A year ago, search on TikTok meant a toggle in your campaign settings. You turned on Automatic Search Placement, hoped the algorithm would do a decent job, and moved on. No real keyword control, no way to exclude irrelevant terms, no impression share data. It was a checkbox you ticked out of habit, not conviction.
That has changed. TikTok has launched dedicated search campaigns with match types (broad, phrase, exact), negative keywords, keyword-level bids, and impression share metrics. A recent piece on Search Engine Journal breaks down every new feature. And search volume on the platform has grown over 40% year-over-year, according to TikTok's internal data from June 2025.
It looks promising on paper. In practice, the differences from Google Ads are significant enough that you can waste budget if you carry over assumptions without checking them. We've spent the last few weeks testing the new format across several accounts, and here's what we've found about what works, what doesn't, and where you need to be careful.
Match types and keywords: familiar, but not identical
The structure is recognizable to any paid search professional. Broad, phrase, and exact match follow the same principles as Google Ads. You can add up to 1,000 keywords per ad group and up to 10,000 negative keywords. TikTok recommends at least 20 keywords per group, which signals that their algorithm needs volume to perform well.
The critical difference: negative keywords on TikTok don't automatically cover plural and singular variations, misspellings, or synonyms. Every variation must be added manually. If you're coming from Google Ads where this is implicit, your search terms report will surprise you. You need to be far more granular with your negative lists. Where Google lets you add a term like shoes and automatically blocks shoe, shoess, and common misspellings, TikTok treats each variation as a separate entry.
Another important detail: keyword-level bids are only available for Traffic campaigns using Cost Cap bidding. If you run Web Conversion campaigns, you lose both keyword-level bids and match-type reporting. And if you switch from Traffic to Web Conversion and back, these features don't restore automatically. It's the kind of setting that bites you if you don't know about it upfront.
Phrase and exact match on TikTok rely on "meaning matching" rather than strict word order. This means matches can be broader than you expect. That's not necessarily bad, but it needs monitoring during the first days of a campaign.
Automated Keywords: the setting you need to check first
This is probably the most important difference from Google Ads. On SMB accounts, Automated Keywords is enabled by default. TikTok adds keywords to your campaigns automatically and doesn't notify you when it does. On Key Accounts (agencies, larger brands), it's off by default, but the check is worth making regardless.
TikTok claims this feature drives 10% incremental conversions while meeting CPA targets. That may hold at scale, on accounts with high enough volume for the algorithm to have sufficient data. But for an account where you carefully control every keyword, having the platform add terms without notice is a problem. We've seen similar scenarios on Google where comparable features (broad match with Smart Bidding and no oversight) generated irrelevant traffic for weeks. The risk on TikTok is similar.
Checking the search terms report regularly becomes mandatory, not optional. And auto-added terms appear as a single line item, with a dropdown showing only the top 10 by spend. The rest may show as "unknown". So visibility isn't complete either.
Your control options: disable the toggle, pause individual auto-added keywords, or use negative keywords to block irrelevant terms. But you need to know the setting exists in the first place. Otherwise you're paying for traffic you never asked for. First move on any new TikTok Search Ads account: check whether Automated Keywords is active.
Reporting: what you see and what you don't
This is where TikTok has the most ground to make up. Impression share metrics (including Top 1 Impression Share) are now available at campaign, advertiser, and keyword levels. That's a serious step forward that lets you understand how much of existing demand you're capturing. The platform also offers a "health check" module that flags thin keyword lists, low bids, and daily budgets under five times the set bid.
But several things that PPC specialists take for granted are missing. TikTok doesn't split lost impression share into "lost to budget" and "lost to rank" the way Google does. So you know how much you're losing, but not why. If you have 30% impression share, you can't quickly tell whether the issue is budget or relevance. You have to test manually by increasing the budget and watching whether share moves.
Low-converting keywords can be hidden from reports, and conversion totals can differ between keyword and campaign reports. Metrics have approximately an 8-hour lag, with partial conversions visible after 2 days and final numbers after 3. There's no SKAN data for search campaigns, which complicates iOS tracking. And you can't break down keywords and search terms by creative, making creative-keyword optimization harder.
If you work with cross-platform reports (and you should, especially when running an integrated SEO-PPC brief), TikTok search needs its own section with limitations clearly noted. You can't put TikTok data next to Google data without context. The client needs to know that a direct CPA comparison doesn't reflect the same reporting conditions.
Search Hubs and TopSearch: brand defense formats
Beyond standard search campaigns, TikTok launched Search Hubs in May 2026: brand-owned pages that appear above organic results for an approved keyword list. It's the equivalent of a branded SERP feature, and for brands with an active presence on the platform, it can be a solid brand protection tool.
TopSearch is an auction format for the first sponsored position, billed at CPM under the Reach objective. If you lose the auction, you don't drop to a lower position; you don't appear at all. TikTok suggests that suitable queries for TopSearch include competitor terms. That can be a smart move, but it should be treated as a deliberate budget decision, not a reflex.
Is it worth the investment right now?
It depends on your audience and objectives. TikTok search isn't Google yet. Volume is smaller, reporting is more limited, and the control you have depends on which campaign objective you choose. But the trend is clear: social platforms are becoming search platforms. Instagram introduced ads in search results in March 2023, Reddit started testing in early November 2026. Ignoring this trend means risking the loss of audiences who are already searching on these platforms.
For brands with an active TikTok audience (fashion, beauty, food, entertainment), search campaigns with keyword targeting can be a valuable incremental channel. Search Hubs give brands an owned page above search results. And with TikTok's Keyword Planner, which provides search volume, competition, and performance predictions, you can build a reasonable estimate before spending your first dollar.
For B2B brands or those targeting older demographics, the ROI is still debatable. But that doesn't mean it's not worth monitoring. When you run a serious PPC audit, TikTok search should be on the list of channels evaluated, even if the decision is to hold off on budget for now.
Like any new channel, the recommendation is to start with a controlled test: limited budget, well-defined keywords, Automated Keywords turned off, and a reporting structure that accounts for the platform's limitations. Run it for 2-3 weeks, compare CPA with Google on the same keyword categories, and decide based on data. Not assumptions.
As with any paid media KPI, what matters isn't how much reach you have, but how much of it translates into real results.
