A look inside TikTok’s new automated Smart Performance Campaigns

TikTok announced a new campaign type for brands to further enhance their performance in the app. The new solution is called Smart Performance Campaigns.

Sounds familiar. If the new campaign type sounds familiar, it might be because it’s almost identical to Google’s smart and Performance Max campaign types which require advertisers to put their full trust into the platform’s AI and machine learning systems.

What TikTok says. From their blog post announcement, TikTok says:

“Smart Performance Campaign is our first end to end automation solution that leverages machine learning to optimize for best performance and marketing goals. In order to reach the right people and maximize results, Smart Performance Campaign is designed to run performance campaigns at scale, while reducing the number of manual steps to drive results.

It’s completely hands off, with minimum input needed from advertisers to get started. Through leveraging machine learning, getting started with Smart Performance Campaign is as easy as it sounds. All you need is a marketing objective, budget, country, and creative assets to get started.”

Who should use Smart Performance Campaigns. TikTok says that the new Smart Performance Campaigns are perfect for advertisers who are new to advertising on the platform, Enterprise or SMB advertisers who don’t have the resources to have hands-on campaign management, performance-oriented advertisers who are looking to optimize, and gaming advertisers launching new titles.

Early testing. In their announcement, TikTok said Bolt ran a 14-day A/B test campaign with Smart Performance Campaign that lowered CPA by 27% and generated 40% more purchase actions. To continue the success, Bolt has rolled out Smart Performance Campaign across additional markets including the UK, Spain, Sweden, Romania, and Portugal.

Launch date. Smart Performance Campaign will be globally available for Android App Promotion campaigns at the end of the month, with more to come later this year for iOS and Website Campaigns.

Why we care. Just like with Google, automated smart campaign types will work better for some brands than others. Advertisers should be cautious and ensure their performance tracking is accurate and pixels installed properly before use. It is worth testing with a small portion of your budget, but it’s not available to all advertisers just yet so keep an eye on your account.

About The Author

Nicole Farley is an editor for Search Engine Land covering all things PPC. In addition to being a Marine Corps veteran, she has an extensive background in digital marketing, an MBA and a penchant for true crime, podcasts, travel, and snacks.