Dive Brief: 

• TikTok unveiled a host of features designed to increase the app’s appeal to advertisers at its fifth annual TikTok World product summit earlier this week, according to a company blog post.
• New features include expanded branding solutions, creative and artificial intelligence (AI) powered tools, automation features and search capabilities. A new analytics platform called TikTok Market Scope allows advertisers to better understand and activate audiences across every stage of the funnel. 
• The platform also announced an AI-powered Search Center platform meant to simplify buying search ads on TikTok through keyword suggestion and creative tools and measurement capabilities. The latest updates come as the ByteDance-owned app’s fate in the U.S. remains uncertain.

Dive Insight:

TikTok has been a leading player in social media marketing for the past five years. Even with a cloud hanging over its head, industry forecasts predict TikTok’s ad revenue will rise 24.5% year over year to $32.4 billion in 2025, assuming the service doesn’t go dark. Accordingly, TikTok is showcasing all that it can do to help marketers grow their businesses.

“We have been listening to our advertising partners and developed innovative products for each stage of the marketing funnel,” said David Kaufman, global head of product operations and solutions at TikTok, in a statement. 

At the top of the new product list is TikTok Market Scope, a new analytics platform that provides advertisers with a view across the entire consideration funnel, enabling them to understand precisely what motivates their audiences. The platform is also introducing a new mid-funnel product, Brand Consideration ads, that evaluates audiences based on more than a dozen mid-platform behaviors including commenting, searching, sharing and following to move consumers from awareness to consideration.

TikTok is also adding new features to its TikTok One creative platform. TikTok One Insight Spotlight helps marketers understand the content their audiences are watching and then utilizes first-party data to identify emerging trends, enabling brands to build more effective engagement strategies. A new Content Suite feature enables marketers to find and access user-generated videos that mention their brand or products, and convert them into advertising content. The new feature surfaces 40 times more relevant and impactful results than simply searching in the app, according to TikTok’s internal data.

TikTok also unveiled a new AI-powered Search Center platform within its TikTok Ads Manager to simplify the process of buying ads on TikTok. Search Center includes keyword suggestion tools, measuring capabilities and creative tools. Search has become big business for TikTok, with a quarter of users searching for something within the first 30 seconds of opening the app and overall search growth increasing by 40% over last year, per TikTok.

Also on the AI front, TikTok said it would scale three of its AI-powered tools, TikTok Symphony, Smart+ and GMV Max, into its platform to enhance the accountability, scale and impact of performance campaigns as well as greater brand safety tools for ad placement. The company will also launch new Media Mix Modeling badges for marketing partners to drive investment and impact across media channels, and expand the TopView premium ad placement, which places an ad at the top of the app when it is opened.