- TikTok expanded Smart+ with creative automation, ad preview tools and efficiency controls.
- The update directly targets advertiser complaints about lack of control in automated campaigns.
- New features aim to preserve automation benefits while giving marketers clearer previews and safeguards.
What changed in Smart+
TikTok has updated Smart+ — its automated campaign suite — to include creative automation, new ad preview tools and several efficiency features. The company framed the changes as enhancements designed to make automation more practical for advertisers who previously reported frustration with opaque or overbearing automated control.
Why this matters
For months, advertisers have pushed back against ad platforms that hand too much campaign control to automated systems without clear visibility. TikToks Smart+ changes aim to reduce that grip: creative automation helps generate and assemble assets more quickly, ad preview tools let marketers see how automated variations will appear in the wild, and efficiency controls add guardrails so campaigns arent purely driven by algorithmic decisions.
These adjustments could shift advertiser behavior. Brands that avoided Smart+ because they feared wasted spend or surprise creative runs may now re-evaluate. At the same time, agencies and performance teams gain more reason to test automated setups again, balancing speed and scale with manual oversight.
How the new features work (overview)
- Creative automation: Automates asset generation and format variations so teams can produce more creative permutations without starting from scratch. This is meant to speed up testing and reduce resource bottlenecks.
- Ad preview tools: Show advertisers how generated or dynamically assembled ads will actually look, across placements and formats, before those ads go live. That preview window is designed to reduce surprises and brand-safety concerns.
- Efficiency and control features: Include settings that let advertisers limit or guide automated bidding and delivery, so campaigns can remain efficient while keeping human guardrails.
Advertiser reaction and impact
Early signals suggest these are practical fixes rather than headline-grabbing innovations. Advertisers worried about losing control will welcome preview options and clearer efficiency settings; creative teams should find the automation helpful for scaling tests. However, uptake depends on how transparent and easy-to-use TikTok makes these tools, and whether performance matches the promise of lower wasted spend and better creative outcomes.
What marketers should do next
Marketers interested in Smart+ should:
- Test the preview and efficiency controls on a small scale before full deployment.
- Use creative automation to generate more hypothesis-driven variants for A/B testing.
- Monitor spend and placement closely during initial runs to confirm the new safeguards behave as expected.
Overall, TikToks Smart+ updates address the core complaints advertisers raised about automated campaign control: lack of visibility and perceived loss of manual safeguards. If the tools perform as described, they could make automated campaigns more trustworthy and widely adopted among brands that had previously held back.
Image Referance: https://ppc.land/tiktok-just-made-its-smart-automation-actually-usable-for-advertisers/