According to a study conducted by Marketing Weekly, TikTok is becoming a key domain for consumers to discover new products - 79% of respondents agreed that they have discovered new brands through TikTok. Okay, so they’ve discovered new brands on the platform but are they converting? The short answer is yes. 56% of respondents state that they have purchased from a brand after discovering them on the platform.

TikTok has been disrupting the e-commerce space for some time now, constantly updating its service to accommodate new, frictionless, innovative ways for consumers to discover and shop. They have recently announced 3 new ad features for brands and advertisers to take advantage of to get their products discovered by more people.

The three new shoppable TikTok ad formats include:

• Video shopping ads
• Catalogue listing ads
• Live shopping ads

Let's run through the announcement.

Video shopping ads

What are video shopping ads and how do they work? According to TikTok, the new video shopping ads are designed with smarter targeting in order to put your ads in front of people with higher purchase intent. This ad solution combines the already existing features of collection ads and dynamic showcase ads to create a streamlined and optimised shopping experience, dynamically selecting top-performing product combinations. Video shopping ads automatically create a landing page for your products which will aid in better understanding a customer's purchase intent. If they want to purchase will be sent directly to a retailer's site in-app.

According to TikTok, they intend to migrate away from dynamic showcase ads as well as collection ads at the end of 2022 in favour of video shopping ads.

Video shopping ads are currently in the testing phase and will only be available to select advertisers.

Catalogue ads

What are catalogue listing ads and how do they work? Catalogue listing ads allow brands to showcase a vast collection of products without the need for any other assets such as video. This is a first for TikTok as they work to develop new shopping experiences on the platform.

This may come as a pleasant surprise to some brands and advertisers as it means that they can get their products out in front of audiences easily without needing any video creative.

These ads can be targeted at users with relevant interests and higher purchase intent and can be discovered through the use of branded content on the ForYou page.

This ad format is currently in testing in the US and with advertisers targeting in the US.

LIVE shopping ads

Finally, we move on to the LIVE shopping ad format. This allows brands to promote a live shopping event and direct people straight from the ForYou page to your stream. They are designed to boost traffic to your event as well as put your products in front of people who are more likely to buy.

This format is currently available in the UK, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and with allow listed accounts in the US.

In order to access the above features, advertisers are required to achieve level one status. You can do this via integrations as well as linking product catalogues to your account. If you need any help with that, TikTok has a really hand PDF which guides you through it.

‍

Take your TikTok Marketing to the next level with our 7 TikTok Ad Tips specifically for e-commerce businesses!

If you want us to help you scale with TikTok or get you access to these new features, apply to work with us