The problem
TikTok won't run a campaign for less than £50 a day, and we set budgets at campaign level, so that £50 is the floor. Its cost is set by the number of days, not the size of the budget. Every platform in a plan currently shares the same run dates, so on smaller budgets the recommended split can put TikTok under its minimum, or force the plan to lean heavily towards TikTok even when it isn't the right platform.
- £2 million over 30 days: TikTok at 20% is over £13,000 a day. No issue.
- £1,750 over 14 days: TikTok at 20% is £25 a day, half its minimum. Needs a decision.
Where it sits
On the Media Plan page, as an item in the left-hand timeline after Media plan ready: Budget issue needs a decision. Approve plan is locked until it's resolved. Clicking the flag (or the locked Approve button) opens the decision panel.
The decision panel
- The problem in plain English. "We want to allocate 20% of your daily budget to TikTok. That's £25 a day, which is under TikTok's £50 minimum."
- Our recommendation, with a timeline and the split. Run TikTok for fewer days at its minimum, so it spends exactly its recommended share and the split is kept. Days = (budget × TikTok share) ÷ £50, rounded down. In the example: £350 ÷ £50 = 7 days instead of 14.
- Three alternatives:
- Increase your budget to the amount that keeps the recommended ratio on every day: (£50 × days) ÷ TikTok share. Example: £3,500.
- Remove TikTok. Google and Meta share the budget. Optionally save TikTok as a separate draft campaign.
- Add budget to TikTok only. TikTok runs every day at £50 or more; Google and Meta are unchanged. Show the new total and how far TikTok's share is over our recommendation. Example: total £2,100, TikTok 33% of spend, 13 points more than the 20% we recommend.
- Choosing an option opens a confirm box with the right editor: date editor for fewer days (first days, last days or a custom start), budget editor for increasing the budget (blocks values that still fall under the minimum), TikTok daily budget editor for the skew option, and a simple confirm for removal.
- Confirm updates the plan in place: new figures, split, platform cards with each platform's own dates, the flag turns to Budget decision made (with Change decision), Approve unlocks, and the change is logged in Change history.
Dependencies
| Option | Status | Needs |
|---|
| Run TikTok for fewer days (recommended) | Blocked | Per-platform dates in the media plan. Currently every platform shares the same dates (bug logged). |
| Increase your budget | Ready | Budget editing and re-running the split. |
| Remove TikTok | Ready | Saving as a separate draft is a nice-to-have. |
| Add budget to TikTok only | Check | Per-platform budget edits before launch (already possible in the campaign editor). |
Rules for the devs
- Trigger: recommended daily budget for a platform is below that platform's minimum. Work it out from the actual plan, never a fixed pound threshold.
- Use the account currency. TikTok publishes its minimums in US dollars, so check the live figure for GBP accounts.
- Large budgets never see the flag.
- Never fix it silently. The user must choose, and Approve stays locked until they do.
- Re-run the check if budget, dates or platforms change after a decision.
- If the recommended run would be very short (under 3 days), recommend removing TikTok instead.
- Build it generically, with each platform's minimum as data, so Google (roughly £20 a day overall) and future platforms such as LinkedIn slot in.
Open questions
- Default for fewer days: first days, last days, or spread across the run (for example every other day)?
- Should the recommendation change if Snifferdog™ thinks TikTok is a strong fit for the brief (for example recommend the budget increase instead)?