The path a consumer takes from seeing a product to buying it has never been more convoluted.
The decades-old model of “last-click attribution,” which gives all the credit for a sale to the final touchpoint, increasingly fails to capture the value of earlier brand introductions.
That is the challenge TikTok aims to solve with an expansion of its measurement tools designed to give advertisers a more holistic view of the customer journey, said Ann Nguyen, global head of measurement, product solutions and operations at TikTok, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
Bridging the gap to Google Analytics
To give advertisers a clearer picture of performance, TikTok is now enabling integrations with third-party tools, beginning with Google Analytics. The goal, according to Nguyen, is to help advertisers see the platform’s impact within the reporting dashboards they already use daily, allowing them to optimize campaigns based on a more complete data set.
“Our early testing is showing that advertisers who saw performance improvements from third-party optimization are seeing on average a 54% increase in conversions and a 27% decrease in cost per actions in their Google Analytics results,” Nguyen said. She added that, for early testing, the results are “tremendous and ensures that advertisers can see more business results for their same dollar spent.”
The move happens as “walled gardens” aim to provide more interoperability with external measurement providers, a response to persistent advertiser demand for transparent, cross-channel verification of their media investments.
Accounting for the ‘assisted’ conversion
Beyond direct integrations, TikTok is also rolling out a feature called Assisted Conversions, designed to quantify the platform’s influence even when it is not the last touchpoint before a sale. The tool helps identify which channels users ultimately convert on when TikTok has played an earlier, influential role in their decision-making process.
“We’ve all had experiences where we’ve seen an ad on a platform that was really compelling, likely TikTok. And then we got a promotion email that same day,” Nguyen said. “In last-click attribution, that conversion would be associated with email, but TikTok primed the click and the conversion.”
These new offerings work in tandem, she explained. While the Google Analytics integration helps advertisers capture more click-based conversions, the Assisted Conversions feature is meant to highlight the platform’s view-based impact. “We are offering advertisers more tools to drive the performance results in these existing tools that both demonstrate and increase TikTok’s impact,” Nguyen added.
From performance engine to brand powerhouse
While these tools focus heavily on performance metrics, Nguyen was keen to position them within a full-funnel strategy. She argued that TikTok’s role is dual, serving as both a performance driver and a brand-building platform where consumers discover new products.
“What we’re seeing is TikTok playing multiple roles across the conversion journey and driving full-funnel impact,” Nguyen said. For advertisers looking beyond immediate conversions, she pointed to more advanced tools like unified lift studies, which measure brand and sales lift together, and media mix modeling (MMM).
This push for more sophisticated measurement is part of a wider effort at the company to build out a comprehensive ad-tech suite. Recent launches include TikTok Symphony, a generative AI tool for ad creation, and TikTok Market Scope, a first-party analytics platform. Nguyen noted the company recently enhanced its MMM capabilities to include organic and earned data, giving brands what she called a measure of “TikTok’s full impact.”
