TikTok announced the return of its Ad Awards for 2025, introducing a new category aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). 

The annual event, which celebrates effective paid advertising campaigns on the platform, opened entries on October 4.

“TikTok is the home of effective marketing campaigns that help brands connect with consumers and grow their business,” said Brett Armstrong, General Manager of Global Business Solutions for Australia & New Zealand at TikTok, in a blog post.

The platform reports that 350,000 small businesses currently use TikTok for advertising.

The awards feature five categories:

1. Greatest Creative Campaign: Recognizing brands that align with TikTok’s “golden rules for success.”
2. Greatest Brand Effectiveness Campaign: Honoring top-performing brand-building efforts through paid activity.
3. Greatest Small Business: A new category celebrating SMBs leveraging TikTok for business impact.
4. Greatest Performance Campaign: Highlighting brands achieving results across the marketing funnel.
5. Greatest For Good Award: Acknowledging campaigns driving social impact through entertainment.

Eligibility requires campaigns to have run between October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The submission deadline is November 14, 2024.

TikTok plans to announce shortlisted entries in January 2025, and the winners will be revealed at an awards evening in Sydney on February 19, 2025.

“Our partners continue to push the boundaries of creativity, delivering outstanding campaigns, and I’m excited to see the quality of entries this year,” added Armstrong.

Introducing the Greatest Small Business category reflects TikTok’s focus on the SMB sector. Armstrong said the new category celebrates the 350,000 small businesses of all shapes and sizes on TikTok that are “making a significant impact through paid advertising.”

According to the latest IAB Australia Internet Advertising Revenue Report (IARR), Australian internet advertising expenditure reached $15.6 billion for the financial year ending June 30, 2024, marking a 9.7% year-on-year growth.

Video advertising led the growth, increasing 18.6% to $4.1 billion. Search and directories followed, rising 10.4% to $6.9 billion. Digital audio showed strong performance, growing 23.6% to $290.2 million.

Recent research from Emplifi showed that TikTok video ads generate 15x more impressions than Facebook and Instagram Reels ads.