TikTok New Ad Products: Interactive Ads with Taps, Swipes & Likes
TikTok Enhances Advertising Platform with New Interactive Formats
TikTok unveiled a new strategy this week to encourage greater investment from advertisers within its video platform. This plan centers on expanding e-commerce capabilities, reinforcing “brand safety” assurances, and introducing a suite of innovative and interactive ad formats.
New Ad Formats for Increased Engagement
These additions, according to the company, are designed to mirror the inherently interactive and creative nature of the TikTok user experience. Formats include clickable stickers, “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style ads, and “super likes,” among others.
The company showcased these new features during an online conference geared towards the advertising and marketing sectors on Tuesday.
E-commerce Integration and Live Shopping
TikTok also announced expanded e-commerce partnerships, extending beyond its initial collaboration with Shopify. This aims to create a seamless shopping experience within the app.
Users will be able to transition from product discovery directly to checkout without exiting the platform. Furthermore, TikTok is providing specialized ad products tailored for e-commerce brands and, in select regions, offering to manage shipping and fulfillment processes.
Differentiated Advertising Solutions
TikTok’s advertising business is receiving a boost with the introduction of several new products intended to distinguish it from competing social media platforms.
A key innovation is “instant page,” a rapidly loading landing page claimed to be 11 times faster than a typical mobile website. This allows users clicking on an ad to immediately access detailed brand information, additional videos, and related content—all within the TikTok environment. This feature presents competition to Instagram’s Link Sticker.
Interactive Ad Experiences
The “pop out showcase” feature is designed to foster a more engaging interaction with advertisements.
Advertisers can utilize a library of stickers and images to overlay their TikTok videos, highlighting products or key narrative elements. For example, a cosmetics brand could add a makeup brush sticker that, when tapped, directs viewers to a page for purchasing the brush.
Leveraging Familiar Gestures
Additional new formats encourage direct interaction with ads through taps.
“Super Like” enhances the “like” function, displaying unique icons upon tapping the heart button. Users are then invited to explore a landing page with further details about the featured product or service.
Gesture-based ads offer rewards or information triggered by swiping or tapping. These ads capitalize on the intuitive smartphone navigation skills of TikTok’s predominantly younger audience. The immediate gratification of icons or rewards reinforces engagement.
Immersive Storytelling with “Storytime”
TikTok’s “storytime tool” invites users to participate in brand storytelling. This “Choose Your Own Adventure” format allows users to tap to influence the narrative and personalize the outcome of a video ad.
Enhanced Tools and Brand Safety
Jaclyn Fitzpatrick, TikTok Product Strategist, Global Business Marketing, emphasized that these solutions aim to empower advertisers to create engaging ads that align with the platform’s creative and enjoyable atmosphere.
TikTok also highlighted improvements to its TikTok Ad Manager, editing suite, and analytics tools for campaign management. A new “Reach & Frequency” buying option allows advertisers to maximize reach or increase ad impression frequency.
Addressing concerns about brand safety, TikTok launched a proprietary inventory filter powered by machine learning. This classifies video risk based on content, text, and audio, enabling advertisers to control ad placement. The filter aligns with GARM guidelines and incorporates partnerships with IAS, Zefr, and OpenSlate.
TikTok’s Growing Advertising Market
The message to advertisers is clear: TikTok offers a substantial audience—now 1 billion monthly active users—and a robust advertising toolkit.
While marketers haven’t yet allocated as much of their budgets to TikTok compared to platforms like Facebook and Instagram, ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is gaining ground. Annual revenue across its apps more than doubled in 2020, reaching $34.3 billion.
In the U.S., TikTok’s revenue was projected to reach $500 million in 2020, up from $200-$300 million the previous year.
As TikTok’s ad business expands, ad prices are also increasing. Home page takeover ads have reportedly reached over $2 million on peak days. The number of advertisers running campaigns in the U.S. increased by 500% from the start of 2020 to the end.
Despite this growth, TikTok’s U.S. ad revenue remains smaller than that of other major social brands. It is currently categorized within an “Other” group alongside smaller networks like Tumblr in eMarketer’s revenue reports.