TikTok Search Ads: how to set up a Search Ads Campaign

TikTok has two ways to show ads in search. A Search Ads Campaign is keyword-based and runs only on the search results page. Automatic Search Placement isn't keyword-based: it lets your ordinary in-feed ads also appear in search.

• Search ads are labelled Sponsored and can autoplay as people scroll the results.
• Their exact position on the results page varies.

Sources: TikTok Business Help Center: About Search Ads Campaign, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About Automatic Search Placement, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: Search Ads Campaign availability, checked 15 October 2026

TikTok's steps for a keyword-based search campaign:

1. In TikTok Ads Manager, create a campaign with a supported objective and select Search campaign.
2. Set the campaign budget strategy, and turn on a catalogue campaign if you have a product catalogue.
3. In the ad group, add a name, then choose optimisation and bidding.
4. Add keywords, either picked from suggestions or uploaded in bulk.
5. Set the budget, schedule, targeting, placements and brand safety.
6. At ad level, add the identity, ad text, video or carousel creative, call to action, destination page and tracking.

• Supported objectives: TikTok's setup page (updated August 2026) lists Traffic, Sales, Lead Generation and App Promotion. An older objectives page (August 2025) mentions only web conversions and Traffic.
• TikTok recommends a budget 20 times higher than your bid.
• Aim for at least 20 keywords per ad group. The maximum is 1,000 keywords and 10,000 negative keywords per ad group.
• Keywords can be uploaded from an Excel file with keywords in column A.
• The Traffic objective doesn't need a Pixel or Instant Page.

Sources: TikTok Business Help Center: How to set up a Search Ads Campaign, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About Search Ads Campaign objectives, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About Search Ads keywords, checked 15 October 2026

Check TikTok's availability page before planning, because the market lists change.

• Buying type: auction only.
• Traffic campaigns: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Spain, Germany, France and Saudi Arabia.
• Web conversion campaigns: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Brazil.
• Lead Generation: United States only.

Source: TikTok Business Help Center: Search Ads Campaign availability, checked 15 October 2026

Negative keywords stop your ads showing for irrelevant searches. The match type depends on how you type them:

• Negative keywords don't block plurals, misspellings or synonyms, so add each variation.
• Capitalisation doesn't matter: every casing is blocked.
• The Search Terms report shows the real searches your ads matched, a good source of new negatives.

Sources: TikTok Business Help Center: About negative keyword match types, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About Search Ads keywords, checked 15 October 2026

TikTok picks which search ad to show based on how closely the search, your keywords and your creative relate. Its tips:

• Group related keywords into one ad group and use creative about that product.
• Put your keywords in the ad title and description.
• In carousel ads, make the first image show the product with keyword text or a selling point.
• Make sure the landing page delivers what the ad promises.
• Start keywords on broad match, then narrow to phrase or exact once the campaign is out of its learning phase.

Sources: TikTok Business Help Center: Tips for Search Ads creative, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About Search Ads keywords, checked 15 October 2026

Common reasons, from TikTok's search ads pages:

• Automatic Search Placement makes ads eligible for search but doesn't guarantee they'll show. Relevance, budget and competition all count.
• Your keywords are still under review, or some weren't approved. Check the ad status.
• Your target market isn't supported for that objective.
• Too few conversions: for web conversion campaigns, TikTok suggests aiming for more than 20 conversions in the first week to get through the learning phase.

Sources: TikTok Business Help Center: About Automatic Search Placement, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: List of ad statuses and definitions, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: Search Ads Campaign availability, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About Search Ads Campaign objectives, checked 15 October 2026

Zolyp, which publishes this guide, is an AI social media manager: it plans, writes, designs and schedules posts for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads, and you approve the week before anything goes out. It doesn't buy search ads. It writes each TikTok description around what the video is about, which is the organic side of being found in TikTok search.