TikTok announced new advertising solutions that aim to help brands achieve better business results.
The big picture. TikTok is positioning itself as more than just an entertainment platform, emphasizing its role in driving consumer actions and purchases.
What’s new. These are the five new solutions TikTok introduced:
- Smart+: An automated performance advertising tool that optimizes targeting, bidding, and creative selection.
- Includes campaigns for web traffic, catalog ads, app installs, and lead generation.
- Early adopters report significant improvements in cost per acquisition and return on ad spend.
- GMV Max: Automates TikTok Shop campaign creation to help merchants grow their gross merchandise value.
- Simplifies ad operations and optimizes traffic across organic content, paid ads, and affiliate posts.
- Initial testing showed an average 30% GMV uplift for merchants (according to internal TikTok data).
- Out of Phone: Retail: An in-store digital advertising solution that showcases TikTok content in retail locations.
- Conversion Lift Studies (CLS): Measures TikTok’s business impact beyond last-click attribution.
- Available to businesses of all sizes.
- Studies show an average conversion lift of at least 25% compared to users not exposed to TikTok ads (according to internal TikTok data).
- Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs): Integrations with third-party providers to offer advanced privacy measures for advertisers using first-party data.
Why we care. TikTok’s new tools could help you optimize campaigns, improve conversion rates and increase return on ad spend and revenue, all the while leveraging TikTok’s massive and engaged user base.
With features like Smart+ for automated targeting and creative optimization, GMV Max for boosting ecommerce sales, and advanced measurement through Conversion Lift Studies, TikTok is positioning itself as a must-use platform for driving business results, potentially outperforming traditional digital advertising channels.
By the numbers. According to TikTok internal data:
- 61% of users have purchased something after seeing content on TikTok.
- 79% of purchases driven by TikTok are not attributed to the platform through traditional measurement.
- TikTok conversions are undervalued by 73% when only measuring simple click-and-buy actions.
What’s next. These new tools signal TikTok’s push to become a more robust advertising platform, potentially challenging established players in the digital ad space.
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About the author
Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.
In 2008, Anu’s career started with
delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side.
Outside editing Search Engine Land article she is the founder of PPC networking event – PPC Live and host of weekly podcast PPCChat Roundup.
She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Amsterdam), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna) and more.
