16th April 2021
POV: TikTok Commerce Ad Offerings
Background:
TikTok is launching a new range of commerce focused ad offerings that integrate transactions into its existing user experience.
Details and Implications:
The new ad formats are similar to TikTok’s commerce tools available on Douyin, the Chinese version of the app. The new tools will allow brands to show their products, retarget users and highlight promotions in a series of different ad formats. These new formats are currently in testing but are expected to roll out in the first half of 2021 and will include:
Collection Ads: These will enable brands to bring together their product catalogue listings and their branded videos to lead people to product landing pages. This will enable users to find relevant products from video clips, a similar model to YouTube’s product listings on videos.
Dynamic Product Ads: Dynamic Product Ads will be used to automatically retarget users with relevant products based on their activities on the advertisers’ apps and websites and other online behaviour.
Promo Tiles: Promo Tiles will allow advertisers to add customisable sales and promotional alerts to their in-feed ads.
Showcase Tiles: Showcase tiles will let creators promote products in their videos with a link to relevant product thumbnails at the bottom part of the screen.
Previously TikTok has tested shoppable livestreaming, an increasingly popular form of experiential shopping, and announced a partnership with Shopfiy that allows Shopify merchants to run TikTok campaigns through the Shopify dashboard.
TikTok says it now has 732 million monthly active users globally after its popularity grew significantly during the pandemic. With increased user momentum comes more advertiser interest and as digital commerce has accelerated over the last year due to national lockdowns, the battle to integrate transaction capabilities into social platforms is fierce.
WPP and TikTok recently announced an innovative global partnership to enable WPP agencies and clients to tap into the culture-shaping impact and reach of TikTok’s platform. Part of this partnership gives WPP early access to new ad products.
Summary:
As TikTok’s audience grows so do the opportunities for brands and advertisers. The latest commerce updates follow a similar path to other large social media platforms and will help transform the platform’s offerings for brands from media to commerce and media integrated. It is likely just one of the first steps on this journey as the collapse of the sales funnel that has been driven by global digital platforms integrates media and sales further.
Further Reading