How I scaled bite-sized learning at TikTok to cut repeat violations by 66% and reduce suspensions for striked advertisers by 50%
Team
Product Manager
Product Designer
Instructional Designer
SDE (2)
Timeline
Apr 2024 - Jun 2024
Role
Product Design & Research
Context
Impact
Strike volume reduced per advertiser
-66%
Ad account suspension rate drop for striked account
-50%
Eduated advertiser activity
+15X
Micro-learning CSAT
4.7/5.0
Design
Quick Learning Structure
A fast, focused learning experience that helps users understand policies through short videos, supported by clear guardrails. Users are required to fully watch the video before progressing—ensuring key information is seen and retained
Encourage Confident Ad Creation
After successfully completing the learning module, users are encouraged to create new ads—reinforcing their confidence and applying what they've learned in a compliant, informed way.
Short Knowledge Test
A quick, diverse set of questions allows users to assess their understanding of policy content. These tests not only reinforce learning but also enable the business to track success rates and correlate results with key metrics like ad suspension and strike reduction.
Learn Anywhere, Anytime
Responsive design ensures the microlearning experience is accessible across all devices—allowing users to engage with training content anytime, anywhere.
Problem
Understand advertiser intent and decrease recidivism through targeted, issue-triggered microlearning experiences.
Use existing public policy content and automation to streamline content creation, while enabling teams to focus only on maintaining quiz content and updating videos as policies evolve
Provide compact, comprehensive, and traceable CTAs (like MGA), improve visibility into training quality, and drive traffic to the TikTok Ad Policy account for ongoing self-education.
Process
Limited development flexibility and design constraints restricted the ability to create a seamless, responsive, and engaging learning experience. Integration with other platform elements (e.g., tracking, navigation) was also restricted.
Prior training materials were generic, lengthy, and not aligned with specific policy violations. They lacked interactivity, failed to drive behavior change, and provided no way to assess advertiser understanding or completion.
Scaling microlearning globally required accurate and timely translation across multiple languages. Ensuring consistency in tone, meaning, and policy interpretation across regions was resource-intensive and slowed down deployment.
Research
We studied how competitors introduce policy-based violation learnings and analyzed early experimentation from the Make Good Action (MGA) program. Our research focused on:
This research helped shape a targeted and scalable micro-learning solution aligned with advertiser intent and learning preferences.
What did we learn?
Good-intent advertisers show remorse through action
Advertisers with good intent often delete policy-violating ads themselves and proactively reach out to support, signaling their willingness to comply and learn.
Current learning materials lack clarity and accessibility
Existing resources like TikTok Academy and Help Center policy pages are too long, text-heavy, and not actionable—leaving advertisers uncertain about how to create compliant ads.
No clear benefit to completing corrective actions
Advertisers who make changes or engage with learning content receive no tangible reward—such as strike reversal or improved account health—leading to reduced motivation to follow through.
Whats the learning journey in the module?
In collaboration with the Learnings team, we developed a scalable learning structure that could be applied across all policies and easily support language localization.
Used dscout to run unmoderated usability tests, gathering insights on user perception, clarity, and effectiveness of the microlearning experience and policy knowledge assessments
Users found long quizzes overwhelming. Limiting knowledge checks to 3–5 targeted questions improves completion and retention without adding friction.
The "Allowed" and "Not Allowed" sections used background colors to visually distinguish do’s and don’ts. However, the chosen colors lacked sufficient contrast, creating accessibility issues for users with visual impairments.
Participants responded positively to the bite-sized, focused learning modules. The short format made it easier to absorb policy content and encouraged completion without fatigue.
Working closely with subject matter experts in training and education helped us shift to a more concise, action-oriented learning module. Collaborating with Legal and Policy teams ensured the content accurately reflected enforcement rules while remaining user-friendly and easy to understand.
The previous approach focused on hosting training on a separate platform, pulling users out of the TikTok Ads Manager and offering limited value. By questioning this model and proposing an integrated solution within the platform, we delivered a more seamless, scalable, and trackable experience—one that the team readily embraced due to its improved user impact and lower maintenance overhead.