TikTok Ads success story · Exotic snack shop started in a garage

How a snack shop started in a garage grew to over 100 orders a day with TikTok Shop ads.

Name: Overtop Media Digital Marketing
Address: 933 Louise Ave Suite 101-18, Charlotte, NC, 28204, US
Telephone: (704) 237-0707
Price range: $$

Two friends selling exotic snacks from their garage had a small TikTok following and a few orders a day. Shop ads, product links on their own videos and Spark Ads turned that into more than $100,000 in four months, a warehouse and employees.

Business: The Snax Lab
Market: United States
Goal: More snack sales through TikTok Shop

Bowls of colorful assorted candies on a wooden table

The results.

Orders are compared with the shop’s order rate before the campaign (5 to 10 a day). TikTok gave no baseline for the other results.

$100K+gross revenue in four months
6x to 8xaverage return on ad spend across ad groups
100+orders a day, up from 5 to 10
4K+unique purchases

As published by TikTok on July 10, 2024. Sales and return on ad spend were tracked in TikTok Ads Manager; TikTok did not state the campaign dates.

The challenge.

The Snax Lab began in the garage of two childhood friends who wanted people to try snacks from around the world. Their TikTok videos had built a small following, but organic posts alone were bringing in only 5 to 10 orders a day.

To make the shop a full-time business they needed more sales, and they needed a way to advertise that a two-person team could actually run without a production budget.

Set up the shopProducts listed in TikTok Shop with a sales objective.
Run shopping adsVideo, LIVE and product ads with in-app checkout.
Link organic videosUnpaid posts carry product links and sell too.
Boost the winnersTop organic posts become Spark Ads, tested by product.

What they did.

TikTok Shop ads (video, LIVE and product shopping ads) · Spark Ads · Product links on organic videos

Sales as the only goal: Campaigns used the Product Sales objective with TikTok Shop ads in three forms: video ads, LIVE ads and product ads, all letting people buy without leaving the app.
The easy format first: Product ads were the simplest to run because they need very little new creative, which suited a small team.
Organic videos that sell too: Product links were added to organic videos that were not being used as ads, so unpaid posts also brought in orders.
Spark Ads on proven posts: The best organic posts were boosted as Spark Ads, and creative and targeting were tested product by product. TikTok says Spark Ads tripled sales once added.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

No step between seeing and buying: A snack you have never tasted is an impulse buy. Checking out inside the app removed the moment where people usually change their mind.
The audience chose the ads: Boosting posts that already did well organically meant paid money backed proven videos. Some single videos reached a 28x return.
Every video could sell: Product links on organic posts turned the whole account into a shop window, not just the posts with ad budget.
Testing by product: Different snacks suit different people. Testing creative and targeting for each product found the right buyer for each.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our tiktok ads management.

Sell where people scroll: For product sellers, our TikTok ads management sets up TikTok Shop and its ads, which now run as Product GMV Max campaigns, alongside your own online store.
Your videos, then local creators: Your own videos come first, because founders talking about their products sell. Then the best local creators booked directly with no agency markup, and stock only to fill gaps.
Back the winners: We watch which organic posts sell and boost those, rather than paying to promote videos nobody has tested.
Count every sale, wherever it lands: TikTok buyers also order from your site and from Amazon. We track the full picture so a channel is never judged on its own checkout alone.