Starting September 1, TikTok will require all brands advertising products on TikTok Shop to use its AI-powered GMV Max tool, which completely automates campaign management to maximize sales, removing granular controls that advertisers previously had such as the ability to manually select audiences by age, gender, and location, control bidding strategies like CPC of CPA, and choose placements, such as on TikTok's feed versus partner apps.
Now merchants can only set budgets and ROI targets, and the algorithm takes over from there to determine ad placements, creative boosting, and spending.
The move was officially announced a few months ago, and beginning in July, GMV Max became the default and only supported campaign type for new TikTok Shop ads using the Sales objective. Now the mandate is no longer limited to Sales objectives, and TikTok is preparing to make GMV Max the only way to run TikTok Shop ads at all.
Many smaller sellers have embraced the tool, appreciating features like ROI Protection that issue credits if returns fall below 90% of goals, but larger advertisers are frustrated by the forced shift and lack of visibility into campaign data.
Ad buyers say GMV Max limits insights into geography, audiences, and influencer performance, making it harder to integrate TikTok results into broader marketing strategies. Agencies also argue that TikTok credits all Shop purchases during a GMV Max campaign to the tool, whether or not an ad was viewed, creating doubt around measurement accuracy.
Despite complaints, TikTok has positioned GMV Max as a time-saving solution for smaller sellers who rely heavily on TikTok Shop sales, with early adopters reporting strong results. Bigger advertisers who miss having more granular control over their campaigns will simply have to deal with it.
Last week I reported that Etsy was beta testing new ad tools for sellers that offer the option to use different strategies for advertisers spending at least $25/day. I criticized the company for its “spend more money and trust us, bro” ad management tools, which TikTok is now leaning towards as well. The difference being that Etsy never offered more granular control over ad spend, whereas TikTok is taking it away.
While ad platforms can argue that they're making it easier to advertise and that their AI can handle optimization better than humans, they are also simultaneously removing insights into how campaigns are actually performing, which isn't a great move in terms of transparency for the industry at large.
