How to Run Instagram and TikTok Ads in Spain

If you're going to run Instagram, Facebook and TikTok ads in Spain, your first decision should be the audience, not the platform: do you want to reach the Turkish diaspora, Spanish locals or tourists? These three audiences respond in different languages, at different times and to different formats. Meta (Instagram and Facebook) and TikTok both let you run ads in Spain from your own business account; the real work is setting up targeting, creative and measurement separately for each of these three audiences. Below I walk through the decisions that work best in practice, one by one.

Diaspora, locals and tourists: three separate campaigns

The most common mistake I see is trying to reach everyone with a single ad set. Showing a Turkish video to all of Spain wastes budget on irrelevant people and makes it harder for the algorithm to learn the right audience. When you separate audiences, you also see clearly what's working.

• Turkish diaspora: Turkish creative, Turkish language targeting, and messages like Turkish products, services or community events. The audience is small, so you may need a wide geographic area.
• Spanish locals: Spanish creative, the city or radius your business serves, and timing that fits local habits. The audience is large, and so is the competition.
• Tourists: creative in English or the tourist's language, and a location near tourist areas. There's an important limitation here, which I explain below.

How location and language targeting work

Today, location targeting on Meta covers people who live in or were recently in the area you choose. It used to be possible to select only "people traveling there," but that option was removed. In practice, this means you can't target only tourists on Meta; an ad you run for central Barcelona or Madrid's Sol area will be seen by both locals and visitors. If you want to reach tourists, separate them through creative: English copy and the information tourists look for (walking distance, opening hours, a menu image).

Language targeting works for diaspora campaigns: you can select people who use their phone or account in Turkish. But don't rely on it alone; you'll miss the second generation, born in Spain, who speak Turkish but use their devices in Spanish. My advice is to start with language targeting and watch the results, and if needed, remove the language filter and let the Turkish creative find its own audience.

You can target Spain on TikTok too; TikTok lists Spain among the countries where you can open a self-serve ad account through Business Center. However, which location options (country, region, city) you'll see depends on which country you open the ad account with. If your business operates in Spain, opening the account with Spain is cleaner for targeting and billing.

Spanish creative: localization, not translation

In ads aimed at locals, the copy and voiceover should be in Spain Spanish. A slogan translated from Turkish or a voiceover in a Latin American accent tells viewers "this isn't meant for us." Write prices in euros in the Spanish format (decimal comma, symbol at the end: 12,50 €) and use the 24-hour clock.

Tone matters too. In Spain, exaggerated discount language, all-caps "LAST CHANCE" text and heavy sales pressure usually perform poorly. A human face, a real place, a real product and a short, natural story work better. If your target audience in Barcelona is locals, you can also test Catalan creative; for city differences, see my post Turkish-owned businesses in Barcelona.

What to keep in mind with Reels and TikTok formats

Vertical video is now the main format on both platforms. A few rules make a big difference:

1. Show what you're selling in the first second or two: the product, the dish, the result. Don't open with a logo animation.
2. Add Spanish captions on screen for people watching with the sound off.
3. The platform interface covers the bottom and right edges of the screen; place important text in the center.
4. Natural footage shot on a phone often lands better than a professional commercial, especially on TikTok.
5. Prepare at least three different creatives for the same message; let the data tell you which one wins.

If you'd like to outsource video production, you can see how we work on the Spain video production page.

Lead form ads or WhatsApp ads?

There are two popular routes on Meta: in-platform forms (lead forms, instant forms) and ads that open a WhatsApp chat when clicked. Each suits a different kind of business.

Since WhatsApp is the main channel for everyday communication in Spain, WhatsApp ads usually feel more natural for local businesses. But if you can't reply to messages during busy hours, the ad sends customers to your competitor, not to you. Don't launch this campaign without setting up quick replies and an away message for your business hours.

Pixels, cookie consent and measurement

The Meta Pixel and TikTok Pixel measure what visitors do on your website and let you build ad audiences. In Spain, these tracking cookies require prior consent from the user; the pixel must not run for visitors who don't consent. This means some conversions won't appear in your reports; that's not a bug, it's the result of the rule. I explain setting up the cookie banner and privacy text in my post website legal requirements in Spain; for the legal details, confirm your own situation with a lawyer or a gestoría.

Fill in the rest of your measurement outside the ads: ask "how did you find us" in WhatsApp messages, keep form leads together with their sources, and use discount codes at checkout.

Building audiences from your own data

Interest targeting doesn't always find the right people; an audience you select as "interested in Türkiye" also includes Spaniards who've vacationed in Türkiye. A more accurate route is building audiences from your own data. People who engage with your Instagram account, watch your videos for a certain time and visit your website (those who accept cookies) can each be saved as a custom audience. Retargeting these audiences is usually more efficient than advertising to a cold audience.

Uploading a customer list is also possible, but in Spain using personal data this way requires that customers have been informed and that there's a suitable legal basis. Don't upload your phone list to an ad platform without consulting a legal professional.

Does Facebook still work?

Instagram and TikTok lead for younger audiences, but Facebook hasn't lost all its relevance in Spain. Older local customers, neighborhood groups and community pages are still active on Facebook. When you leave placements on automatic in Meta ads, the system spreads your budget across Instagram, Facebook and other placements. I recommend starting with automatic placements and checking in your reports which placement drives conversions. TikTok, on the other hand, needs its own account, its own creative language and its own test budget; moving an Instagram video to TikTok as is usually falls flat.

How to think about budget

I won't give you a fixed number, because costs in Spain vary a lot by industry, city, season and competition. Build your budget with this logic: first calculate how much a customer earns you, then decide how much you can spend to win one. In the early phase, set aside a separate small test budget for each audience and collect data for two or three weeks. Don't change the budget every day so the algorithm can learn. Once the winning audience and creative are clear, increase the budget gradually.

Common mistakes

• Running ads to Spain from an ad account in Türkiye with Türkiye settings.
• Mixing the diaspora, locals and tourists in a single ad set.
• Showing Turkish creative to a Spanish audience, or the other way around.
• Spending budget with the "Boost post" button without setting goals or measurement.
• Running a pixel without cookie consent.
• Launching WhatsApp ads and replying to messages hours later.

I've been managing ad campaigns with Gizli Medya since 2009, and I also work actively with Spotify Ads and Amazon Ads. If you'd like us to manage your campaigns in Spain, take a look at the Spain ad management and Spain social media management pages; all services are together on the Spain digital marketing page.