6 weeks into our first test, I wanted to share with my network how we're thinking about TikTok Search as a channel, including the initial results we're seeing.
Questions I hope to answer in this article:
- How does TikTok Search perform vs other paid channels?
- How do certain metrics like Cost Per Click or CPM compare to other search & social channels?
- What is the relative scale of TikTok Search compared to other paid channels?
Context:
When TikTok announced that they had created a standalone search product in September '24, I was immediately excited. The growing popularity of TikTok as a search platform meant that many advertisers were hoping to tap into this inventory. Even though search inventory was previously accessible, you couldn't control the keywords or build segmented Search campaigns.
Anecdotally, I've been using TikTok a lot when I travel to search for things to do in my destination city. Meanwhile, estimates say that 2 of 5 people use TikTok as a Search Engine so it is a big (and growing) deal.
Why? The idea that you can combine the power of keyword targeting with your best-performing video creative seems like a winning formula.
I teamed up with Fred Gordon, our social lead, to run a test for one of our mutual clients. Using our shared knowledge of best-performing social creative and non-brand keywords, we built out our first TikTok Search campaign 6 weeks ago.
*Caveat*
We've run this test for one client in a niche vertical. This is by no means conclusive review of TikTok Search. We are running other tests across our portfolio of clients.
I would encourage everyone to test TikTok Search IF you have the 3 things I mention below.
Background on the client:
Our client sells countertop blenders. It's a fantastic product that has great reviews, a strong reputation, and incredible creative output. This client has experienced strong growth this year across all paid channels, including Amazon, Meta, Google, and TikTok.
This gave us confidence in our ability to launch a TikTok Search Campaign.
3 things I would want before running TikTok Search Ads:
- An existing set of creative that is performing on other social channels
- An existing set of keywords that is performing on other search channels
- MTA or another trusted source of truth for measurement, outside of TikTok attribution
Structure of the campaign:
We took the best-performing video ads across social and added them to the mix. Our logic was that we might as well start with the top performing creative to put our best foot forward. If that didn't work, others probably wouldn't either.
Same strategy for keywords. We started with the obvious, targeting our best performing non-branded keywords across Amazon & Google. We later added recipe keywords to give the campaign more scale.
Bidding: we used a target cost per result of $95.
Creative: UGC testimonials, product reviews, mission statements, and recipe videos.
Keywords: [blender], [smoothie blender], [best blender] + recipe keywords
Performance (Results):
We’ve been running for 6 weeks and we’ve had 9 purchases at a 2.52x ROAS. Attribution in-platform is supported by an MTA (TripleWhale) that shows similar performance data. That is not only above our target ROAS goal but also very competitive with other search & social channels i.e. Amazon, Google & Meta.
Now, you might be thinking: "9 purchases, who cares?" and I agree. But I still think there is cause for optimism.
TikTok Search has produced the best cost per email subscriber out of every other paid channel since launch. That was a surprising result for me.
What about cost per click? How does that compare between platforms?
When you look at other metrics like Cost Per Click:
TikTok: $1.52
Amazon: $2.25
Google: $3.29
Cost Per Clicks across our Paid Channels
It makes sense that TikTok would have lower CPCs. Setting aside the bid strategy differences between the platforms, it should be obvious that since TikTok Search is a newer standalone product, there would be lower competition overall.
What about CPMs? How does that compare between platforms?
- Facebook: $20
- TikTok: $15
- YouTube: $12
CPMs are relatively competitive as well. While on YouTube we've seen sub $10 CPMs at times, TikTok is still cheaper than Meta.
What we learned:
While this is still very early, we're learning that TikTok does get nearly the amount of search volume that other channels receive to make us excited. Not yet, at least... and we just tested this for a niche CPG category.
Fred Gordon explained how TikTok Search is inherently different in nature:
"The experience is different for people searching vs. scrolling their feed. They may be looking for recipes or real user reviews. With the success of UGC over the more produced type content, we're testing into actual user review videos and eye catching recipe videos - how to make Erewhon unicorn smoothie"
I'm curious about how other verticals like Beauty or Apparel perform? Are there more category-specific search terms for those verticals compared to a product like a blender?
In tandem with results, we learned that despite our normal customer profile being 35-54, TikTok Search conversions largely came from the 25-34 age group. No surprise that TikTok skews younger, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
On the creative side, we learned that our product testimonial videos with voiceover.
What we're testing next:
Fred Gordon added that some thoughts on our next test:
"We need to explore more vertical adjacent or even broader keywords that you normally wouldn't want to show up for in traditional search campaigns. Things like kitchen remodel, space saving gadgets etc."
In addition to what Fred said, I think testing BF/CM promotional creative along with gifting keywords to help us assess how well TikTok Search scales and performs during promotional periods.
Last note:
I can't wait to hear how the media buying community is responding to TikTok Search. While early adoption is important to take advantage of cheaper, valuable inventory, in general I think TikTok Search is here to stay. So you might as well get on it!
Hopefully this was as helpful for you to read as it was for me to write.
Happy Testing ✌️
