Data connections: Your secret to unlocking sales on TikTok

Data connections are the foundation of any successful campaign and the key to getting the most out of your investment on TikTok.

Today, we'll break down what data connections are, why they're important for your advertising campaigns, and how to set them up TikTok Ads Manager.

Understanding data connections

Data connections are the secure links that connect your brand's marketing data with TikTok Ads Manager. The signals received through these connections allow our systems to learn from actions on the user journey and accurately determine when and where to serve your ads, maximizing the chance of a conversion. Through data connections, advertisers on Tiktok also gain access to:

• Improved measurement: Brands and advertisers are able to measure campaign performance and ROAS with ease by combining insights from the consumer journey and the user experience on TikTok.

• Advanced solutions: Through improved measurement and improved performance, advertisers are able to use more sophisticated solutions like Video Shopping Ads, Value Based Optimization, and Smart Performance Campaign.

• Custom audiences: Data connections provide our advertisers the opportunity to build custom audiences to re-engage with previous visitors and build lookalike audiences allowing their ads to be seen by those who may be more likely to convert.

We categorize the user journey on TikTok as "onsite events" and the user journey on brand platforms as "offsite events." By having an understanding of both onsite and offsite events, advertisers can gain a complete picture of the customer journey. For example, which products they're likely to be interested in and how close they are to making a purchase. This allows for more informed decisions to be made by the advertiser to ensure that the right message is shared with the right users.

Unlock better ad performance through data connections

Advertisers can enable the privacy-safe sharing of offsite signals through our web and app tracking solutions, like TikTok Events API or TikTok Pixel.

User events that you share can also be enriched with contextual information, known as "parameters." Parameters—especially content_ID, which specifies a particular product, play an important role in the delivery and performance of product ads by matching the events you share with TikTok to the SKUs in your catalog.

Together, onsite and offsite signals power our dynamic ad formats and help our system choose which product, or type of product, to display in an ad. This not only enables better delivery of the ads for our advertisers, but also provides a more holistic overview of the user journey and experience once exposed to an ad.

Data connections in action

Now that we've covered what data connections are, let's look at an example of how they work.

1. An e-commerce advertiser has a goal of getting people to download their app and they have a catalog with 10,000 products, 3,000 of which are furniture-related.

2. A TikTok user named Thomas is interested in interior design and has recently been interacting with furniture ads on TikTok.

3. This means if the advertiser's TikTok campaign using Video Shopping Ads shows a furniture product to Thomas, he is much more likely to click on the ad and install the app versus being shown a different product, like a smart phone.

4. This insight can be gained from onsite TikTok events. But if the advertiser also shares offsite events—for example, Thomas's activities on their website, like viewing a product or adding it to his cart—we'd be able to understand his interests even better, such as what products he is looking at specifically.

5. The magic formula here is to use both onsite and offsite events together for a greater chance of engagement and conversions from your campaigns.

Set up your data connections and catalog for e-commerce success

Ready to get started using TikTok's e-commerce ad formats? We've compiled a handy checklist to set you up for success.

Step 1: Set up and post back signals

• If you haven't already, make sure you have basic data connections set up, meaning you are already sharing three required events (View Content, Add to Cart, Purchase). These, along with content_id, content_type, currency, and value parameters, are baseline requirements for catalog-based ad formats. For better data connection quality and more conversion opportunities, you'll want to follow TikTok's data connection best practices. Best practices means you are enabling both TikTok Pixel and Events API, sharing full-funnel events relevant to your customer journey, passing all supported parameters across all events and enabling automatic and manual advanced matching.

• Make sure your events are correctly set up in TikTok Ads Manager and Catalog Manager. If not, use our diagnostics tools to resolve any setup issues.

Step 2: Sync your product catalog

• Create a catalog in TikTok Business Center.

• Upload required catalog product parameters.

Step 3: Confirm your events-catalog match rate is ready

• Event match rate represents the percent of signals events shared that can be matched to SKUs in your product catalog using the "content_ID" parameter. A higher percentage indicates that more of your customers' product interactions are captured.

Data connections are key to maximizing your e-commerce ad performance on TikTok, and we can't wait to see what you'll achieve after laying down this foundation.