- TikTok announced a new functionality for marketers allowing for ads to look as a part of a user’s search results, per an organization announcement. The Search Ad Toggle will draw from a brand’s existing ad creative to display the ads alongside organic search results.
- When engaged, the new search ads might be displayed as sponsored content and can appear amongst search results based on relevancy, user intent and broader learnings from other user behavior.
- If a user clicks on a search ad, it’ll mirror TikTok’s in-feed experience and permit them to proceed scrolling through search results as per usual. Early users of the new ad feature have already reported success, in accordance with the announcement.
TikTok has continued to broaden its appeal to advertisers, with its new bets on search ads no different. The latest move could possibly be a significant point of opportunity for brands running ads on the ByteDance platform, with 58% of the app’s users reporting that they discover new brands and products on the platform,1.5 times higher than the invention rates on other platforms, in accordance with a Material study cited by TikTok.
“With the Search Ads Toggle, brands can extend the reach of their campaigns to high-intent users who’re searching for information relevant to their business, driving incremental engagement and revenue potential,” TikTok’s company announcement reads.
The Search Ads Toggle might be robotically set to “on” when brands arrange an in-feed ads campaign, though advertisers can decide to opt out of the feature. They can even turn the toggle on mid-campaign flight, though doing so won’t reactivate the campaign’s learning phase.
According to TikTok’s internal research, 70% of ad groups utilizing the Search Ads Toggle are seeing more efficient performance and conversions from search than when the feature isn’t engaged.
In an early test of the Search Ads Toggle for its Even Better Clinical Serum Foundation, Clinique UK recorded 74,000 incremental search impressions, which translated to a 441% increase in conversion rate and a 51% click-through rate increase. Post-campaign research found a 7.4% increase in ad recall, offering the marketer stronger insights regarding what goal consumers are looking for, in accordance with a case study.
Similarly, beauty brand DIBS used the Search Ads Toggle for its 2022 Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions to feature an organic video of the brand’s co-founder demonstrating its product. Using the feature, DIBS saw an 8% higher conversion volume and a six-times higher conversion rate in comparison with their non-search ads. The brand also saw a 22% decrease in cost-per-acquisition in comparison with its non-search ads.
The deliverability of ads through search could make TikTok a stronger competitor against more mature players like Google and Meta, though the latter has recently demonstrated a comeback. In 2021, TikTok surpassed Google because the most-visited website. Google has also admitted that 40% of younger consumers use social media, namely TikTok and Instagram, to search for services.
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