TikTok search ads: how they work and what to bid on

TikTok search ads are ads that show up in TikTok's search results when someone types a query. There are two ways to run them: Automatic Search Placement, the old "search ads toggle", which is on by default and lets TikTok pick the searches, and a Search Ads Campaign, where you choose up to 1,000 keywords per ad group with broad, phrase or exact match.

The hard part is picking the keywords. When we checked 13 product searches for three example advertisers in TikTok's own search data on 30 September 2026, only 28 of the 202 topics that came back were phrases people type. The rest were TikTok's topic labels, which make poor keywords. Below: how each option works, how bidding works, and how to build a keyword list from real demand.

What TikTok search ads are: the toggle and the campaign

Both options put a sponsored video or image carousel on the search results page, next to organic videos. The difference is who chooses the searches.

Sources: TikTok's Automatic Search Placement page (updated September 2026), Search Ads Campaign setup (August 2026) and Search Ads keywords (July 2025). All product facts with their sources.

The search ads toggle

Automatic Search Placement, formerly the Search Ads Toggle, also shows your in-feed ad on the search results page, as a thumbnail among organic results, and in the search feed people scroll after tapping a result. TikTok's FAQ says keywords are "automatically created, matched, and connected with ads", and search delivery isn't guaranteed.

What you can do is block searches with negative keywords, using the search terms in your reports. Since the switch is on by default, check it before you publish.TikTok for Business).

The Search Ads Campaign

Choose "Search Campaign" at the campaign level and every ad group in it runs only on search results. Keywords sit on the ad group: type them, accept TikTok's suggestions, or upload an Excel file. A tapped ad opens as a normal in-feed video.

It launched in September 2024 with Traffic and Web Conversion (TikTok's objectives page). TikTok's August 2026 setup page lists Traffic, Sales, Lead generation and App promotion. For account setup, budgets and the Pixel, see our TikTok Ads Manager guide.

How keyword targeting works

Up to 1,000 keywords and 10,000 negative keywords per ad group, at least 20 keywords at launch, and three match types you can change mid-campaign (TikTok's match type page):

Phrase match on TikTok is looser than the name suggests. In TikTok's examples, "ombre lip blush" matches the keyword "LIP" because lip makeup is one of the keyword's meanings.

TikTok's optimization page recommends a three-step routine: launch on broad match to learn, move the searches that convert to phrase or exact, and add negatives from the Search Terms report. It also says to keep each ad group's creative close to its keywords, which in practice means one ad group per theme.

Placements and creative

TikTok says an ad's position on the results page depends on relevance and its own tests. The ads carry a "Sponsored" label (Shopify).

• Formats: video and image carousels, same specs as in-feed ads.
• Several creatives per ad group: allowed, but only one shows per search, and TikTok picks it.
• Spark Ads: supported, so a creator's organic video can run as your search ad. See our Spark Ads guide.

Our read: a search ad sits beside organic videos that answer the query, so it should answer it too. For "carry on packing hacks", show the packing, with your bag in it.

Bidding and budget basics

The usual account minimums apply: more than $50 a day per campaign and more than $20 a day per ad group (TikTok About Budget). The search-specific rules:

• Keyword-level bids only on Traffic. You can bid on a single keyword, under cost cap, or leave it blank to use the ad group bid. A keyword bid above the ad group bid can raise your actual cost per click.
• Conversions bid at ad group level. Web conversion campaigns use one target cost per result for the ad group.
• Budget at about 20 times your target. TikTok's example: a $10 target cost per conversion means about $200 a day.
• Give it time. TikTok says new search campaigns need 3 to 7 days to settle, and about 15 to 20 conversions or 60 to 100 clicks.

On results, the only figure is TikTok's own: in September 2024 it said advertisers running search ads alongside in-feed ads saw conversions rise 20% on average (reported by Tubefilter). TikTok publishes no method and no search CPCs; general 2026 cost ranges are on our Ads Manager page.

How to pick TikTok search ads keywords with real search demand

Ads Manager has a Keyword Planner that shows search volume and competition in 12 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia (TikTok Keyword Planner). Use it for the final country check. To find the words, TikTok's organic search data adds the exact phrases people type this week and how many organic videos you'd sit next to. It lives in Creator Search Insights, in the TikTok app and on desktop at tiktok.com/csi with a TikTok login, one search at a time with no export.

We ran it for three example advertisers: a dog food brand, an outdoor footwear retailer and a luggage brand.

Broad product words return TikTok's labels

Type "dog food" or "carry on luggage" and all 20 topics that come back are labels TikTok writes to group many searches, like "dog food and puppy feeding" or "carry on luggage sizes and capacity". All 174 labels in our pulls read between 1,862,958 and 4,809,456 searches a week, and every one started the week under 10,000 and ended it in the millions. They measure the size of a theme. Nobody types them, so bidding on them word for word wastes a keyword slot.

Specific seeds work better. "Carry on packing" gave 7 typed searches out of 20 and "salomon hiking boots" gave 5, while the plain category words gave none. Start from a use, a model, a breed or a brand. For the wider method, see our TikTok keyword research guide.

The typed searches, with our read on each

"Organic videos" is how many videos TikTok lists for that exact search. The last column is our read, not a TikTok rule.

Data: TikTok Creator Search Insights via TokConnect, pulled 30 September 2026: top 20 topics for 13 seeds ("dog food", "fresh dog food", "puppy food", "homemade dog food", "hiking boots", "salomon hiking boots", "waterproof hiking boots", "hiking boots for women", "carry on luggage", "carry on suitcase", "carry on luggage size", "carry on packing", "best carry on luggage"). Searches are TikTok's 7-day global figure. "Change" compares the last day with the first; "new" means under 1,000 on day one. Snapshot with all 202 topics.

Three things stand out. The typed searches are small next to the labels: all 28 sat between 52,094 and 292,187 a week. Luggage demand is mostly "how to pack", not "which suitcase", which tells a luggage brand what its ad should show. And 9 of the 28 had no organic videos. Our read: an ad on "how to pack jeans on carry on" has almost nothing to compete with. Daily numbers jump around, so rank by the 7-day figure.

Use autocomplete for keywords and negatives

TikTok's autocomplete shows phrases people type often enough to be suggested, without counts (suggestions snapshot). It fills a starting list fast and shows negatives before you pay for them.

• Luggage: keywords "carry on luggage packing tips", "size", "for men", "essentials". Negatives: "movie" (a film), and "air asia", "cebu pacific" and "philippines" if you don't sell there.
• Hiking boots: keywords "for women", "salomon", the misspelling "solomon", "columbia", "lacing". Negatives for a trail brand: "outfit", "fashion" and "style", plus places like "nairobi" and "sri lanka".
• Dog food: keyword "dog foods for shih tzu". Negatives: "42 dugg" and "song" (music), "vlogger" and "eating" (watching), and for a kibble brand "recipe" and "cooking".

Autocomplete is worldwide, so check each keyword in Keyword Planner for your country. Our read: with matching this loose, one-word negatives like "movie" beat long exact phrases.

A starting ad group, built from the data

For the luggage brand, our read on a first Traffic ad group looks like this:

1. Theme: carry-on packing. One video packing a week of clothes into your bag, with "carry on packing hacks" on screen.
2. Broad: carry on packing hacks, pack carry on bag, pack with me carry on only, carry on luggage packing tips, carry on luggage essentials.
3. Phrase and exact: "best way to pack a carry on", [how to pack jeans on carry on], [what size is a carry on luggage], [the best carry on luggage].
4. Fill to 20 or more with Keyword Planner's suggestions for your country.
5. Negatives: movie, plus any airline or country you don't serve.
6. After a week, read the Search Terms report, move winners to exact, and add new negatives.

Ask TokConnect about your own product and you get the searches, the labels and the organic video counts in one answer. Our TikTok search volume guide explains how to read them.

How we got these numbers

On 30 September 2026 we ran 13 searches through TikTok's Creator Search Insights data (the top 20 topics each: 260 topics, 202 unique) plus autocomplete for three seeds. Topics under 1 million weekly searches counted as typed searches (28); the rest as TikTok topic labels (174, all 1.86 million and up, worded like categories). "Searches" is TikTok's search popularity: the last 7 days, worldwide.

We have no ads data, so nothing here measures cost per click or conversions. Product facts come from TikTok's Ads Manager help pages, dated in the facts file. Organic demand shows which words people use; your Search Terms report shows which ones pay. For organic ranking, see how TikTok search works.