoting a new style or the launch of a new colorway– Use hashtags like #RunTok or #MarathonTraining to find the running community on TikTok. The greater TikTok brand guideline is to avoid overly generic hashtags like #Trending or #Viral. 

Our tip: Make sure you’re actively researching trending hashtags and following TikTok’s in-platform recommendations to discover new tags that make sense for your brand and content. Leveraging popular, trending hashtags, when applicable, will help you capitalize on ongoing conversations and reach a wider audience. 

Additionally, consider leaning into branded hashtags to increase recognition and build a community around your brand while encouraging user-generated content. 

Music & Sounds

Sound and music play a dominant role in content consumption on TikTok and, as a result, are integral to creating ads that feel organic within the platform. We recommend leveraging TikTok’s licensed music library to tap into trending audio and boost visibility and engagement, all while remaining compliant with copyright laws. 

Choosing the right music boils down to three key factors:

1. First, the music you choose should reflect your brand’s tone and voice. For example, a trendy beauty brand might use a fresh pop track to keep things light, fun, and on-brand. 

2. Second, your sound needs to resonate with your target audience. Having a clear sense of what your audience actually engages with on TikTok will help formulate this choice. For example, quirky trending audio may resonate best with a Gen-Z audience!

3. Lastly, music should elevate your content, so be careful that it doesn’t overpower your video. Whether it’s an energetic track for a beauty demo video or a chill, relaxing tune for a skincare routine, make sure the music fits the pace of your video. 

Strategies for Enhancing Brand Identity

Following the TikTok brand guidelines we’ve provided above is a baseline for strong performance on the platform. Once you’ve nailed down those basics, you can leverage new strategies that will amplify results even further. 

To make a real impact on TikTok, you need to push creative boundaries, build a distinctive identity, and build real relationships with your audience. Let’s explore the strategies for doing just that:

Collaborate with TikTok Creators for Co-Branding

At AdParlor, we know just how important creator partnerships are to brands that are looking to produce authentic, high-impact content. TikTok influencers and creators have built-in trust with their audiences, which makes their recommendations feel more genuine. This, in turn, enhances your brand’s credibility. To maximize success, businesses should collaborate with creators who resemble their audience in some way or another. 

For example, when TP-Link needed to boost its presence on TikTok for a new home security camera product launch, AdParlor connected the brand with over 100 creators across a variety of niches, specifically sourcing creators that would be able to authentically tell a story with the new camera. By pairing TP-Link with the right creators, AdParlor was able to drive a CPM 166% more efficient than initial forecasts and benchmarks. Check out the case study here! 

Use User-Generated Content to Strengthen Identity

User-generated content (UGC) is another powerful tool for building brand identity and authentic relationships with your audience on TikTok. Organic content that features a brand takes the power of creator content to the next level. 

You can encourage UGC with branded hashtags and community challenges and leverage it by reposting organic content through duets and stitches. Note that proper attribution by tagging and crediting creators is necessary and will strengthen these relationships while also encouraging more UGC to be shared. 

Create Original and Authentic Content

Beyond creator and user-generated content, the branded content that you run on TikTok also needs to feel genuine and authentic to your business’s core values. While some may suggest chasing trends and aspiring toward a viral moment, it’s important to be mindful of how your content is perceived. Inauthenticity is transparent; audiences (and TikTok’s algorithm) can instantly spot when you’re trying too hard to fit in. 

Instead of trying to jump on every viral moment, showcase glimpses behind the scenes, share real stories from customers or employees, and try not to overpolish your branded content. Glossier does this well by featuring real people using their products in everyday moments, reinforcing their brand’s effortless beauty ethos.

Brand Partnerships and Challenges

Trends proliferate faster on TikTok than they do on other social media platforms. Once they explode, they’re all anyone sees. Participating in relevant trends and challenges can open up your brand to a wider prospecting audience that you may not have been exposed to otherwise. On top of this, being part of these cultural moments makes a brand far more relatable to users. Integrating your brand thoughtfully and tastefully into popular conversations is a difficult strategy that requires in-depth social listening and an accurate understanding of your brand’s perception. When done right, it can boost a brand’s visibility, drive interaction, and strengthen your connection with new and existing audiences. 

Leveraging TikTok Analytics for Identity Refinement

As paid media experts, we’d be remiss if we did not highlight the importance of tracking results and adjusting your strategies based on measurable learnings. Knowing your goals and aligning your strategies accordingly is the key to understanding which results should drive your decisions. If you’re looking to build customer relationships and get users to consider your brand, make sure you’re analyzing view rates, engagement rates, watch times, and so on. Make sure you gather data cuts for each of your core segments to understand how your message is resonating with your audiences. Identify your strongest-performing content to build on your successes, and analyze your weakest work to determine areas for improvement. Test different cuts, visual styles, and messages to see what sticks. Over time, your strategy will continue to evolve alongside your audience’s preferences. 

FAQs

TikTok Brand Guidelines: Final Thoughts

By sticking to the guidelines we’ve provided above, you can ensure your brand finds the sweet spot of staying true to your voice while fitting seamlessly into TikTok’s dominant creative culture. Ultimately, brands on any platform need to carve out a space to communicate consistently in a way that clicks with their audience to drive true brand results. And when you master these foundational TikTok brand guidelines and build on the platform-specific strategies we’ve provided above, you can create content that stands out, builds trust, and leaves a lasting impact across all of TikTok.