TikTok Smart+ pushes performance ads toward automation-first execution

TikTok introduced Smart+, an automation suite that applies AI to performance campaigns across buying decisions and creative execution.

• Smart+ is positioned as an AI-led workflow that can optimize targeting choices and budget allocation alongside creative.
• The suite includes automated creative selection and AI-powered enhancements, treating creative as a variable input rather than a fixed set of ads.
• Smart+ incorporates creator-style content options directly in the campaign workflow, reducing the need for manual assembly across tools.
• The approach assumes strong inputs: consistent creative volume, well-defined conversion signals, and analysis that can separate results by asset and message.
• Teams using Smart+ trade some hands-on control for faster scaling, which can make it harder to diagnose why specific outcomes occurred without deliberate guardrails.