TikTok recently launched Smart+, a new user-friendly web campaign, which uses AI to simplify the advertising process on the platform.
Advertisers can simply input their target audience, budget, and creative materials, and Smart+ uses the power AI to optimise ad delivery and ensure that the right message reaches the right people at the right time. Not only does it lower the barrier of entry for businesses, it also makes it easier to advertise on TikTok.
TikTok’s AI-driven ad campaign follows Meta’s Advantage+, an AI-powered advertising solution, as well as Google’s latest AI-driven updates to Performance Max. Apple is close behind exploring AI-powered ad buying tools (to be launched soon).
What Is TikTok’s Smart+ Tool?
TikTok’s new Smart+ campaign uses the company’s advanced AI technology—called TikTok Symphony—to automatically manage ad campaigns.
Advertisers just need to provide their ads, budget, and target audience. Smart+ then uses AI to pick the best ads, find the right people to show them to, and make sure the ads are seen by people who are most likely to buy something.
Talking about the new tool, David Kaufman, global head of monetisation product solutions and operations, said in a statement: “TikTok is building for the future. We have been listening, learning, and innovating with our advertiser partners to continuously develop solutions that deliver performance.”
He added, “Our goal with these new solutions is to empower brands to engage their communities on TikTok and achieve business results.”
Smart+ offers four main features to help businesses achieve different goals on TikTok:
- Web Campaigns: Brings more people to your website and encourages them to make purchases.
- Catalogue Ads: Automatically suggests products to people based on what they like and what they’ve been looking at.
- App Campaigns: Promotes your app to get more people to download and use it.
- Lead Generation Campaigns: Turns people who are interested in your products or services into paying customers.
In simpler terms, Smart+ can help you sell more products, get more people to download your app, and attract new customers. Here’s a sneak peek of the tool.
Should You Use Smart+ On TikTok?
Did you know 65% of US marketers are currently using or experimenting with generative AI? According to a survey conducted by Adobe in August 2024, the US falls behind other regions such as India, where 92% of marketers are using generative AI, followed by Australia and Germany at 79% and 78%, respectively.
TikTok said its internal data showed advertisers using Smart+ Web Campaigns to optimise for value and has seen improvements of up to 52% in return on ad spend.
RayBan saw a 42% improvement in ROAS and 47% increase in conversion rates.
“Adopting a fully automated solution that optimises targeting, creative, and campaign performance has led to a 50% reduction in cost per acquisition, a 47% increase in conversion rates, and a 42% improvement in ROAS [for RayBan],” Roberta Atzori, performance marketing manager at EssilorLuxottica, said in a statement.
More advertisers are now using AI-powered solutions to streamline and automate their marketing processes. Not only do such tools reduce the time and effort for performance marketing but also expand the potential pool of ad spend for small businesses.
TikTok’s GMV Max Solutions For Ad Campaigns
TikTok Shop also announced the new GMV Max solution that simplifies the process of creating and managing advertising campaigns. Merchants can use GMV Max to automatically target audiences, set bids, and select the best creative materials.
By optimising traffic across organic content, paid ads, and affiliate posts, GMV Max helps businesses get a better return on their advertising investment. TikTok claims that GMV Max can cut campaign setup time in half and provides sellers with the opportunity to promote their products in various places on the platform, including the For You page, search results, and the Shop tab.
According to TikTok, brands that have tested GMV Max have seen an average increase in gross merchandise value of 30%.
TikTok’s Conversion Lift Studies
TikTok is also offering Conversion Lift Studies to help businesses of all sizes measure the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. These studies go beyond traditional tracking methods to analyse the connection between ad exposure and consumer behaviour. By doing so, they can determine how many sales would not have occurred if the customer hadn’t seen a TikTok ad.
TikTok’s own research shows that these methods can undervalue TikTok conversions by up to 73%. Advertisers who use TikTok are often seeing conversion rates that are at least 25% higher than those of people who haven't seen TikTok ads.
To further enhance privacy and data security, TikTok has partnered with various third-party and open-source technology providers.
These partnerships include integrations with Anonym Trusted Execution Environments, Amazon Web Services Clean Rooms, LiveRamp Clean Rooms powered by Habu, and Secure Multi-Party Computation.
What Does TikTok’s Smart+ Mean For Marketers?
While advertisers are eager to try TikTok’s Smart+, there are concerns arising from similar offerings by competitors. Additionally, TikTok’s legal status in the United States casts a shadow over the launch of Smart+.
Meta’s Advantage+, an AI-powered advertising tool, faced similar criticism in April. Some advertisers reported that it inflated costs by up to ten times. Despite its promise of reduced effort and costs, many advertisers found that Advantage+ quickly depleted their daily budgets and delivered little ROI.
The shortcomings of Advantage+ raise questions about whether AI products are being released prematurely. Even though TikTok claims that its testing has shown that Smart+ can drive significant conversions, advertisers may want to approach it with caution.
Moreover, TikTok’s future in the United States is uncertain, which could impact the success of Smart+. TikTok and ByteDance are currently involved in legal proceedings against the Biden administration’s proposed ban of the app. The upcoming presidential election further complicates the situation as neither administration is in favour of using TikTok in the future.
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