Get Ready To See Ads In TikTok Search Results

In the mere five years since TikTok first became available outside its home country of China, it has swiftly become one of the biggest social media sensations in the industry's history. Users, young and old (mostly young), flock to TikTok regularly to see the latest trends, viral videos, and interesting products. According to a study conducted by the app's internal marketing team, around 58% of TikTok users discover new product brands that interest them through their feed, which is about 1.5 times the adoption rate on similar platforms. That statistic has led TikTok to a new marketing endeavor.

Today, on the official TikTok business blog, the company announced the addition of a new feature to the existing TikTok Ads Manager, the Search Ads Toggle. This new feature, when enabled, will serve users ads alongside organic results when conducting in-app searches.

"With the Search Ads Toggle, brands can extend the reach of their campaigns to high-intent users who are seeking information relevant to their business, driving incremental engagement and revenue potential," TikTok said in its announcement.

The Search Ads Toggle is managed via an advertiser's TikTok Ads Manager dashboard. The feature has been automatically added to all active advertiser accounts and activated. While the feature is active, sponsored video content will be automatically generated from the advertiser's existing in-feed content and presented in the usual TikTok feed format, allowing users to scroll through it. These ad videos will only appear in relevant queries – for instance, if a user searches for "sweaters," then a company that makes sweaters will have sponsored posts appear in the results.

TikTok has claimed that, according to further internal research, around 70% of advertising partners who have the Search Ads Toggle enabled have seen an increase in ad performance efficiency.

"The Search Ads Toggle provides a unique opportunity to offer rich, relevant information and experiences to our users," TikTok explains. "Users may search on TikTok to find new content, resurface older content, or look for the latest hot trending items or ideas. The Search Ads Toggle provides advertisers a new way to assist and enhance this user journey."

Advertisers that do not wish to display Search Ads can turn off the feature while creating a campaign in the TikTok Ads Manager backend. If the feature is disabled, it can also be re-enabled while the ad campaign is already running.