Knowledge Base

Overview

The TikTok Connector allows you to deliver first-party audiences from Narrative directly to TikTok for advertising targeting. Audiences are delivered to TikTok Ad Accounts (also called Advertiser Accounts) within your TikTok Business Center. This integration enables you to seamlessly activate your data across TikTok's advertising platform, reaching targeted consumers with precision.

The connector is available in Audience Studio and in My Data → Datasets → Connections tab.

Prerequisites

Before setting up the TikTok Connector, ensure you have:

• Active TikTok Business Center account
• One or more Ad Accounts within your Business Center
• Admin, Operator, or Owner permissions on the Ad Accounts you want to use
• Understanding of TikTok's object hierarchy (see below)

Understanding TikTok's Structure

TikTok uses a unique hierarchical structure for audience management:

Business Center (Top Level)
  └── Ad Account / Advertiser Account (Middle)
      └── Custom Audience (Bottom - max 400 per Ad Account)

How Narrative Distributes Audiences

Within Your Organization:

Narrative creates separate custom audiences for each Ad Account you select in quick settings. Each Ad Account receives its own independent audience with the same data.

Why Separate Audiences?

Unlike other advertising platforms, TikTok requires a unique audience object for each Ad Account. TikTok does not support sharing a single audience across multiple Ad Accounts via access control lists (ACLs). Each Ad Account must have its own Custom Audience.

Sharing Audiences Within TikTok

Between Ad Accounts in the Same Business Center:

You can manually share custom audiences between Ad Accounts in TikTok Ads Manager:

1. Go to Tools → Audience Manager
2. Select the audience you want to share
3. Click Share
4. Enter the recipient Ad Account ID

Between Different Business Centers:

Audience sharing across Business Centers is available only for allowlisted customers. Contact your TikTok representative if you need cross-Business Center sharing.

Limitations:

• Only Ad Accounts owned by a Business Center can share audiences
• Shared audiences remain editable by the owner; changes affect all recipients
• You must disconnect audiences from ad groups before deleting them

Installation

To install the TikTok Connector:

1. Navigate to Narrative's App Marketplace at https://app.narrative.io/apps
2. Select and install the TikTok Connector
3. Accept the terms of use

Creating a Profile

After installing the connector, you'll need to create a profile to connect your TikTok Business Center.

Setup Steps

1. Navigate to Installed Apps
   • From the Narrative dashboard, go to Installed Apps → TikTok Connector
2. Create a New Profile
   • Click "Create New Profile"
   • Enter a profile name and description
3. Prepare for Authorization
   • Before clicking "Connect to TikTok", ensure you are logged in to TikTok Business Manager
   • Make sure you are logged in to the specific Business Center and have access to the Ad Account(s) you want to deliver to
   • The OAuth process will automatically detect your TikTok account and available Ad Accounts
4. Connect to TikTok
   • Click "Connect to TikTok"
   • You will receive a TikTok OAuth URL from Narrative
5. Authorize Access
   • ⚠️ CRITICAL WARNING: This OAuth URL is valid for 24 hours only! If 24 hours pass, you will need to generate a new OAuth token.
   • Click the OAuth URL to be redirected to TikTok's authorization page
   • Review the permissions requested
   • Click "Confirm" to authorize Narrative's access to your TikTok Business Center and Ad Accounts
   • You'll be redirected back to Narrative
6. Verify Connection
   • Your profile status will update to "Connected"
   • The number of Ad Accounts found will be displayed
   • You can now create connections using this profile

Supported Identifier Types

TikTok accepts the following identifier types, mapped to Narrative's Rosetta Stone attributes:

Notes:

• All MAIDs (IDFA and ADID) are assumed to be SHA256-hashed in our platform
• All identifier attributes require type and value properties
• Generic identifier attributes (unique_id, mobile_id_unique_identifier) use filters to restrict to appropriate type values

Policy Refresh Schedule: 540 days (P540D)

For more information, see the TikTok API Documentation.

Email Normalization

Rosetta Stone email normalization will handle the following requirements automatically if you provide clear text emails. If you deliver SHA256-hashed emails, you must normalize them yourself prior to hashing:

Emails should be normalized before hashing:

• Converted to lowercase
• '+' and subsequent characters removed before '@'
• All '.' characters removed from username portion

Creating Connections to Datasets

Once your profile is set up, you can connect datasets to deliver audiences to TikTok.

Connecting a Dataset

1. Navigate to My Data → Datasets
2. Select a dataset that contains one or more of the supported identifier types
3. Click on the "Connections" tab
4. Select your TikTok Connector profile
5. Configure quick settings (see below)
6. Click "Connect" to establish the connection

Quick Settings (Connection Configuration)

These "Quick Settings" apply to individual deliveries to TikTok. Each connection can be configured independently.

Connection Type

Choose how you want to deliver your audience data:

• Deliver to New Audience: Narrative creates a new Custom Audience in TikTok
• Deliver to Existing Audience: Deliver data to an existing TikTok Custom Audience by ID

Settings for New Audiences

Audience Name:

• The name of the audience as it will appear in TikTok Ads Manager

Create New For:

• List of Ad Account IDs to create new audiences for
• Separate audiences will be created for each Ad Account specified

Settings for Existing Audiences

Existing Audiences:

• Map of Ad Account IDs to arrays of audience IDs
• Format: {"advertiser_id": ["audience_id_1", "audience_id_2"]}
• Allows you to deliver to multiple existing audiences across different Ad Accounts

Mixed Configuration

You can use both new and existing audiences in a single connection:

• Create new audiences for some Ad Accounts
• Update existing audiences for other Ad Accounts
• Important: An Ad Account ID cannot appear in both create_new_for and existing_audiences fields

Additional Settings

Historical Data Enabled:

• Toggle to deliver all existing data in the dataset versus only new data added after the connection is established

Deliver All Data:

• When enabled, delivers data currently present in the dataset
• When disabled, only new data written to the dataset after the connection is configured will be delivered

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Connection settings are immutable. You cannot modify Ad Account selections after creating a connection. To change Ad Account distribution, you must create a new connection.

Usage with Narrative API

For developers integrating via the Narrative API, the TikTok Connector supports quick settings validation:

Validation Types:

• Structure validation: Business rules validation (e.g., at least one audience target required)
• TikTok API validation: Validates audience existence in TikTok

Refer to the Narrative API documentation for detailed integration guidance on using connector quick settings programmatically.

Connector Restrictions and Limits

Per Ad Account Limits

• Maximum audiences: 400 custom audiences per Ad Account
• Audience updates: 24 update operations (APPEND, REMOVE, REPLACE) per day

Platform-Wide Restrictions

• Minimum audience size: 1,000 unique users required for targeting
• Audience processing time: Up to 48 hours for new audiences to become active
• Audience membership duration: Configurable from 1 to 365 days (users remain in audience for specified period)

Quick Settings Constraints

• Immutable connections: Cannot modify Ad Account selections after creating a connection
• Must create a new connection to change Ad Account distribution

Troubleshooting

OAuth URL Expired

Problem: The OAuth authorization URL has expired.

Solution:

• OAuth URLs are valid for 24 hours only
• Generate a new OAuth token by starting the profile creation process again
• Complete the authorization within 24 hours

Audience Not Found

Problem: Cannot find or connect to a specific audience.

Solution:

• Verify the audience ID is correct
• Ensure the audience exists in the specified Ad Account
• Check that you have appropriate permissions (Admin, Operator, or Owner) on the Ad Account

Minimum Audience Size Not Met

Problem: Audience cannot be used for targeting.

Solution:

• TikTok requires a minimum of 1,000 unique users for targeting
• Ensure your dataset has sufficient records to meet this threshold
• Wait for audience processing (up to 48 hours) before the size is reflected

Connection Issues

Problem: Unable to establish or verify connection.

Solution:

• Verify Business Center and Ad Account IDs are correct
• Confirm you have the required permissions (Admin, Operator, or Owner)
• Check that the Ad Account is within the specified Business Center
• Ensure your TikTok Business Center account is active and in good standing

Audience Sharing Issues

Problem: Cannot share audiences between Ad Accounts or Business Centers.

Solution:

Within Same Business Center:

• Use TikTok Ads Manager to manually share audiences
• Go to Tools → Audience Manager → Select audience → Share → Enter recipient Ad Account ID
• Only Ad Accounts owned by the Business Center can share audiences

Between Business Centers:

• Cross-Business Center sharing is available only for allowlisted customers
• Contact your TikTok representative to request allowlist access

Related Resources

• Advertising Activation Platform Connectors Overview
• Best Practices for Audience Building