How to Run TikTok LIVE Ads: Promote, Ads Manager or LIVE GMV Max

There are three main ways to run ads on a TikTok LIVE. The first is tapping Promote in the app before or during a LIVE. The second is building a campaign in TikTok Ads Manager. The third is a LIVE GMV Max campaign for shops selling through TikTok Shop. Which one fits depends on whether you want more viewers and followers or sales from the LIVE, and whether your shop is already connected to TikTok Shop.

This article explains how each route works according to TikTok for Business's own help pages: requirements, steps, budget and timing, running ads from a computer, and where to read results. Some things TikTok does not spell out. Where a point cannot be confirmed, the article says so plainly and asks you to check in your own account.

How many ways can you advertise a TikTok LIVE

Option 1: Promote in the app (Boost LIVE)

Promote is TikTok's in-app advertising tool for boosting videos and LIVEs in a few taps. The About Promote on TikTok help page (updated July 2026) lists four goals: Boost account, Get leads, Get sales and Boost LIVE. Boost LIVE is for more LIVE views and LIVE followers. The page sets two requirements: you must be at least 18 years old, and the account promoting a LIVE needs at least 1,000 followers.

The Promote button for a LIVE sits in two places, according to the How to find Promote in app and on web help page (updated July 2026).

• Before the LIVE: tap the Promote icon above the Go LIVE button.
• During the LIVE: tap the Promote icon in the Share menu.

When you set it up, you can choose a ready-made promotion pack with a preset budget, duration and audience, or build a custom promotion. The help page does not state a minimum budget or a budget range, so check the options in the app as you set it up.

Promote suits creators and small shops that want more people in a LIVE quickly without setting up an ad account, but it gives you less control than Ads Manager. TikTok's help page also notes that Promote can be integrated with TikTok Ads Manager if you need more advanced features.

Option 2: A campaign in TikTok Ads Manager

The How to choose the right objective in TikTok Ads Manager help page (updated April 2025) shows that the objective that refers directly to LIVE is Community interaction, which TikTok describes as a way to get more followers, profile visits and page visits, or to promote your livestream. This route suits LIVEs that are not selling through TikTok Shop, such as product launches, educational sessions or brand streams aimed at gaining followers.

Something to know: the help pages available do not describe the click-by-click steps for promoting a LIVE under Community interaction, so the sub-options on screen may differ by account and over time. Start a test campaign and see where your account offers the LIVE option.

For shops that sell through TikTok Shop, there used to be a LIVE Shopping Ads format under the Sales objective, with TikTok Shop selected as the product source. The How to create LIVE Shopping Ads help page (updated March 2026) says that beginning July 2025, GMV Max is the default and only supported campaign type for TikTok Shop Ads, so Sales-objective ads with TikTok Shop as the destination must use a GMV Max campaign. The same page does not say which markets this applies to. TikTok's About GMV Max migration for TikTok Shop Ads page (updated March 2026) adds that LIVE Shopping Ads can still be created by selecting a TikTok identity, but the option to specify a TikTok Shop for the campaign has been removed.

The older LIVE Shopping Ads steps still help explain the mechanics. There were two creative types: Real-time LIVE, which uses the live stream itself, and Single video, which uses an existing video. Targeting had to be set to age 18 and over, and TikTok recommended keeping audience size at Fairly Broad. The start and end date and time had to match the LIVE session, and the LIVE had to start within 48 hours of the planned start time.

Option 3: LIVE GMV Max

The About LIVE GMV Max help page (updated September 2026) describes it as an automated Shop Ads campaign that optimizes traffic into the live room to get the highest gross revenue for that LIVE event. The system uses two creative types automatically: video-to-LIVE, which uses videos from your TikTok account to bring viewers into your live room, and LIVE-to-LIVE, which promotes the ongoing stream to draw more viewers into the same LIVE. You do not choose between them; the system allocates them.

There is a side effect to know about. When a shop's primary ad account has an active LIVE GMV Max campaign, any existing LIVE Shopping Ads for the shop's official TikTok account are paused automatically. They do not restart on their own after the campaign ends; you have to turn them back on in Ads Manager.

The How to create a LIVE GMV Max campaign in TikTok Ads Manager help page (updated March 2026) lists these prerequisites.

• If you or your team own the TikTok Shop, the shop must be connected to your Business Center, and you need Admin or Advertising Manager permission for the shop.
• If you are promoting a shop you do not own, for example as an agency or distributor, the advertiser account needs GMV Max authorization for that shop. You can check this in Business Center and request it from the shop owner.
• Any active LIVE Shopping Ads or LIVE GMV Max campaign must be turned off before you create a new one.

The steps on the same page are as follows.

1. Sign in to TikTok Ads Manager.
2. Click GMV Max at the top of your dashboard.
3. Choose the TikTok Shop you want to promote, then click Next.
4. Click Create GMV Max ads. If the button is disabled, confirm that you have operator or admin access to the advertiser account and that the account is authorized for GMV Max.
5. Click Promote LIVE and choose the TikTok account that will host the LIVE.
6. Under Optimization goal, set a LIVE ROI target. You can use the recommended value or enter your own.
7. Under Budget, enter a daily budget. You can use the amount recommended from your past LIVE performance, and you can change the budget after the campaign starts.
8. Adjust the Schedule, then click Publish.

Which objective to choose for a selling LIVE

The answer depends on where the sale happens. This table summarizes the options as TikTok's help pages describe them.

If your LIVE sells products through TikTok Shop, the route TikTok supports for Shop Ads today is GMV Max, since GMV Max has been the only supported campaign type for TikTok Shop Ads since July 2025. If you sell through your own website or close sales in chat, the LIVE does the job of drawing attention, and you should measure sales separately from LIVE viewer numbers. This article cannot confirm whether Ads Manager offers a LIVE ad format that measures website conversions directly.

How to set budget and timing: before or during the LIVE

The three routes give you different control over timing.

• Promote can be set up before the LIVE through the icon above Go LIVE, or during the LIVE through the Share menu. If you want people arriving from the first minute, set it up before you tap Go LIVE. If you want to see first whether viewers are staying in this session, tap it during the LIVE.
• Older LIVE Shopping Ads required the campaign date and time to match the LIVE session, and the LIVE had to start within 48 hours of the planned start time.
• LIVE GMV Max has a Schedule field in setup, but the help page does not explain how far ahead of a LIVE the campaign can start, or whether there is an always-on option. Check the options on screen.

On budget, the TikTok help pages available do not state a minimum for any of these routes, so this article gives no figure. What they do state is that Promote has ready-made packs with a preset budget, and that LIVE GMV Max can use a daily budget the system recommends from past LIVE performance. An illustrative way to think about it (not budget advice): a shop that goes live three times a week might start from the recommended amount and read the LIVE ROI of each session before raising or cutting spend, rather than changing the budget so often during LIVEs that the results become unreadable.

What affects results about as much as budget is how ready the LIVE is. If ads bring people in and they land on a stream that has not started presenting products, or where nobody answers comments, they leave quickly and the ad money does little. Before switching ads on, have the product order, prices, promotions and a comment moderator ready.

How to run TikTok LIVE ads from a computer

If you use Ads Manager or LIVE GMV Max, you are already working on a computer, because the whole process starts with signing in to TikTok Ads Manager on the web, clicking GMV Max and choosing Promote LIVE as described above. Shop permissions are managed in Business Center, which is also on the web.

Promote also has a web version, but the How to find Promote in app and on web help page does not say whether the web version can promote a LIVE. The only LIVE entry points TikTok confirms are in the app: above the Go LIVE button and in the Share menu during the LIVE. If you need to run LIVE ads from a computer with certainty, use Ads Manager.

For shops with a Seller Center account, TikTok's help center has a separate guide for creating a LIVE GMV Max campaign in Seller Center, starting from the Shop Ads menu. Both routes create the same kind of campaign; they differ only in which system you start from.

How TikTok LIVE ads differ from Facebook LIVE ads

Both platforms let you boost a LIVE with ads, but the rules and tools belong to each company, so a one-to-one comparison does not work. On the TikTok side, these points are specific.

• Promote for a LIVE requires at least 1,000 followers, so small accounts may not be able to use that button yet.
• If you sell through TikTok Shop, selling-LIVE ads go through GMV Max, which targets a LIVE ROI and lets the system allocate creative itself. You control fewer details than you would building a campaign entirely by hand.
• Purchases happen in the app through the TikTok Shop store, so the system can measure live-room GMV against ad spend directly.

Facebook has Meta's own tools, steps and requirements, which this article has not reviewed. If you plan to sell through LIVEs on both platforms, plan them separately around each platform's tools and read the current requirements on each platform's help pages.

Where to see LIVE results (viewers, GMV, ROI)

Where you read results depends on which route you used.

• Promote: check the Promote Dashboard in the app. It has an Order history of past promotions and a Promote again button for repeating one.
• Ads Manager campaigns: the LIVE Shopping Ads help page says you can track performance in the Campaigns tab of Ads Manager or in the ads dashboard in Seller Center.
• LIVE GMV Max: the main metric is LIVE ROI, which TikTok defines as total live-room GMV divided by total ad spend.

An illustrative calculation (made-up numbers): one LIVE session has live-room GMV of 30,000 baht and ad spend of 5,000 baht, so LIVE ROI is 6. This figure counts total live-room GMV and does not separate sales driven by ads from sales by viewers who arrived on their own, so compare it with sessions that ran without ads to see how much the ads actually added.

After each LIVE, log the same figures in a sheet every time, such as ad spend, live-room GMV, LIVE ROI, the time slot and the products sold. After a number of sessions you can see which ones paid off and make budget decisions on real data.

TikTok LIVE ads in the Thai market

The March 2026 version of the How to create a LIVE GMV Max campaign in TikTok Ads Manager help page lists six available markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. On that page's basis, TikTok Shop sellers in Thailand can use LIVE GMV Max through Ads Manager. The About LIVE GMV Max page does not list countries, and the Promote page does not say which countries Promote covers. If the buttons or menus in your account do not match this description, go by what you see on screen.

For Thai shops, the most common snag is permissions. If the shop owner and the person running ads are on different teams, for example a brand working with an agency, set up GMV Max authorization in Business Center before the LIVE date. Otherwise the Create GMV Max ads button will be disabled. If you are new to selling through LIVEs, see the overview of LIVE selling work on our live commerce service page.

FAQ about TikTok LIVE ads

How many followers do I need to promote a LIVE with Promote?

You need at least 1,000 followers, according to the July 2026 About Promote on TikTok help page, and you must be at least 18 years old. If you are not there yet, look at the options in Ads Manager.

Can I advertise a LIVE without TikTok Shop?

Yes, through Promote with the Boost LIVE goal or the Community interaction objective in Ads Manager, which TikTok says can promote a livestream. LIVE GMV Max does require a TikTok Shop.

Is LIVE GMV Max available in Thailand?

Yes. The March 2026 help page on creating LIVE GMV Max in Ads Manager lists Thailand among its available markets, together with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore.

What is LIVE ROI?

LIVE ROI is total live-room GMV divided by total ad spend, as defined on the About LIVE GMV Max page. LIVE GMV Max campaigns use it as the target in the Optimization goal field.

Can I run TikTok LIVE ads from a computer?

Yes, through TikTok Ads Manager on the web, for both standard campaigns and LIVE GMV Max. TikTok does not say whether the web version of Promote can promote a LIVE; the confirmed entry points are in the app.

Summary

To advertise a TikTok LIVE, start from what the LIVE needs. If you want viewers and followers, Promote and Community interaction cover it. If you sell through TikTok Shop, the route TikTok supports is LIVE GMV Max, which needs shop permissions sorted in Business Center first, and LIVE ROI should be measured every session. If you want a team to plan and manage LIVE campaigns, see our TikTok ads service and social media advertising service, and if you plan LIVEs on both platforms, see our Facebook ads service as well.