TikTok Introduces Videos to Retail Stores and Launches Smart+ Performance AI Tools for Marketers

TikTok has introduced a new AI-powered performance marketing suite that can create campaigns “from A to Z, automated by TikTok and powered by AI”.

The suite, named Smart+, is now available around the world. It seeks to give AI-powered solutions for marketers looking to optimize their campaigns quickly.

Smart+ allows marketers to enter their assets, budget, and targeting goals while TikTok automates the rest of the campaign setup, including using TikTok’s creative AI suite, Symphony.

Adolfo Fernández, TikTok’s global head of product strategy and operations, ecommerce, stated that Smart+ “reduces weeks of guesswork and testing,” allowing marketers to “spend their time on what matters most to them”.

Fernández did, however, emphasize that marketers will maintain a high level of control over what and how they use Smart+ tools. He described the suite as “modular”. He stated that marketers can select which aspects of creative generation and campaign planning they wish to automate while maintaining manual control over the rest.

The news is part of a larger trend of social media companies adopting AI tools to help marketers with their performance goals, making it as simple as possible for planners to spend budget and activate campaigns with effective results.

Pinterest introduced Performance+, their AI toolkit, last week. In addition, as part of its Advantage+ program this year, Meta has created a substantial collection of AI tools.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that invest heavily in social media platforms and usually have marketing teams with fewer resources than larger brands stand to profit the most from these performance marketing tools.

A new OOH and digital campaign named “TikTok Means Business,” which went live on Monday, aims to highlight how small businesses in the United Kingdom have used the platform to expand their consumer base.

As per TikTok, the site presently supports 1.5 million UK enterprises, with 31% having founders under the age of 30.

Measurement Tools That Do Not ‘Undervalue’ TikTok

The social video giant announced Smart+ during Advertising Week New York 2024.

One of the announcements was for an automated system created exclusively for TikTok Shop merchants. According to Fernández, this technique can reduce the time required for TikTok Shop merchants to set up a campaign to advertise their products by half.

In addition, TikTok announced a new flagship measurement product that it claims accurately assesses TikTok’s media effectiveness.

Ann Nguyen, TikTok’s head of product marketing, measurement, identification, and privacy, referred to Conversion Lift Studies (CLS) as the “gold standard” of measuring solutions.

CLS seeks to determine the relationship between TikTok ad exposure and consumer behavior to measure purchases that “would not have occurred without a TikTok ad”.

According to Nguyen, research has demonstrated that TikTok is a “highly incremental platform” and that other measurement efforts, such as last-click attribution, have “undervalued” TikTok’s contribution to driving return on investment.

TikTok has also announced new privacy-enhancing technology integrations that will allow companies to use first-party data “with advanced privacy measures,” like as data clean rooms, for CLS measurement.

TikTok has worked with third parties such as AWS Clean Rooms and LiveRamp Clean Rooms to provide new privacy-focused solutions.

Out of Phone Expands into Retail Shops

Meanwhile, TikTok is moving into brick-and-mortar stores through its Out of Phone initiative.

TikTok first announced at last year’s Advertising Week New York that it would expand its content to billboards, cinemas, and other video-enabled OOH screens, with global head of distribution, news screens, Dan Page, stating that Out of Phone would take TikTok “beyond the palm of our hands and into everyday life”.

TikTok said at this year’s event that the project will now expand into retail locations.

Out of Phone: Retail will be TikTok’s in-store digital advertising solution, allowing retailers and brands to display TikTok videos in physical stores. The solution is internationally available.