Search is officially the hottest adtech category of the year. Who knew, right?
With that in mind, today, TikTok announced the launch of Search Ads Campaigns, expanding its keyword-based search ad capabilities. The feature builds on TikTok’s Search Ads Toggle introduced last October, a feature that extends in-feed advertising to TikTok’s SERP.
While this won’t change how search ads appear to users, TikTok says that advertisers will now have access to more features, like sophisticated targeting, greater control over ad placement in TikTok SERP, and the ability to align campaigns with either traffic (scale/awareness) or conversion (performance) goals.
TikTok Search Ads Campaign is available in TikTok Ads Manager.
Why This Matters:
TikTok is gaining popularity as a search platform, even challenging Google, especially among young users. Recent data shows 74% of U.S. college students use TikTok for searches, with about half preferring it over Google for product discovery and local business searches. Among Gen Z users (18-24), 62% use TikTok for search, ranking it just behind Instagram and ahead of Google.
TiKTok is responding to that growth by continuing to evolve its search capabilities and search advertising technology.
Experts React:
LUMA Partners’ Conor McKenna tweeted that TikTok’s Search Ads Campaign launch “could be big if TikTok executes effectively.” He added: “Remember that before we were talking about the scale of Amazon’s ad business, we first talked about 55% of shoppers starting their searches on Amazon.”
SOCi’s Damian Rollison, Director of Market Insights, has been covering the TikTok search opportunity for some time. He says that the platform will continue to be big for search advertisers, “especially with the rise of in-app shopping through TikTok Shop, launched in the U.S. last year,” which will make it easier to link search intent to an online purchase.
Our Take:
A few weeks ago, we did a mini-dive on TikTok SERP, and raised concerns about TikTok’s AI-generated search feature, “Search Highlights,” which may favor specific brands over others in product-related queries. For example, in searches for the best coffee machines, TikTok recommended Breville over Starbucks. This, combined with TikTok’s growing search ads business, could prompt some questions about how TikTok manages brand visibility and whether brands can truly control their presence in these AI-powered search results, though its new capabilities seem promising.
