Some Brands Turned Off TikTok Smart+ After Inconsistent Performance

Some brands have found that TikTok Smart+, launched in October, has delivered inconsistent performance. Others have grumbled about a lack of clear revenue data, beyond the basic campaign metrics like impressions, conversions, and return on ad spend, making it tough to validate its effectiveness. “We're not at a point where we're seeing large shifts of funds from a different channel,” said Jack Johnston, senior social innovation director, Tinuiti. “A lot of brands realized that [Smart+] isn't the silver bullet that 100% of [media] investment needs to go into.” Since platforms started offering AI-powered media buying tools, like Google Performance Max or Meta Advantage+, brands have been broadly happy to bargain total visibility over where their ads show up for improved efficiencies. But the variety of complaints about these set-it-and-forget-it tools—like a lack of transparency, inventory quality, or delivering ads to existing audiences—are starting to mount. With more platforms launching these tools, buyers are advancing with more caution. But Smart+, which automates the entire ad-buying process from creative development to targeting and optimization, has still led to efficiency gains for some brands, especially in delivering higher ROAS and reaching new audiences. Most clients at digital marketing agency Wpromote are testing Smart+ to target demographics they hadn't reached before. Some brands, particularly DTC companies, saw nearly a 10% lift in ROAS compared to traditional campaigns on the platform, according to David Dweck, svp, paid media, Wpromote. “We're seeing similar or higher ROAS for retail clients and reach broader audiences we weren’t able to target,” said Dweck. TikTok did not respond with an official statement in time for publication but did share that Ray-Ban used TikTok’s Smart+ Catalog Ads—a format where brands store product information and automatically generate ads about those products—to cut cost per acquisition by 50% and boost conversions by 47%, lifting overall ROAS by 42%. Good Protein also saw 28% higher ROAS and a 21% increase in completed payments with Smart+ ads compared to regular ads. Declining performance At Tinuiti, more than 10 clients are testing Smart+ for campaigns to convert audiences to visit a website. This ad spend has come from existing Tiktok-allocated budgets. Still, for most brands, Google captures the largest share of ad dollars, followed by Meta. Although brands saw between a 20% and 25% improvement in ROAS within the first few weeks compared to standard conversion campaigns, some brands turned off the AI tool after a short period due to poor performance. Other brands also saw the initial performance with Smart+ plateau before subsequently declining. “It's not normal for a product that's working one minute to flip and not work the next,” said Johnson. Hungry for revenue data At marketing agency VML, nearly 30% of clients are testing Smart+, including retail clients planning Catalog Ads later this year. However, those who have tried Smart+ for web campaigns—ads that aim to drive traffic to a website—have seen limited success in terms of cost efficiency In one instance, Miki DeHaven, VML's associate media director, found that the cost of reaching 1,000 people is higher using Smart+ than with traditional audience segmentation. This could mean the Smart+ audience is of higher quality, “but we don't have that information sussed out because we don't have enough revenue data,” said DeHaven. “The push for digital overall is we're trying to get away from segmentation and lean into the AI to have that machine tell us where the next best opportunity is,” she said. Reaching existing audiences In some ways, Smart+ offers more control—like exclusion lists and custom bidding—that aren’t always available in competitor AI tools, according to Johnston. However, advertisers cannot set separate budgets for new and existing customers. As a result, Smart+ ads often target people who have previously engaged with an ad, visited the website, or made a purchase, according to DeHaven, a common complaint of other AI platform tools. Meta lets advertisers set budget limits for retargeting high-intent audiences so brands can target new ones. “Unless you're specifically telling the [TikTok] system ‘do not reach somebody’ it's hitting the gamut,” said DeHaven. “It’s not as intuitive as [Meta], and TikTok just hasn’t dived deep enough into AI capabilities to make it as competitive yet."

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Some Brands Turned Off TikTok Smart+ After Inconsistent Performance

Smart+ isn't the ‘silver bullet’ advertisers hoped for

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