In TikTok’s Oct. 30 Q4 product preview, two impression share metrics and a set of ready-to-use keyword packs were given to Search Ads advertisers. I wrote about this preview on Nov. 2. The quick version is that a help page defined those metrics back in September, and the packs are a new addition to the Keyword Suggestion Tool.
The long version is what a paid search manager sees when they open the campaign type for the very first time. A paid search manager has seen match type names, negative keyword lists and the search terms report before as part of Google Ads management. Match type reporting will depend on the campaign objective. Bidding by keyword needs the Traffic objective (along with a Cost Cap bid).
In each of these areas, for that manager, it becomes an issue of whether they can continue using some old habits they’ve developed, or if they need to change how they’re setting up their account and creating their reports. Each of these areas is addressed in TikTok’s help center.
What TikTok Built, In Order
Search advertising on TikTok has evolved sequentially during a four year period with the help center separating each addition. Brooke Osmundson reported that TikTok ran a search ads beta with select partner accounts in March 2022. The Search Ads Toggle was then made available to users in 2023. This is currently referred to as Automatic Search Placement, which extends in-feed ads into search result pages. All new campaigns will automatically be enabled with Automatic Search Placement. As noted by the help center at TikTok, Automatic Search Placement is considered “not a traditional keyword-based search ads offering.”
The keyword product Search Ads Campaign went live in the U.S. on Sept. 24, 2024. The two supported objectives were Traffic and Web Conversion. Also included with this launch were the keyword suggestion tool and negative keywords. At TikTok World in June 2025, TikTok stated “Billions of searches are happening on TikTok every day,” “up more than 40% from last year,” according to internal global data provided by the company, and did not provide an exact number.
On May 13, 2026, TikTok announced Search Hubs. This is a brand-owned page displayed above the search results for an approved list of keywords. TopSearch, which has a help center page dated October 2026, is a top-of-the-page auction for the first sponsored position and is billed per thousand impressions when using the Reach objective. When an advertiser loses in the auction, their ad “does not move into a lower search ad placement.” On Oct. 5, 2026, TikTok announced “Search Ads Campaign, powered by Smart+,” however there was no information regarding rollout dates in the post.
Automatic Search Placement, Search Ads Campaign, the Automated Keywords setting within Search Ads Campaign, Search Hubs and TopSearch are separate products and options; however the focus of this comparison is the Search Ads Campaign. The campaign page lists Traffic, Sales, Lead Generation and App Promotion as objectives. Additionally, the bottom of the campaign page states “available in the US and testing in other markets,” while TikTok’s availability page, dated April 2026, lists 11 countries for Traffic.
What Transfers
Keyword matching types on TikTok are called by the same name and have the same format as with Google Ads. On TikTok’s match type page it is explained that there are broad, phrase and exact. Phrase and exact are defined on the meaning of the search rather than its word order, so a phrase match for “Luxury fragrance” will also match a search for a specific perfume name. TikTok’s keywords page states you can have up to 1,000 keywords per ad group, but recommends you have at least 20.
Negative Keywords in both platforms have the same three match options, and TikTok allows a maximum of ten thousand negative keywords per ad group. As for plurals and synonyms, both platforms require the advertisers to include these variations. The platforms differ on misspellings. Google’s negative keywords automatically account for them. However, according to its documentation, TikTok’s negative keywords “don’t block singular or plural forms, misspellings, and synonyms” and “You must add each variation separately.”
TikTok’s search terms report is located where an individual managing a Google Ads campaign would look for it. In addition, TikTok’s reporting guide, dated April 2026, lists performance reporting at the search term, keyword and ad group levels. Traffic campaigns support keyword-level bids under Cost Cap. According to TikTok’s optimization guide, if a keyword has no assigned bid, the bid for that keyword will inherit the bid from its parent ad group.
TikTok’s Keyword Suggestion Tool generates “monthly impression predictions” it says “are based on historical data and are for reference only.” TikTok’s Keyword Planner provides “search volume, competition, and scale and performance prediction.”
The Oct. 30 preview of Keyword Packs includes pre-crafted lists of brand and category keywords. These lists generate “daily-refreshed recommendations” which include “key signals like search volume, CPC, and competition.”
The Impression Share help page, dated September 2026, has definitions for Impression Share as “The percentage of eligible search results impressions your ads captured” and Top 1 Impression Share as the same share of first-position impressions. The preview states Impression Share and Top 1 Impression Share are available at the campaign, advertiser and keyword levels. A health module in an ad group at the time of creation identifies thin keyword lists, low bids and a daily budget less than five times the bid.
Where The Google Ads Comparison Breaks Down
Keyword-level bidding is documented for Traffic campaigns using Cost Cap, and the optimization guide says it “is based on the cost cap bidding, so it shows only when there is a valid bid.” The guide covers Web Conversion only through Target CPA but does not include keyword bidding. There is also an additional reporting restriction on match type keyword reporting, this one is Traffic only, and nothing on the pages reviewed as of Nov. 4 covers either control for Catalog or App Promotion campaigns. TikTok’s Automated Keywords feature, per a help page dated March 2026, is enabled by default for SMB accounts which “have to opt out or turn the toggle off,” while Key Accounts have the setting switched off by default.
TikTok’s page says “You aren’t notified when new automated keywords are added to a campaign.” Automated Keywords may be controlled with the toggle switch, by pausing an individual keyword, or through the use of negative keywords, and TikTok says its own internal testing showed the feature “can drive 10% incremental conversions while meeting CPA targets.”
All ads are either videos, carousels or, for Sales/Travel & Entertainment advertisers, a Search Catalog format. TikTok’s optimization guide says relevance is scored for each keyword and creative pair. Google measures ad quality as well; therefore, it is not the creative that differs between platforms. The production does differ because a campaign needs creative that fits each keyword theme.
Where the campaign type is sold varies based upon the objective of the campaign. TikTok’s availability page has two different country lists for Traffic. The first list includes Brazil, Australia, and all other countries’ advertisers who are trying to reach users in the U.S., and the second list includes Japan but not Brazil, Australia or the rest-of-world provision. Lead Generation campaigns are listed as available in the U.S. only. TopSearch campaigns are available to “Select accounts in supported markets,” and there are 20 countries listed for TopSearch.
Top 1 Impression Share is a related measure to Google’s Search absolute top impression share. The latter counts the number of impressions from “the very first ad among top ads” against the estimated number of impressions the advertiser would have been eligible for out of all the top ads. While both TikTok pages define the base of their metrics differently, “eligible search results impressions” according to the help page and “eligible search auctions” according to the preview, there are no publicly available resources showing the two platforms count the same way.
What The Reports Leave Out
TikTok’s reporting guide says that keywords and search terms with low conversions “cannot be disclosed individually,” which “may cause a discrepancy in total conversions.” Keyword reporting is described as “a landscape report to provide insights on top-performing keywords” and full analysis, it says, should be done at the ad group and campaign levels, and not at the keyword level.
The keyword report provides you with the best-performing keywords, but may not reflect your campaigns’ total conversion numbers.
On the same reporting guide page it states that advertisers are unable to report on search terms or keywords broken out by creative (because of privacy). Data for iOS14 SKAN (Apple’s SKAdNetwork) for conversion, CPA, and conversion rate for Search Ads “are not currently available for the search ads campaign.” Brand safety and viewability measurement from third-party sources on the results page “may be subject to limitations.”
In addition, search campaign metrics lag behind by about eight hours. The guide says “Partial conversions will be available to advertisers after two days” and “Most conversions will display after three days.”
The automated terms report displays all automated terms as a single line item, with a drop-down menu showing the ten highest spending terms, the Automated Keywords page states. In addition, a search term that matches without an explicit keyword can display as “unknown.”
Neither the Impression Share help page nor the reporting guide indicates how to separate lost impression share by budget and by rank. On their help page, they list budget, bidding, keyword coverage, creative relevance, competition and changes in search demand as possible things to look at when assessing lost impression share; and sort the first two (budget and bidding) by if you spent your entire budget. Google’s page, by contrast, splits lost share into separate budget and rank metrics.
The Pattern Beyond TikTok
Reddit announced a test of ads in its search pages on Nov. 3 with a select group of eligible advertisers. The announcement says ads “may appear based on a range of factors, including contextual relevance to a user’s search query,” using Reddit’s existing targeting. It does not describe keyword controls.
In March 2023, Instagram announced ads in search results, showing “in the feed that people can scroll when they tap into a post from search results.” Both platforms announced a placement, while TikTok documented its keyword tools, a distinction for search teams to work with.
Why This Matters For PPC Teams
When you initially open the TikTok account, one of the first things you’ll recognize will be the search terms report. A manager who runs weekly Google search term reviews already has the expertise for that review, the negative keywords, and the ‘unknown’ rows.
The second item to verify when opening the TikTok account is whether the Automated Keywords toggle is turned on. The feature is enabled by default for SMB accounts, and additions arrive without notice.
Your campaign objective follows your business goal. According to TikTok’s optimization guide, if you run a Web Conversion campaign that cannot build volume, you can “temporarily switch to the Traffic objective to build volume,” and return to Web Conversion once the campaign is stable. During the Traffic phase, you can view match-type reporting and use keyword-level bids under a Cost Cap bid. Both of these disappear when you return to Web Conversion. However, keyword targeting (and its corresponding negatives), along with the search terms review, remain throughout.
Producing assets that match the keyword themes means working with whoever makes the company’s TikTok creative. Keyword totals show the top performers, TikTok points overall analysis to the ad group and campaign, and iOS14 SKAN conversion data is missing, so a cross-platform report needs a TikTok search row that says what it can and cannot show.
eMarketer’s U.S. search ad revenue forecast “excludes display-oriented formats on social networks, even if triggered by search queries,” and its social network ad spending forecast “includes all the various formats of advertising on those platforms.” That is how eMarketer draws its lines. This is useful context for anyone comparing TikTok search spend with its reported figures, though it doesn’t clarify where a company records the expense.
TikTok describes TopSearch as a visibility product. Its help center lists “brand, category, competitor, seasonal, or tentpole queries.”
As such, competitor queries listed as part of TikTok’s own lists constitute a brand-defense use case to assess, not a budget line to assume.
Paid search skills apply directly to TikTok’s keyword campaigns. The objective, automation defaults, creative requirements and reporting limits determine how far they carry. Budget ownership is still a company decision.
Looking Ahead
The campaigns for holiday promotions currently being run will be the ones described through the Impression Share columns in Ads Manager, on accounts where it shows them.
In addition, this quarter there will be a keyword-level read of spend on accounts that have the metrics. All accounts that have Automated Keywords enabled will see how those terms performed in campaign reporting and in the search terms report.
Reddit’s test is one to watch for anything more on search-specific keyword controls.
More resources:
- TikTok Search Ads Adds Brand And Category Keyword Packs
- TikTok Marketing: An In-Depth Guide For Brands
- Reddit Begins Testing Ads In Its Own Search Results
Featured Image: FotoField/Shutterstock
