TikTok search ads are here

It’s official – TikTok is bringing ads to its search results.

In TikTok Ads Manager, you’ll find the “Search Ads Toggle.” This newly added feature “leverages advertisers’ existing In-Feed Ad creative to serve ads alongside organic video search results from relevant user queries,” TikTok said.

TikTok’s search ads are not a standalone ads product. Rather, ads are an extension of a TikTok video ad buy.

Why we care. TikTok has 100 million U.S. monthly active users, which means there is a big opportunity for your brand or business to be found. Google has acknowledged TikTok search is a legitimate threat to its search business. Despite ongoing threats of a ban, TikTok doubled its share of the digital ad market in 2022.

How it works. TikTok search ads will have a “Sponsored” label. Ads can appear in different positions on the search results page – TikTok said this depends on:

• Relevancy.
• User intent (as understood from their search query).
• Broader learnings from other user behavior.

TikTok explained:

• “The typical search journey starts with a user clicking the search button at the top of the For You feed. From there, they type in a search query, which then yields a series of search results. The ads appear among these search results. Once a user clicks on a search ad, the ad mirrors the in-feed TikTok experience, with users able to continue scrolling through the search results in the order they appear on the page.”

Safety features. Advertisers will have some control over ad placement on TikTok as they have the option to add negative keywords to prevent their campaigns running near posts that don’t align with their brand’s message, TechCrunch reported

On by default. When you set up In-Feed Ads, the Search Ads Toggle will be on by default. To opt-out, switch the toggle off. TikTok said if you opt out during campaign creation, you can activate the toggle mid-flight, but noted that doing so “will not reactivate a campaign’s learning phase.”

By the numbers. “70% of ad groups with the Search Ads Toggle ‘on’ see more efficient performance when compared to not, as a result of more efficient conversions coming from search ads,” according to TikTok’s internal data.

We’ve been waiting for this. TikTok has been testing search ads since last year. Earlier this year, we learned TikTok was ready to challenge Google and Microsoft and TikTok told us:

“We are in the very early stages of testing search ads in select regions. For clarification – at this stage, advertisers do not have the ability to bid on specific keywords for advertising purposes. This part of our testing is managed by TikTok based on keywords that would be most relevant and impactful to the advertiser and their specific ad.”

Read TikTok’s announcement. Introducing the TikTok Search Ads Toggle.