22 May 2024 | Jack Benjamin

TikTok unveils ad solutions to streamline and scale creative

TikTok is releasing a number of new advertising solutions, including a creative AI suite and a centralised creativity portal for marketers.

The portal, dubbed TikTok One, will grant brands access to TikTok trends, insights and creative resources, including the TikTok Creator Marketplace, in one location. It is being tested with a select group of advertisers now and the social video giant will bring it to market later this year.

Meanwhile, TikTok Symphony will provide marketers with new AI tools to aid in scaling content development. Tools in Symphony include AI-generated script-writing and asset optimisation.

The new products were announced on Wednesday at TikTok’s fourth annual product summit, TikTok World, and follow a recent announcement by social media rival Meta of similar AI-backed ad solutions.

Sofia Hernandez, TikTok’s global head of business marketing, said the latest developments show the platform is focused on being “a business partner to the industry, for businesses of all sizes”.

“People come here to be entertained and they leave having bought something,” she added. “You can expect us to build for the future of advertising and to do so at an accelerated pace.”

‘We will prevail’, insists TikTok exec as ITV, C4 and BBC join Pulse Premiere

TikTok also unveiled a number of new AI-driven enhancements for performance and branding efforts. These include “predictive automation”, a performance solution that enables advertisers to input assets, budget and campaign objectives and allow the predictive AI to help select the best creative asset for the right audience at the right time.

Adolfo Fernández, global director, product strategy and operations, described how predictive automation will improve the ease with which ads are bought, given the “only thing” advertisers will need to do is provide inputs, with the rest being taken care of by AI.

In a similar vein, another new performance optimisation has been made for TikTok Shop, which will now allow for automated bidding, budgeting, ad management and creative for Shop products.

Mixing brand and performance

On TikTok’s ethos around measurement, Fernández said the company understands “performance is only as strong as the measurement plan”.

TikTok is thus launching a measurement tool, dubbed Unified Lift, to combine brand lift and conversion lift studies for marketers looking to gain a more comprehensive view of their TikTok campaigns’ impact across the funnel.

Global product marketing director Steve O’Reilly noted that the TikTok audience “spends a movie’s length time on the platform every day” and emphasised the importance of “leaned-in attention” they spend with the platform’s content.

“Because our audience has complete control over what they watch, undivided attention is valuable,” he continued.

TikTok’s For You feed does not provide users control over what they view in the feed as it is algorithmically based.

In terms of new branded solutions, TikTok is releasing two new developments: “gesture and pop-up elements” for TopView ads (ads that are shown to users upon opening the app) and Duet with Branded Mission, which enables brands to increase the potential number of creators involved in Branded Mission ads.

The company is also adding a new feature to its Pulse Programme that will allow advertisers to create custom lists from existing Pulse creators and publishers, giving brands an extra level of control over their ad placements in that premium inventory.

Last week, The Media Leader reported that TikTok had added UK broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Studios to its Pulse Premiere programme, allowing advertisers to buy ads that play directly after their professional content on the app.