TikTok is one of the world’s biggest social media platforms. As its reach expands, it’s also pushing to become a major advertising platform to rival the likes of Google and Meta. And with the launch of TikTok Smart+ campaigns, it’s taking a big leap into the automated advertising space.

With 51% of online Gen Z users preferring TikTok to Google, and 74% using it for search, TikTok is already encroaching on Google’s territory with TikTok Search ads. Now, TikTok Smart+ will be a direct competitor to Google’s Performance Max. And the use cases for using TikTok over Google are becoming ever clearer, as Lunio founder Neil Andrew highlighted on LinkedIn:

So how exactly do TikTok Smart+ campaigns work, and should you be using them for your marketing? Over the next 5-or-so minutes, we'll be taking a look at the new campaign type, and discussing how it’s becoming a serious threat to Google Ads.

What are TikTok Smart+ campaigns?

TikTok’s Smart+ campaigns are AI-driven automated PPC campaigns. Like Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+, Smart+ uses machine learning to understand your performance marketing objectives, then automatically create and serve ads to relevant users. According to TikTok:

“With Smart+ Campaigns, you can create a single campaign powered by AI for all of your performance objectives, and TikTok will help you to automate the process — across campaign and audience targeting, optimization, and creative — to attempt to deliver the right ad to the right person as determined by our system to help you to achieve your performance goals.”

Take a look at the Smart+ campaign overview from TikTok themselves for a quick rundown.

There are four types of Smart+ campaigns currently available, as shown in the table below:

In addition to Smart+, TikTok also announced the launch of four further new advertising features, signaling their intent to become a serious contender in the PPC space: GMV Max, Out of Phone, Conversion Lift Study, and Privacy-Enhancing Technologies.

The benefits of TikTok Smart+ campaigns

As with other automated campaign types, with TikTok Smart+ you trade control and customizability for ease of use. But there are plenty of reasons to try TikTok Smart+ campaigns. Here are some of the benefits:

• Improved operational efficiency — Outsourcing performance marketing to TikTok’s AI means you can (theoretically) take a more hands-off approach to advertising.
• Reduce ad fatigue — Keep your advertising fresh and your audience engaged by allowing TikTok to determine how and when to display your ads.
• Use AI and machine learning to reduce costs — When used effectively, TikTok’s predictive AI can help improve performance while reducing ad spend.
• Increased advertising accessibility — If you’re new to PPC, this simplified platform makes it easy to set up and run campaigns.

That said, not everyone will see these benefits (at least, not at first). Automated campaigns need a significant time investment to get results. You’ll also need to keep a very close eye on your ad spend and results to make sure you’re actually getting a good return.

Why Smart+ is a gamble for marketers

It’s hard to overstate the hype around AI for marketers right now. So any AI-driven tech that’s designed to increase return on ad spend is sure to draw attention. 

But Smart+ is a gamble. Other automated campaign types have received criticism for their lack of transparency, limited control over ad spend, and inflated costs. Meta has been accused of charging advertisers more than ten times their normal cost-per-impression via Advantage+, as well as ignoring cost caps placed by advertisers. A small Twitter poll from March 2024 found that almost half of respondents reported their Meta performance as “abysmal”:

Performance Max has come in for its fair share of criticism too, with some marketers wondering whether Google is artificially inflating its own success, since PMax results don’t always seem to map to real-world conversions. And it’s left to marketers to find out why, since PMax is notoriously opaque when it comes to reporting and analytics.

It’s normal for any new technology to experience teething issues. But with Performance Max being launched in 2021 and Advantage+ in 2022, Google and Meta have had plenty of time to iron out the creases. Instead, it seems that marketers have had to find ways to make these campaigns work for them.

TikTok’s Smart+ is relatively new, so it’s not yet clear if advertisers will experience similar issues. Some advertisers — particularly those unused to PPC automation — may find their budget is drained quickly, as Smart+ uses its own AI to allocate spend rather than relying on your controls. And if Smart+ offers similarly limited reporting, it can be difficult to uncover where the problem lies.

In addition, TikTok has uncertain legal status in the US at the moment. Some US lawmakers have supported a TikTok ban over fears US citizens’ data is at risk of being shared with the Chinese government. ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is currently fighting this in court. Many countries have already banned the installation of TikTok on governmental devices for similar reasons.

If TikTok is soon to be banned, there may be little point in learning and rolling ads out on a whole new platform. So many marketers will be cautious about heavily investing in TikTok ads at the moment, despite the potential gains (especially for those with a Gen Z target audience). 

What marketers are saying 

“Remember: AI is a tool, not a replacement for strategy.”
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Heather Brousell, Lead Generation Ad Expertise

While lots of marketers are excited about the opportunity afforded by Smart+ campaigns, others are wary. After all, we’ve seen plenty of controversy around PMax and Advantage+ — and tons of marketers have pointed out the similarities between these platforms and Smart+:

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Increased competition can force companies to improve their products. Some marketers (such as Haris above) believe TikTok has already built better features than its competitors. So if you’re looking for new PPC avenues to explore and have the capacity to create compelling video content, TikTok Smart+ may be worth a try.

That said, it’s not a good idea to set-and-forget your Smart+ campaigns (despite how they’re pitched). Some marketers have highlighted the important of starting small and watching your Smart+ campaigns closely:

Comparing Smart+ with manual campaign success is a good way to monitor your results. You can then decide whether to proceed with Smart+ or stick with manual campaigns.

The longer you use Smart+, the more the AI will learn about your ideal customer and your best-converting creative, theoretically improving your performance. As Bram Van der Hallen explains below, Smart+ can give you more scope for better results, depending on your current TikTok ad setup:

Other marketers have noted the sheer volume of consumer data TikTok has, which will be invaluable for accurate audience targeting as well as training their AI models. But others have also highlighted the possible privacy issues this flags up:

In addition, if TikTok is banned in countries like the US, its data will be seriously compromised. So you’ll need to weigh up whether it’s worth investing in Smart+ ads while court proceedings are ongoing. 

How to use TikTok’s Smart+ campaigns

TikTok’s Smart+ campaigns haven’t yet proven their worth, so the results you’ll get are pretty unpredictable at this stage. But there’s a lot of potential, especially if you’re experienced with video marketing and automated campaigns. If TikTok’s AI can accurately target their user base (and it’s a big ‘if’ at this stage), Smart+ could save you time and money on PPC advertising.

It’s really easy to set up a Smart+ campaign. First, you’ll need to select a conversion-based campaign objective (see the table above). Then click the Smart+ campaign toggle to enable it:

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Follow the walkthrough based on your campaign objective. You’ll be prompted to choose options for:

• Optimization and bidding — Choose an optimization goal and bidding strategy.
• Audience targeting — Choose gender (if applicable), location, and language. 
• Creative — Select your existing videos and/or use TikTok’s AI-generated video content.

As with all automated campaign types, customization options are fairly limited. You’ll need to let TikTok do the rest. Its AI selects the most appropriate creative and serves it to the most relevant users using automated placements and audience targeting.

Once your campaigns are set up, you’ll need to give them some time to learn how to get the results you want. TikTok recommends giving a campaign at least seven days before making changes.

TikTok Smart+ campaign best practices

Here are the best practices to follow to get the most out of your TikTok Smart+ ads:

• Set up TikTok Pixel and Events API to share your marketing data with TikTok so you have accurate insights and conversion tracking.
• Add at least six creative assets to your campaign (Smart+ will take the reins of asset management from there).
• While split testing opportunities are fairly limited with automated campaigns, you can A/B test your videos, bidding strategy, and specific audience options to help optimize performance.
• If you’re using Target CPA or Minimum ROAS as your optimization goal, TikTok recommends setting a daily campaign budget at least 10x your historical cost-per-action (ideally, 30x).
• Use Dayparting under Advanced Settings if you have specific operating hours; this will ensure your ads are automatically run at the times you’re open and available.
• If you’re running a Smart+ Lead Gen campaign, consider excluding specific custom or lookalike audiences to target new buyers specifically.
• Broad targeting can help you reach a wider audience, but it might compromise lead quality. Narrow audience targeting by setting a minimum age, excluding custom audiences, and using Audience Suggestions (though this isn’t available to all advertisers).
• Make sure your landing page is compelling and sure to convert, with consistent messaging and clear calls-to-action.

FAQs

Find out more about TikTok’s Smart Plus platform in these frequently asked questions.

What is the Smart+ (Cost Cap/Minimum ROAS) incentive offer?

For a limited time, TikTok is awarding advertisers ad credits for specific campaigns. Advertisers are rewarded for making no more than one optimization change to their bid and targeting options. This is designed to deter advertisers from making lots of changes to their campaigns within the initial seven-day learning period.

Find out more about incentive eligibility.

How does TikTok optimize my creative assets?

TikTok’s AI can switch the music, hooks, and scripts of your videos in order to find the asset variations that are most likely to convert. It will also spend more on your highest-performing ads and pause poorly performing ads automatically.

What’s the difference between TikTok Smart Performance and Smart+ campaigns?

Smart+ campaigns work in a similar way to PMax and Advantage+. After selecting some limited campaign setup options, you hand the campaign management reins to TikTok and allow its AI and algorithms to optimize your ads for your objectives.

Smart campaigns — also known as Smart Performance campaigns — use AI to streamline the ad creation process, rather than ad optimization. They require less manual input than a regular campaign, which may save you time. TikTok claims Smart Performance campaigns outperform standard campaigns up to 80% of the time.

Protect your TikTok Smart+ ads from bots and invalid traffic

TikTok Smart+ ads offer a new way to advertise to Gen Z and other TikTok users. While it’s pitched as a simple, streamlined approach to PPC, there are plenty of potential pitfalls. If you take your eye off the ball, it’s easy to drain your ad spend without much to show for it. So it’s best to start with a low budget and gradually increase it as you become more confident in the results

Just like PMax and Advantage+ campaigns, Smart+ ads can easily be targeted by bots and other invalid traffic. Invalid traffic can drain your ad budget with worthless clicks and skew your analytics, making it even harder to understand your Smart+ results.

Lunio protects TikTok ads — plus all other paid media campaigns — from invalid traffic, keeping your data clean and your ad budget free to spend on real users. To see how much invalid traffic is impacting your ads, get a free, no-obligation 14-day Lunio trial and see how we can help you optimize your ad spend.