TikTok Ads Updates & Release Notes

Our quarterly look at the latest product innovations designed to help brands and agencies drive business impact on TikTok.

What's new

Each quarter, TikTok Product Preview shares the latest tools and features to help brands grow on TikTok. In our second update of 2026, we've bundled these innovations into three sets, including new controls for Smart+ automation, a performance-focused update to TikTok Pulse, and commerce solutions designed to reduce setup friction and improve product visibility.

Set #1: Giving advertisers more control and flexibility with Smart+

Smart+ modular control

Smart+ now allows advertisers more control over automation at the module level. Advertisers can turn automation on or off for specific modules, including targeting, budget, and placements. We've also updated the TikTok Ads Manager interface to make this clearer. A Smart+ label now appears on each module so you can easily see which parts of a campaign are automated and which are manual.¹

Smart+ Automatic Placement

Smart+ Automatic Placement now offers the option to manually select placements during campaign setup in TikTok Ads Manager. Advertisers can choose specific placements, including TikTok, Lemon8, and Global App Bundle—which includes apps like CapCut and Pangle.

Music Autofix

Music Autofix is now available for advertisers running Smart+ App campaigns. Powered by automation, Music Autofix helps unblock ad delivery when music in an ad is not commercially licensed. The feature automatically detects when music cannot be used, alerts advertisers to music blockers, and inputs alternative tracks from the Commercial Music Library.

Expansion to Traffic objective

Previously focused on lower-funnel performance campaigns, Smart+ is now built directly into Traffic campaign setup, where advertisers can use the same modular toggle to decide which parts of the campaign to automate and which to manage manually.

Learn more about Smart+ automation: Blog | Business Help Center

Set #2: Bringing stronger branding performance to TikTok Pulse

View+ for Pulse Core

View+ for Pulse Core is a new feature that allows advertisers to optimize for 6-second view-through rates on Max Pulse and Category Lineup campaigns. While TikTok Pulse Core has traditionally focused on brand impact through adjacency next to the top 4% of trending, brand-safe user-generated content, View+ adds a new performance layer by helping advertisers reach attentive users who are likely to watch their ads longer. Advertisers can activate View+ for Pulse Core by toggling it on at the ad group level in TikTok Ads Manager.²

Learn more about TikTok Pulse Core: Blog | Business Help Center

Set #3: Streamlining setup and product discovery for commerce advertisers

One Asset Manager

One Asset Manager is a new solution for commerce advertisers that brings catalog, creative, and data connections into a single workflow within TikTok Ads Manager. By bringing these elements together in one place, it helps simplify campaign setup and improve performance. One Asset Manager is currently available for testing in the US.³

Collage Carousel

Collage Carousel is a new format that puts more products in view from the start, featuring one hero image and three additional product visuals in the first frame. Each image is clickable and linked directly to its product detail page. Advertisers can use Collage Carousel at the ad level in TikTok Ads Manager.

Notes:

1. All Smart+ updates will be available globally in Q2 2026.
2. View+ is currently available for Pulse Core Max and Category Lineups via allowlist in the US and Canada.
3. One Asset Manager and Collage Carousel will be available in the US only in Q2 2026.

This document is the property of BD TikTok USA LLC ("TT Commerce") and is intended solely for informational purposes. The recipient shall not distribute, exhibit or otherwise use this document for any other purpose. TT Commerce undertakes no obligation or responsibility to update any of the information contained in this document. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future performance. Results may vary.

Bringing more consistency, control, and creativity to advertising at scale.

TikTok Symphony is now integrating Dreamina Seedance 2.0, ByteDance's next-generation AI video model, into our go-to suite of AI tools for advertisers, unlocking new possibilities for brands, small businesses, and creators to bring their best ideas to life.

What's new in Symphony Creative Studio

The addition of Dreamina Seedance 2.0 into Symphony Creative Studio will further enhance advertisers' go-to video creation tools by helping them produce consistent, high-quality video content at scale without the manual fixes that slow down production.

The model improves the consistency of products throughout content, so they remain recognizable across video segments with fewer manual corrections. Motion is also more natural, with smoother movement throughout. Together, these improvements mean less time spent fixing outputs and more time scaling your campaigns.

Everything else you love about Symphony Creative Studio remains the same. Simply input your text, images, or reference clips, and get back polished video with audio that's perfectly in sync. Whether you're working from a detailed brief or a rough early concept, Dreamina Seedance 2.0 helps to turn your inputs into cohesive, high-quality content that feels authentic to TikTok.

Dreamina Seedance 2.0 available in Symphony Creative Studio

What this means for your brand

Symphony was already built to scale your creative output without scaling your budget. Dreamina Seedance 2.0 raises the bar on what that output can look like:

• Consistent storytelling: Symphony keeps your creative workflow connected across assets and campaigns. Dreamina Seedance 2.0 matches outputs, with character and brand identity that holds across content without visual drift.
• Faster production: Symphony compresses ad creation timelines from weeks to hours. Dreamina Seedance 2.0 means fewer revision cycles because the quality from the first pass is higher.
• Content that feels TikTok-first: Symphony generates TikTok-first content with synchronized audio. Dreamina Seedance 2.0 sharpens the motion and coherence that makes that content earn attention in a feed that rewards authenticity.

Built with responsibility at its core

At TikTok, we follow Responsible AI Principles that embed safety, privacy, fairness, transparency, and accountability into our AI experiences by design, while working closely with external experts who advise on our approach.

As Dreamina Seedance 2.0 brings more powerful AI video capabilities to Symphony, the model has undergone extensive testing by global safety and intellectual property teams working alongside third-party red-teaming partners to test capabilities before they reach advertisers. Symphony features several layers of tailored safeguards built in across the full product lifecycle, including:

• Firm policies against harmful content and the unauthorized use of likeness or intellectual property, which are applied through multiple moderation checks on the prompts, reference images, and content generated with our tools.
• AI labels that provide transparency to viewers, along with an invisible watermarking technology that helps us identify and act on content made with Symphony tools, even if it has been edited elsewhere.
• Industry-partnered AI safety and labeling technologies, including additional moderation filters from a third-party safety partner, as well as C2PA Content Credentials, a technology that helps other platforms identify AI-generated content made with our tools.

Dreamina Seedance 2.0 in Symphony Creative Studio

Less fixing. More creating.

With Dreamina Seedance 2.0 at its core, Symphony gives brands everything they need to produce, test, and scale TikTok-first content quickly, with fewer manual edits. Check out Symphony Creative Studio and start creating TikTok-ready branded content today.

Symphony with Dreamina Seedance 2.0 is available to all paid advertisers globally.

As we learn from our community's feedback, we look forward to testing this model in additional TikTok experiences as we work to provide creators and businesses with innovative tools that make it easy to explore AI responsibly and create original, high-quality content they can share with the world.

This document is the property of TikTok Inc. and is intended solely for informational purposes. The recipient shall not distribute, exhibit or otherwise use this document for any other purpose. TikTok undertakes no obligation or responsibility to update any of the information contained in this document. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future performance.

At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy, and the safety and security of our community are the foundations that make this possible.

This quarter, we've made significant progress in enhancing the safeguards and standards that matter most to advertisers. Here are the key updates.

1. Setting new standards for brand reputation

Brand reputation is built moment by moment, through culture, community and creativity – and on a platform powered by discovery, those moments really matter. Our Brand Reputation Playbook sets out how to manage that in practice: combining clear standards, strong safeguards, and meaningful controls, so your brand can show up confidently, participate fully in culture, and never have to choose between creativity and protection.

Learn more in our Brand Reputation Playbook.

2. Building high-performing creator partnerships

What separates high-performing creator partnerships from high-risk ones? New research with the Brand Safety Institute (BSI) draws on interviews with hundreds of senior leaders to set out how to protect trust without sacrificing authenticity, and how to build creator partnerships that are effective, scalable and built to last.

The findings show that the strongest partnerships treat creator suitability not as a constraint, but as a shared framework that enables creativity, protects reputation, and sets clear expectations.

Explore the full findings from our research with the Brand Safety Institute.

3. Joining EASA to strengthen brand trust across Europe

We have joined the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), reinforcing our commitment to responsible advertising through self-regulation and consumer protection. Through this partnership, we'll work alongside 28 national advertising self-regulatory organisations to support consistent industry standards. For brands, this means greater consistency, clearer expectations, and a more stable environment to invest and grow.

Explore our approach to responsible advertising in Europe.

4. Enhancing transparency and proactive enforcement

The final Community Guidelines Enforcement Report of 2025 shows ongoing progress in harmful content detection and removal, alongside expanded transparency into LIVE monetisation, comment moderation and ad enforcement.

Read the full report.

5. Strengthening age-appropriate experiences

We're rolling out enhanced technology across Europe to help moderation teams better detect and remove accounts that belong to users under the age of 13. Building on a pilot launched last year, these tools use signals such as profile information, published content and on-platform behaviour to support faster identification of underage accounts.

Learn more about age-appropriate protections.

6. Raising the bar on privacy and data security

On Data Protection Day 2026, we highlighted new tools and initiatives designed to strengthen privacy, security and data protection across our global community. These efforts help ensure advertisers operate in a trusted environment where user data is protected and platform integrity is prioritised.

Updates include the launch of Security Checkup, which gives users direct control over their account security, and the continued advancement of our data security initiative Project Clover with dedicated data centres, independent oversight and new Privacy Enhancing Technologies. We also highlighted our partnered with privacy tech company Oblivious to launch a first-of-its-kind competition driving real innovation in privacy research.

Learn more about our latest privacy and security initiatives.

Our commitment continues

Our work to keep TikTok safe, secure, and trustworthy never stops. We’ll continue to raise standards, innovate, and provide advertisers with the confidence to participate fully in culture. Stay tuned for more updates in our next quarterly report.

A full suite of solutions that places your brand adjacent to the content everyone is talking about, unlocking audiences you would otherwise miss in highly relevant environments.

Over a billion people around the world turn to our platform to connect with the emerging and legacy voices they've come to know, love, and trust. The For You feed is where this entertaining content from creators, publishers, and everyday people sits center stage, facilitating culture and sparking new trends.

Cultural and personal relevancy are key to deepening connections with audiences through earned attention. According to a WARC study, 58% of consumers pay more attention to ads that are culturally relevant, and 71% pay more attention to ads that are personally relevant.

At the same time, 76% of social and video platform users say TikTok is the platform they are most likely to visit to discover and learn about new and emerging trends in culture, ranking it #1 among other platforms.

How can your brand stand out in the For You Feed by showing up next to the highest quality content and unlocking association with the best of culture? With the TikTok Pulse suite.

The TikTok Pulse suite amplifies your brand's impact by placing your brand adjacent to culturally relevant trends and premium, brand-safe content, unlocking audiences you would otherwise miss.

What is the TikTok Pulse suite?

There are four types of Pulse offerings that allow you to expand your audiences through differentiated contextual environments: Pulse Premiere, Pulse Core, Pulse Mentions, and Pulse Tastemakers.

Pulse Premiere

Pulse Premiere gives advertisers the opportunity to place their ads next to the most relevant and suitable premium content from top publishers across sports, entertainment, and lifestyle. Premiere publishers are available for targeting during specific tentpole events, to show up around official content about the moment or event, or for an always-on presence throughout the year.

Our Premiere partners now include a range of publishers, including NBCUniversal, Condé Nast, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, Formula 1, Red Bull Media, BuzzFeed, Disney, People Inc., Hearst, MLS, NFL, NHL® , and Vox.

Pulse Core

Pulse Core places brands next to the top 4% of trending, brand-safe user-generated content, as identified by the Pulse Score across preset categories or customized lineups tailored to your campaign's needs.

• Max Pulse: ads placed next to a run of Pulse Core content across all categories, in addition to the pre-built selections, for maximum available reach.
• Category Lineups: pre-built lineups of Pulse Core content across a variety of categories (Beauty & Personal Care Pulse, Sports & Recreation Pulse, etc.) that enable brands to build brand association with a specific content genre and benefit from contextual priming.
• Seasonal Lineups: pre-built lineups of Pulse Core content around key seasonal or cultural moments such as Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season, allowing for maximized relevance and affinity.
• Custom Lineups: bespoke lineups of TikTok's top trending, brand-suitable content, curated with the help of Generative AI to fit your specific marketing needs. Custom Lineups are now available in Canada.

Pulse Core also includes View+, a new feature that allows advertisers to optimize for 6-second view-through rates on Max Pulse and Category Lineup campaigns.

Pulse Mentions

Pulse Mentions places you next to the exact moments when people are actively talking about your brand and category, allowing you to shape high-intent conversations as they happen. Pulse Mentions is now available to US-based advertisers and will be available to select Canada-based advertisers in Q2 2026.

Pulse Tastemakers

Pulse Tastemakers lets you place your ads immediately after videos from a hand-selected group of creators. The new solution is designed to build strong brand associations and tap into the power of creators to win over new audiences. Pulse Tastemakers will be available to select US-based advertisers in Q2 2026 and select Canada-based advertisers in Q3 2026.

How Pulse amplifies impact across your media mix

While each TikTok Pulse solution delivers powerful results on its own, adding Pulse to your broader media mix makes your advertising dollars go even further.

Pulse strengthens contextual alignment within your overall strategy and, when paired with high-impact and performance formats, expands both reach and effectiveness.

According to our analysis, each 1% allocation of advertisers' total budget to TikTok Pulse delivers 2.4% exclusive reach in addition to their other ad placements.

Ready to see how Pulse can elevate your TikTok advertising? Reach out to your TikTok representative today.

Case studies

Discover how global brands have unlocked success with TikTok Pulse

McDonald's Italy
Increasing awareness of McDonald’s Winterdays offers supercharged by contextual targeting with TikTok Pulse

Levi's
Helping Levi’s celebrate the 150th anniversary of their iconic 501 ® Jeans with a campaign designed to boost awareness across a whole new audience.

Hyundai
Using creator marketing and a diverse array of TikTok products to engage audiences.

SK-II
Increasing brand awareness for a prestige skincare brand with TikTok Pulse.

Sources:

1. TikTok Marketing Science, Business Impact Through Relevance, US, UK, AU, conducted by WARC, August 2024
2. WARC/TikTok consumer survey, among respondents that have used TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook in the past 2 weeks, n=974, August 2024
3. TikTok Internal Data, US, January-March 2025
4. TikTok Internal Data, Data Science. Analysis based on US campaigns from Jul-Oct 2025, n= 519

NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. © NHL 2024. All Rights Reserved. This document is the property of TikTok Inc. and is intended solely for informational purposes. The recipient shall not distribute, exhibit or otherwise use this document for any other purpose. TikTok undertakes no obligation or responsibility to update any of the information contained in this document. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future performance.

TikTok's new max-reach solution offers premium visibility and unique reach by bringing together the best of TopView and Top Feed in one efficient solution.

TikTok is the go-to destination for culture, news, and trends. In fact, 66% of TikTok users say it's the first place they visit to discover upcoming moments from both brands and culture, ranking it first among video and social platforms.¹

To capture this attention, we've unveiled a new ad solution, TopReach, that combines two high-impact ad placements to help brands break through the noise and stay on top—literally.

Introducing TopReach

TopReach consolidates two of our most highly visible ad placements—TopView (the first content people see when they open the app) and TopFeed (the first in-feed ad spot in the For You feed)—into a unified buying solution.

By combining these ad positions into a single buy, advertisers can capture 100% of the day's available audience with a guaranteed frequency of one impression per user.

For brands planning launches, tentpoles, or major awareness moments, TopReach is an effective way to scale impact beyond a single touchpoint, without the complexity of booking multiple placements separately.

Key benefits of TopReach

TopReach enables brands to reach 100% of the daily available audience by combining two of TikTok's most high-impact placements—TopView and TopFeed. A built-in frequency cap guarantees that each person sees TopReach ads only once within a 24-hour delivery period. This controlled frequency helps maintain a positive user experience while ensuring broad exposure.

TopReach is also optimized for reach efficiency, delivering unique reach at scale while lowering cost per reach (CPR). In our initial testing phase, we found that TopReach campaigns can, on average, drive 59% incremental reach at 3X lower CPR than buying TopView alone.²

Finally, TopReach simplifies the buying process by unifying TopView and TopReach into a single purchase. Advertisers no longer need to book placements separately or manage complex exclusion targeting, making it easier to maximize unique reach and campaign impact.

"We wanted to give marketers more options with our most high-impact units, and by building TopReach they now no longer have to choose one or the other. They get the best of both placements in a single unified buy that allows you to maximize your reach potential on the platform for the biggest moments of the year for your business."

Dina Liu, Global Head of Brand Product Marketing
TikTok

TopReach in action

A major telecom provider aimed to drive mass awareness for its newest nationwide offering and holiday creative. It sought to maximize the visibility and impact of its television commercial creative by leveraging TikTok's high-impact ad placements.

The advertiser leveraged TopReach to achieve maximum unique reach in a single day within a single booking. With a controlled frequency of one impression per user, the campaign delivered an efficient cost per reach, 57% lower than the brand's usual TopViews. It also delivered outstanding Brand Lift results and 30% incremental reach, as measured by iSpot.

Maximize one-day reach with TopReach

TikTok is committed to continuously evolving its high-impact branding solutions to support business growth and meet advertiser needs.

Ready to learn more? Reach out to your TikTok sales representative to explore how TopReach can elevate your next campaign.

Sources:

1. TikTok Marketing Science, TikTok is the Home for Moments, conducted by EyeSee, February 2025
2. Internal TikTok Campaign Data, 2025; compared to minimum SOV TopViews

This document is the property of TikTok Inc. and is intended solely for informational purposes. The recipient shall not distribute, exhibit or otherwise use this document for any other purpose. TikTok undertakes no obligation or responsibility to update any of the information contained in this document. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future performance.

Your step-by-step guide for unifying your paid and organic presence on TikTok for better business outcomes.

The TikTok F.I.R.S.T. Advantage

On TikTok, people come to explore. They find creators, communities, and brands that feel real and relevant. This spirit of discovery helps brands build deeper, more meaningful connections with people, which is why having an official presence on the platform matters more than ever.

Starting in early 2026, TikTok will phase out Custom Identity, the feature that allowed advertisers to run ads without linking to an official account. From that point forward, all new campaigns must be launched from a verified TikTok profile.

When you link a real TikTok account, your ad creation process remains the same. You'll still use TikTok Ads Manager or Business Center to create and manage campaigns, and you can continue uploading or selecting videos from your library or authorized creator accounts.

This change marks a significant evolution in how brands show up authentically on TikTok. Linking your brand account not only ensures campaign continuity but also unlocks new solutions, improved performance, and increased trust with audiences.

Latest updates

We continue to build on the framework we rolled out last November to standardize how brands and agencies set up and operate on TikTok. The latest updates build on that foundation by strengthening two critical areas: how brands establish a legitimate, compliant presence on TikTok, and how agencies are formally recognized for the media spend they manage.

Verified Business Accounts now available

Verified Business Account ties an organic TikTok account to a real business and category, allowing TikTok to apply the correct rules and features. A Verified Business Account ensures TikTok can correctly apply safeguards like age-gating and geo-fencing, reducing the risk of organic content being flagged, limited, or inconsistently distributed. This is especially important for brands in restricted verticals such as alcohol, gambling, and healthcare.

How-to guide for restricted verticals here.

For all brands, registration also unlocks additional organic capabilities, including link in bio, lead generation from your profile, destination and app download links, organic geo-targeting, and multi-user login for account management.

Clearer credit for agency-managed ad spend

Media agencies can now clearly designate themselves as the buying agency for client ad accounts, making it clearer who actually managed the ad spend. Previously, attribution depended largely on how the ad account was set up, making it difficult to consistently recognize the agency's role and the spend it actively manages. This update allows agencies to formally designate themselves as the buying agency with client approval, ensuring ad spend is accurately attributed.

Benefits of account linking

Linking your TikTok account to your ad account is a simple step that yields several key benefits.

• Increased trust: Linking accounts helps the TikTok community know who's behind your ads, which strengthens brand trust and fosters engagement.
• Better ad performance: Linked accounts lead to improved campaign results. According to backend tests, 59.3% of advertisers saw their cost per acquisition (CPA) decrease by at least 10% after linking accounts.¹
• Unlocks innovation: Only linked accounts can access new features like Smart+ Paid & Organic Optimization for even better return on investment (ROI). With Smart+ Paid & Organic optimization, over 60% of advertisers saw a 10%+ increase in ROI.²

Unifying your paid and organic presence with Spark Ads

Connecting your account also enables the full use of Spark Ads, a native ad format that transforms organic posts, either from your own brand or trusted creators, into powerful ad creatives that deliver better business outcomes.

Spark Ads are designed to boost performance while keeping your content authentic to the TikTok experience. As we move away from Custom Identity, Spark Ads are the easiest way to keep your ads running through verified TikTok accounts without losing creative flexibility.

Advertisers can leverage existing content from their verified TikTok account, content from authorized creator accounts, and new videos uploaded directly through TikTok Ads Manager.

The TikTok F.I.R.S.T. quick start

Ready to get started? Simply follow our TikTok F.I.R.S.T. framework to link an account and get the most from your TikTok presence:

• F – Foundation first: Set up your Organization Account to establish a secure, official brand presence.
• I – Integrate & link accounts: Authorize account linking in Business Center to connect for Spark Ads and ad delivery.
• R – Roles & responsibilities: Grant the right permissions and access to your team and partners.
• S – Spark creativity: Activate content through Spark Ads using your brand identity to drive engagement.
• T – Track & transform: View, evaluate, and optimize based on what performs best — then evolve your strategy.

Ready to go TikTok F.I.R.S.T. and Spark results?

Linking your accounts is the single most effective step you can take to make your ads feel more native, drive deeper engagement, and unlock better performance on TikTok. Start the process today to unify your brand presence and connect with your audience authentically.

Sources:

1. Spark Ads backend test, September 2025
2. 2025 Smart+ Paid & Organic Optimization backend test results

This document is the property of TikTok Inc. and is intended solely for informational purposes. The recipient shall not distribute, exhibit or otherwise use this document for any other purpose. TikTok undertakes no obligation or responsibility to update any of the information contained in this document. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future performance.