TikTok’s launching a new user tracking option, which is designed help brands measure activity outside the app, without the use of tracking pixels.
Which given past controversies around TikTok tracking people’s activity without their permission seems somewhat risky. But the idea is that this will give advertisers more data to help them understand how their TikTok promotions lead to actual product engagement and purchase.
As reported by AdWeek, TikTok has been informing partners of a new option called “Engaged Session,” which will enable advertisers to target users who spend at least 10 seconds on a website or retailer landing page after clicking an ad.
As per AdWeek:
“TikTok says that the new tool is designed to ‘bring high-intent users to your website’ while providing insights into engagement metrics like Total Engaged Sessions and Cost per Engaged Session, metrics that ‘align closely with third-party analytics like Google and Adobe Analytics.’”
The idea is that these users have obviously been interested enough in your products to click through, so they’re more likely to go on to make a purchase. They just might need an extra nudge in that direction, and this new option provides an easier way to do that.
Though as noted, it does seem like a slight risk for TikTok, in terms of tracking user behavior. Various reports have suggested that TikTok tracks more user actions than other apps, with some still convinced that TikTok is overstepping its limits in the data that it collects from user devices.
Enabling ad targeting based on this could be a point of contention for some users, but it is fairly innocuous, and only uses basic info for retargeting.
Engaged Session will be made available under TikTok’s Traffic Objective, while all TikTok ad placements will be able to use it.
According to the notification sent to partners, Engaged Session is scheduled to become available to selected advertisers on July 31st.
