TikTok Rolls Out Automated Ad Targeting Options for the Holidays

TikTok has announced a range of new ad automation options, as it looks to maximize advertiser interest heading into the holiday push.

First off, TikTok has announced a new, fully automated ad solution called “Smart+,” which will take care of the whole ad creation, placement, and bidding process for you.

As explained by TikTok:

“Smart+ automates the performance advertising process across targeting, bidding, and creative to deliver the right ad to the right person to offer the best performance. Advertisers simply input their assets, budget, and targeting goals and Smart+ automatically creates or selects the best creative asset.”

Yeah, I’m not sure why the plus symbol became the identifier for automated ad options, but that seems to be fast becoming the industry standard, with Meta’s “Advantage+”, Pinterest’s “Performance+”, and now this.

Which makes sense, I guess, in terms of ensuring there’s broader understanding of what these options are. But it’s interesting how such conventions develop.

As you can see in the above overview, TikTok’s Smart+ campaigns will be available in four formats, providing expanded automation options for TikTok partners.

And in testing, TikTok says that they have been driving results:

“Advertisers using Smart+ Web Campaigns to optimize for value have seen a 52% improvement in their return on ad spend.”

Again, more and more platforms are leaning into these more automated ad processes, and given that their AI and targeting systems are built on user response data, it makes sense that they should be able to help you reach more willing and active consumers.

Could be worth testing. You can learn more about Smart+ here.

TikTok’s also rolling out “GMV Max”, which automates TikTok Shop campaign creation, with the aim of increasing your TikTok Shop gross merchandise value.

As outlined above, GMV Max aims to optimize traffic across organic content, paid ads, and affiliate posts to help merchants improve their total return on investment.

“GMV Max considerably simplifies ad operations, cutting campaign set up time in half, and allows sellers to reach their audience across all the shoppable placements on TikTok including the For You Feed, Shop Tab, and Search with a single campaign.”

Essentially, the process makes it easier to maximize your sales opportunities in the app through optimal exposure, which is hard to target for if you don’t know each element. GMV Max will align with TikTok shopper behaviors to enhance this element, and ideally drive better response.

GMV Max will be available to advertisers in the U.S. and SEA to begin with.

TikTok’s also got some new Privacy-Enhancing Technology (PETs) integrations, which will help advertisers utilize more consumer insights, without uploading their audience data to TikTok itself, while it’s also rolling out Conversion Lift Studies, which will help advertisers measure the overall impact of their TikTok campaigns, and the actual conversions driven by their TikTok ads.

Some pretty big additions, which could have a big impact on your TikTok marketing approach. And while many marketers remain wary of giving over too much control to AI and automated targeting systems, the results continue to show that such processes can drive better results.

Worth considering.