Gismart is the award-winning developer behind wellness and music creation apps used by millions worldwide. On the wellness side, two titles stand out for their growth strategy: Dancebit, a dance fitness hit with proven scale, and Luvly, a face yoga app that’s still working toward predictable scale.

For these apps to capture attention, TikTok is the natural platform choice. It rewards content that feels authentic—like it could have been made by any user. Gismart recognizes how TikTok can fuel scale for Dancebit and give Luvly the exposure it needs to grow. 

We spoke with Nik Pavlov, Gismart’s Senior User Acquisition Manager. His job is to keep campaigns efficient while scaling apps at different stages of growth—work that’s pushed him to rethink how to approach automation. For Nik, Bïrch (formerly Revealbot) is the system to help put those ideas into practice.

Key takeaways

• TikTok’s hourly rules are too slow. Reacting to performance as it happens creates real scaling opportunities.
• Shortening checks to 15 minutes lets Gismart scale strong ad sets and pause weak ones in time.
• Holding back 70% of budget early keeps spend flexible, freeing it up for better hours later in the day.
• Daily resets stop inflated budgets from overspending at high CPAs in the morning.
• Automation has given Nik space to focus on testing and helped him grow TikTok spend from $30k to $2M.

The challenge of scaling TikTok ads

Scaling on TikTok means working with its speed. Audiences cycle through content quickly, and native automation often reacts too late to keep performance in line. By default, campaigns are evaluated on hourly or half-hourly windows, which Nik finds too slow for TikTok’s volatile auctions.

“TikTok gives us the last 30 minutes or last one hour window,” he explains. “It’s not suitable at all.”

Budget pacing is another inefficiency. When campaigns reset for a new day, TikTok often spends too much in the first few hours—usually at higher CPAs—before performance has a chance to stabilize. By the time rules catch up, too much of the budget is already gone.

For Dancebit, those inefficiencies are manageable because the numbers work. For Luvly, margins are tighter. CPAs are higher compared to LTV, so every dollar above target cuts into growth.

Advertisers also point to the same limitations: daily budget resets and creative fatigue that forces a steady flow of new assets. For newer apps like Luvly, where every dollar matters, those constraints make scaling harder.

Building a custom scaling strategy with Bïrch

Nik has responded to TikTok’s limitations by building custom rules inside Bïrch. These rules react in real time, giving him more control over pacing—so he doesn’t have to work around rigid hourly checks and unreliable resets.

Real-time rule execution with 15-minute windows

First, Nik aimed to speed up how often campaigns are evaluated. TikTok’s native rules only check performance every 30 to 60 minutes—a frequency Nik finds too slow for a platform where auction conditions can change in minutes. By the time those rules trigger, spend might already be going toward high CPAs.

Bïrch has let him shorten that window to 15 minutes, meaning he can react quickly and make changes based on CPA in near real time. Even without feeding lifetime value data into TikTok, it’s enough to make smarter decisions about when to scale and when to hold back.

Custom rule based on ad set budget spent

Checking live performance instead of daily averages improved performance, but pacing was still an issue. Nik saw that too much of the daily budget was burning early, often at higher CPAs, leaving little room to scale later in the day when performance improved.

To fix this, Nik built a custom rule in Bïrch around a simple metric: the percentage of budget an ad set has already spent. The rule holds back about 70% of budget early, preserving room to scale when auctions look stronger.

The logic is straightforward. If only 30% of budget is spent and CPAs are on target, scaling kicks in. If not, spend is held back until conditions improve. That flexibility prevents wasted spend in weak hours and allows Nik to push harder when performance peaks.

In some cases, it’s driven 10x day-over-day growth—impossible under TikTok’s hourly rules.

Daily budget reset automation

Nik noticed another challenge: what happens when campaigns roll into the next day.

If an ad set ends with an inflated budget, TikTok carries that number forward. The system spends aggressively in the early hours while it rebuilds signal, usually at higher CPAs.

To avoid waste, Nik set up a 1:05 a.m. daily reset in Bïrch. Campaigns start lean, and budgets scale only when live performance justifies it. Unlike TikTok’s native reset—which often fails due to timing issues and lag—Bïrch lets the reset run consistently.

Automation as a competitive edge

Gismart’s TikTok spend grew from about $30,000 to more than $2 million over four months. “The coolest part was that I didn’t spend much time doing things manually—it was all automation,” Nik tells us. “I only uploaded creatives, since that can’t be automated on TikTok.”

The value of automation for Nik is as much about focus as it is about scale. Instead of spending hours on manual adjustments, he can put his energy into designing rules, testing new ideas, and planning ahead.

Final takeaways from Nik

For Nik, scaling TikTok comes down to one principle: focusing on what’s happening now. Daily averages hide opportunity, but reacting to live performance enables growth.

Most advertisers don’t use real-time optimization to its full potential. Nik has built his strategy around it, always considering what his tools can actually support. Bïrch has let him turn ideas like 15-minute windows, budget pacing, and daily resets into a working system. And the impact has been significant.

Gismart’s tried and tested approach is clear: test aggressively, adapt quickly, and let automation do the heavy lifting. As TikTok’s ad ecosystem evolves, the teams on this path will be the ones to thrive and stay ahead.

Want to see how Bïrch can power your own TikTok scaling strategy? Start your free trial today.