Is TikTok coming for Google with its new search ad offerings?

Social media platform TikTok has been building out its search products over the last few years and now, it is taking it one step further by allowing advertisers to directly target its search results page.

"The search ads campaign is a TikTok ad campaign that uses keywords to help you reach people searching for specific terms related to your product or service," said TikTok.

The search ads campaign essentially enables you to have control over ads targeted uniquely and exclusively to the TikTok search results page.

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"There's a dedicated campaign creation flow for creating search campaigns in TikTok Ads Manager. You can manage budgets, target specific keywords, and upload creative assets for each campaign," said TikTok, adding that you don't need active ads in other campaigns to use the search ads campaign.

This is a huge step up for TikTok which has been commanding search for a while now. In fact, more and more internet users are turning to TikTok to make searches instead of traditional platforms such as Google. The finding, echoed by Southeast Asian consumer research company, Milieu Insight in a 2023 study, examined the popularity of TikTok as a search engine when it comes to the discovery of products, services and places to visit. 

According to the study, TikTok is not just a platform where people consume funny and entertaining videos. A considerable proportion of respondents especially in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are increasingly relying on TikTok as a source of information to search for a topic or discover products, services and places to visit. In Vietnam, TikTok outcompetes Instagram in this regard.

For Singaporeans and Malaysians, places to eat/drink are the top areas they use TikTok for when it comes to discovery. For Indonesia, travel recommendations is the top search category. In Thailand, clothes and apparel is the top category of interest. While in Vietnam, fashion trends take the top spot when it comes to topics of discovery. In the Philippines, users look for movie/TV show recommendations and clothes/apparel the most when it comes to discovering information on the platform.

So, is TikTok coming for Google with its new search ad campaign? Industry experts MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke to such as Don Anderson, CEO of Kaddadle Consultancy seem to think so. 

"Any improvements that TikTok makes that provides marketers more sophisticated targeting most certainly will add to the platform’s competitiveness in search and increase the growing headwinds to Google’s dominance in the space," he said. 

Anderson added that the threat to Google is becoming more palpable by the day even though the platform continues to introduce new solutions to ward off competition.

"Google’s DNA has never been built first-mover advantage, and that product strategy has actually served them well to date. Marketers should continue to earmark budgets across the most credible audience reach options, and not put their eggs in one basket. Test, iterate and innovate should be the rally cry," he said. 

He added that TikTok has Gen Zs and Alphas to a large extent in terms of audience reach and engagement. To maintain their "threat" status they need to continue to aggressively convince marketers they hold cohort mindshare, and maintain transparency on data points that support that, and continue to introduce new ad products that consistently unlock value for brands with verifiable third-party proof that back them up.

"TikTok should also continue to lean into convincing people that they are industry leaders in conversion and lead generation in short form video streaming, leveraging their creator community to help amplify and augment their on-platform ad solutions," said Anderson. 

"It should be a continued collaborative effort between TikTok and its creators to drive monetisation for all parties involved," he added. 

The rise of visual-based search

Adding to his point, Ali Shabaz, ex-CCO at M&C Saatchi Singapore, explained that generally, visual-based search is more popular with younger audiences over text-based search. He said:

It also signals a move from discovery-led search to intent-led search, where Google dominates. Now it looks like TikTok will combine the two, which makes it quite an attractive platform for brands.

Shabaz added that while Google is still the go-to platform for brands in many areas, Google’s search dominance has been largely due its massive reach, personalised targeting and ability to deliver authentic information.

"In other words, they’ve been around for a long time and TikTok will need to catch up in these areas," said Shabaz. 

Saying that, Google seems to be losing also in terms of language. In fact, the big news this week that MARKETING-INTERACTIVE explored was how with search trends shifting to social and generative AI platforms disrupting discovery, younger generations are now reportedly 'searching' and not 'Googling' anymore.

The word "Google" was first added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006. Since then, it has become a verb and nowadays, it is pretty common to ask someone to "just Google it". However, according to Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik who was quoted in a Fortune article, younger audiences are increasingly heading to social media platforms such as TikTok for restaurant recommendations, directly to scaled aggregators such as Amazon for retail, and Generative AI search such as ChatGPT to get their homework done. 

Bernstein was using an April 2024 survey by Forbes Advisor and Talker Research of 2,000 Americans. The study said that the way people gather information online is changing, with a significant portion now using social media platforms for their queries.

This trend intensifies among younger users. For Generation Z, 46% primarily turn to social media for their informational needs, putting their preference for the platforms where they already spend much of their time. Millennials follow this pattern, with 35% favoring social media over traditional search engines, according to Forbes.

According to industry experts MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke to early this week, while Google continues to be a dominant brand and widely recognised term, its relevance is certainly facing challenges.

"The emergence of AI-driven tools, such as ChatGPT, provides users with alternative ways to find information. Although 'Googling' remains a common phrase, younger generations are increasingly turning to different platforms, signaling a cultural and behavioral change," said Gary Cheung, managing director at NP Digital Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

He added that social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are becoming popular sources for information, especially among younger users. As a result, with so many information sources available, users are likely to diversify their search habits beyond Google.

True enough, social media is dominating search with social platforms claiming a greater share of the world’s search activity. More 16- to 34-year-olds are now more likely to visit a social network when looking for information about brands as compared to search engines (48% vs 45%), according to a 2023 report by global firm in social and media intelligence, Meltwater, and socially led creative agency, We Are Social.

"With challenges and a potential decline in relevance, it may force Google to adapt strategically, encouraging innovation and possibly reshaping the digital landscape," explained Cheung. "Increased competition, leading to a drop in search traffic, will mean a reduction in advertising revenue, a key component of its income, hence Google may need to rethink its ad offerings."

Meanwhile, on the ad buying side, Ash Dharan, head of paid media at NP Digital Australia explained that TikTok already offers ads in its search results page but the ability to have full control over the content in this placement is very exciting for media buyers.

"We know that a significant percentage of Millennials and Gen-Z already use TikTok as a search engine, which Google has acknowledged, and we know that brand discovery happens on social channels," he said.

"So far, we have been able to leverage in-feed placements to drive awareness and consideration," he said, adding:

Having an opportunity to be present when high-intent searches are taking place on the platform would help us drive conversions on the platform too.

So, will TikTok be able to take over Google as search trends shift? It would seem that we can only wait and see. 

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