Although TikTok has been carrying ads since 2018, it hasn’t really caught on as an advertising vehicle. Now the company is trying to change that by launching Smart+, an AI-powered ad buying tool that is the ByteDance company’s version of Google Performance Max, Meta Advantage+ or Pinterest Performance+. The idea is that by automating campaign management, marketers may be inclined to spend more. Smart+, which launched last week, automates everything from creative development to bidding, targeting and measurement, making ad buying easier on the short-form video app.

As a result, “marketers can let TikTok’s AI handle the heavy lifting — building and delivering ads to drive conversions, leads, or app downloads,” writes Digiday, emphasizing that “they also have the option to take control at key stages, as Smart+ offers the flexibility to use its features selectively.”

“Advertisers simply input their assets, budget, and targeting goals and Smart+ automatically creates or selects the best creative asset utilizing TikTok Symphony, chooses the right audience, and puts the best ad in front of the right customer at the right time,” the company explains in a newsroom post.

TikTok says Smart+ will be offered in four categories:

• Smart+ Web Campaigns – Drives traffic and lower funnel actions, including sales, on advertisers websites
• Smart+ Catalog Ads – Drives lower funnel outcomes by automatically delivering relevant product recommendations to people based on their interests, intent and actions
• Smart+ App Campaigns – Leverages the power of discovery on TikTok to drive app installs and conversions
• Smart+ Lead Generation Campaigns – Turns leaned-in audiences into high-value customers utilizing our next gen, lead gen solutions

Having fielded some tests, the social platform says it has “seen very strong results across all objectives,” with advertisers using Smart+ Web Campaigns “seeing a 52 percent improvement in their return on ad spend.”

Smart+ is one of several ad automation options TikTok announced during ad week and is rolling out in time for the holiday sales push.

“TikTok’s also rolling out GMV Max, which automates TikTok Shop campaign creation, with the aim of increasing your TikTok Shop gross merchandise value,” reports Social Media Today. GMV Max “aims to optimize traffic across organic content, paid ads, and affiliate posts to help merchants improve their total return on investment.”

The company also launched a campaign themed “TikTok Means Business,” targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by showing how the platform can help them “get discovered and drive results.”