Driving commerce everywhere: Maximize impact on and off TikTok

What started as #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, a community-driven movement, has fundamentally reshaped the way people discover, browse, and buy, creating huge opportunities for retailers and brands. Today, TikTok is driving commerce everywhere.

• Online: 62% of TikTok users say they follow links on TikTok to discover products on a brand's websites,¹ and TikTok is driving 1.8x more online conversions than other media channels.²

• Offline: 2 in 5 users who discovered a product on TikTok went to a physical location that sells it,³ and TikTok is driving 2.6x more offline conversions than other media channels.²

• On TikTok: The number of people shopping on TikTok Shop in the US has nearly tripled every month since its launch,⁴ and last year's Black Friday generated $100 million in sales for TikTok Shop merchants.

Just in time for this year’s Shoptalk, we're unveiling exciting updates to our commerce solutions. These updates will make it easier than ever for brands to harness TikTok’s shopping power and drive commerce everywhere.

Latest updates to our commerce solutions

Smart+ Catalog Ads: Now with Website & App capabilities

In October, we announced Smart+, an AI-powered performance solution that automates campaign management to drive faster returns with minimal effort.

Early indicators show that Smart+ campaigns drive stronger incrementality in return on ad spend (ROAS) and purchases compared to other standard lower-funnel campaigns, with 5.1x higher incremental ROAS and 2.2x higher relative purchase lift.⁵

Advertisers today are driving even more conversions to their websites and apps with Smart+ Catalog Ads, our automated campaign solution that leverages the power of Catalog Ads together with Smart+. Simply upload a catalog, integrate your data connections, and toggle on Smart+ in our revamped TikTok Ads Manager sales objective to reach the right shoppers with the right products—leveraging the power of automation paired with your catalog.

With Smart+ Catalog Ads, your catalog fuels your creative while Smart+ delivers at scale, using shoppable formats like videos and images to drive conversions while showcasing key features such as price and promotions.

Check out how global skincare innovation brand Clinique leveraged a campaign level-split test during last year’s peak retail period with Smart+ Catalog Ads—delivering 17% more efficient cost-per purchase, 1.23x higher ROAS, and a 27% increase in CTR (compared to Smart+ Web Campaigns).

And to truly drive commerce everywhere, we're investing in capabilities to drive outcomes across your website and app, all in one single campaign.

We’re also bringing new features to the Smart+ solution overall. In addition to lower-funnel performance objectives like website sales and app installs, Smart+ is now available for the Traffic objective, allowing brands to power their customer acquisition with AI-powered automation.

Ready to see the results yourself? Use Split Testing to compare Smart+ results with those of your manual campaigns.

GMV Max: Affiliate creator content and LIVE formats

In October, we introduced GMV Max, a first-to-market advertising solution built to automate TikTok Shop advertising campaigns while optimizing organic delivery and paid traffic within a single paid campaign. Now, we're introducing two new features that make it easier for you to leverage your TikTok Shop affiliate creator content and emerging formats like LIVE.

With Affiliate Creative for Ads, TikTok Shop merchants can automatically use all of their affiliate content in their GMV Max campaigns. And building on the momentum of LIVE in the US, we're bringing LIVE formats to GMV Max. Now, you can maximize GMV for your livestreams in addition to your products and TikTok Shop.

Search on TikTok: Shop Tab and Search Ads Campaign

TikTok isn't just about passive discovery; it's also a powerful search engine. In fact, 1 in 4 users search for something within the first 30 seconds of opening the app.³

By leveraging TikTok's search Shop tab functionality, users can discover more authentic, relevant results that help them learn and give them the confidence to buy. Whether they want to see a product brought to life through a tutorial or read the comments section for community feedback on a brand, TikTok has earned its stripes as a destination for users to search with intention.

We're also investing in our search solution, Search Ads campaign, to help advertisers be top of mind at the point of discovery, consideration, and conversion. TikTok Shop merchants can also meet users across the Shop tab with GMV Max and our paid Shop Ads suite.

TikTok Symphony: Product-to-video and AI solutions

We've made it easier for brands to scale their catalog-based creative with generative AI solutions powered by TikTok Symphony.

• Transform your brand or product details into TikTok-ready content in minutes with our new product-to-video tool. Simply input the information and assets for your brand or product or import them directly from a URL.

• Bring content to life with Symphony Digital Avatars. These AI-driven avatars of real people add a personalized touch, enhancing and globalizing branded content through various gestures, expressions, nationalities, ages, and languages.

• Break down language barriers with this innovative translation tool that seamlessly translates your video's original voiceover into multiple languages, helping to broaden its reach and impact.

• Generate custom TikTok-style scripts with Symphony Script Generator to simplify your ideation process and bring your content to life. You can use a guided scriptwriting experience or enter a custom prompt to generate video scripts tailored to your needs.

• Symphony Creative Studio also offers Your Daily Video Generations, an innovative tool that produces new, auto-generated video options daily. The videos are customized for your brand and products based on your past activity in Symphony Creative Studio—the more you use the tool, the smarter it gets.

Drive commerce everywhere with TikTok

So how does this work in practice?

Capture immediate purchases with in-app commerce

Harness the power of discovery and commerce with TikTok Shop, an integrated e-commerce channel available directly within TikTok. With TikTok Shop, you gain exclusive access to native features like shoppable videos, LIVE Shopping, and a shop page on your brand’s profile. Additionally, through its affiliate program, TikTok Shop partners with a wide range of creators to connect brands with authentic voices. To promote your TikTok Shop, a significant opportunity exists when a brand pairs native features with paid solutions like Shop Ads and GMV Max to maximize sales across your entire content ecosystem.

Maximize e-commerce with always-on tactics

Drive consumers to retail sites and e-commerce platforms by creating a full-funnel experience that flows seamlessly between in-app engagement and external purchases. Leverage TikTok’s upper and mid-funnel ads to optimize the cross-platform journey with lower-funnel solutions to maximize e-commerce conversions. To accelerate e-commerce sales, lean into TikTok’s AI-powered solutions like Smart+ to automate sales across e-commerce destinations like your website and app.

Drive commerce everywhere with a hybrid media and commerce strategy

Create a hybrid media and commerce strategy with TikTok that facilitates a seamless journey across physical and online environments, driving consumers from discovery on TikTok to direct purchases in retail stores or e-commerce platforms. In this hybrid strategy, TikTok ads drive traffic to retail and e-commerce touchpoints while also using TikTok Shop as an instant, in-platform e-commerce experience. To maximize performance, tap into AI-powered channel outcomes with GMV Max and Smart+.

So what are you waiting for? Click here to start driving commerce everywhere with TikTok today.

Sources

1. TikTok Marketing Science Global Creators Drive Commerce Study 2022 conducted by Material

2. TikTok Marketing Science x TransUnion 2024 Meta-Analysis (Dates Q4 2024 - Q1 2024) Verticals included Big Box, Ecommerce, and Fashion. Other media channels include: Online Display Online Video, Online Audio, Paid Search, Other Social Media Platforms.

3. TikTok Marketing Science Global eCommerce Study (Global Results) 2022, conducted by Material

4. TikTok internal data

5. TikTok NA CLS Power Slides meta-analysis September 2023-December 2024; n>250