For several years now, consumers’ search behavior has been trending away from generic search engines and toward platforms like Amazon and social media sites. TikTok has noted this trend on its platform, where it says 57% of users utilize its search functionality and 23% search for something within 30 seconds of opening the TikTok app.
Now TikTok has introduced a new way for brands to capitalize on this trend, with a new Search Ads offering that will allow brands to place their ads in search results based on relevant keywords. The new advertising solution builds on TikTok’s previously released Search Ads Toggle offering, but it gives brands more control and advanced targeting capabilities. Search Ads campaigns support both traffic and web conversion objectives, allowing advertisers to optimize their campaigns for both scale and performance.
“TikTok is a destination for discovery and a place where users come to search,” said David Kaufman, Global Head of Monetization Products and Solutions at TikTok in a statement. “We are excited to offer advertisers a new way to tap into TikTok’s multifaceted search behaviors, where highly motivated users discover content both intentionally and serendipitously. This is just the beginning of our journey with ads for search and we are excited to learn, grow and build with our community to help advertisers unlock incremental value.”
The typical search journey on TikTok starts with a user clicking the Search button at the top of the “For You” page. From there, they type in a search query, which then yields a series of search results. These ads will now appear among those search results within the feed experience.
Early adopters of the advertising solution are reporting strong results: “Being able to service our ads where user intent is high not only doubled our conversion rate but also allowed us to increase our ROAS (return on ad spend) by 11% throughout the duration of the campaign,” shared Maddie Gaasenbeek, Senior Marketing Manager of jewelry brand Mejuri in a statement.