TikTok held its fourth summit in Toronto with a flurry of announcements about AI-powered automated performance tools and enhanced features for advertisers.
The social network is set to launch Branded Search Hub, a feature that will be tested in Canada in July and enable brands to create “sponsored destinations” within the platform’s search function. According to data shared by TikTok at the event, the platform is seeing billions of searches daily, representing a 40% increase from last year. Additionally, one in four TikTok users initiates a search within 30 seconds of opening the app.
TikTok is also enhancing its search capabilities with a new feature called TikTok One Content Suite, which allows marketers to find and access user-generated videos that mention their brand or products, and repurpose them as ads. TikTok said the tool is a searchable library of user-generated content that has been pre-vetted and ranked by ad potential.
As advertisers are increasingly relying on media mix modelling (MMM) to analyze their media performance and optimize budget allocation, the company said it has partnered with “trusted vendors” to offer an MMM program. For the Canada region, TikTok has selected Nielsen, Kochava and MetricWorks as its inaugural partners.
To support the program, TikTok is introducing an API integration that automates access to the platform’s data. Also, earned data from Branded Mission (an ad solution for crowdsourcing and repurposing top-performing creator content) can be integrated into MMM, alongside traditional metrics such as ad spend, impressions, clicks and conversions.
On the AI side, TikTok Symphony AI capabilities are being integrated into Smart+ to amplify the scale and impact of content in performance campaigns, and Smart+ is being combined with Catalog Ads, enabling advertisers to integrate their catalogs and data connections for personalized, ongoing recommendations that reach new and existing shoppers.
Finally, TikTok is expanding TopView – its ad format that places a brand ad at the first view upon opening the app – with additional controls on delivery and new interactive add-ons. And it’s updating its TikTok One creative platform with a new tool called TikTok One Insight Spotlight. The tool uses first-party insights to help brands spot emerging trends that their target audiences are interacting with, understand how they interact with the trends, and measure how their brand is positioned against the competition.
