TikTok has unveiled a suite of new advertising solutions designed to help brands achieve tangible business results. The announcement was made at this year’s Advertising Week, where TikTok showcased its latest innovations in performance advertising. David Kaufman, Global Head of Monetization Product Solutions and Operations at TikTok, said, “TikTok is building for the future. We have been listening, learning, and innovating with our advertiser partners to develop solutions that continuously deliver performance.”
One of the key additions is the Performance Automation Solution, which automates the advertising process across targeting, bidding, and creative. Advertisers input their assets, budget, and targeting goals, and the system automatically selects the best creative asset, chooses the right audience, and places the ad in front of the right customer at the right time. Early results have shown a 52% improvement in return on ad spend for advertisers using Smart+ Web Campaigns.
TikTok also launched GMV Max, a tool that optimizes TikTok Shop campaign creation, targeting, bidding, and creative selection to help merchants grow their gross merchandise value. This solution optimizes traffic across organic content, paid ads, and affiliate posts, significantly simplifying ad operations and cutting campaign setup time in half. Initial testing showed a 30% uplift in gross merchandise value for merchants using GMV Max.
Another new offering is the “Out of Phone: Retail” solution, which allows retailers and brands to showcase TikTok content in retail locations, bridging the gap between online engagement and in-store purchasing decisions.
TikTok’s new advertising solutions unveiled
To measure the impact of TikTok ads, the platform introduced Conversion Lift Studies.
These studies have shown an average conversion lift of at least 25% compared to users not exposed to the ads. TikTok also announced new integrations to help advertisers unlock insights using their first-party data with advanced privacy measures. Blake Chandlee, TikTok’s president of global business solutions, believes these new tools will help close the gap with competitors like Meta.
“Meta’s Advantage+ has been the industry benchmark. Historically, our branding products have outperformed anyone in the market, and I think our performance products, especially including Smart+, can be on parity,” said Chandlee. TikTok’s ad business still trails behind Meta, though.
According to eMarketer’s March 2024 forecast, TikTok‘s worldwide ad revenue is expected to reach $22.32 billion by the end of the year, increasing to $28.42 billion by the end of 2025. In comparison, Meta’s worldwide ad revenue is projected to be $154.16 billion by the end of the year, rising to $173.92 billion by 2025. As TikTok repositions itself as a serious player in advertising, the pressure is on to prove that it can deliver where it matters most: the bottom line.
With these new solutions, TikTok aims to deliver real business outcomes and enhance the platform’s value to advertisers of all sizes.
