After blaming a recent outage on a U.S. power failure at one of its data centers, TikTok told advertisers they may notice “features or ads missing from campaigns,” according to an email reviewed by ADWEEK. “We’re working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center,” it continued.
TikTok added that the outage may leave advertisers experiencing “technical issues with monetization features in TikTok Ads Manager or through partners using TikTok APls.”
The platform’s rollout of its new joint venture in the United States, TikTok USDS, led by Oracle and a cadre of politically connected investors, seems to be stumbling out of the gate: Users reported they couldn’t upload videos, and some saw hours-old posts showing zero views or likes.
The hiccups come as the platform faces scrutiny over content suppression, including posts about the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
In the 24 hours around Sunday’s TikTok outage, advertisers interviewed for this story felt the pinch. Tinuiti saw “significant under delivery across a number of clients,” Jack Johnston, senior social innovation director at Tinuiti, told ADWEEK. CPMs climbed as brands chased eyeballs elsewhere, Meta climbing +12%–15%, YouTube Shorts +8–%10%, Snapchat +5–%7% — before settling back down once TikTok came back online.
In its email to advertisers, TikTok also noted that it’s “closely monitoring the delivery of campaigns.”
Beyond the outage itself, a second agency executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve industry relations said that their brand campaigns are ending early on the platform because of the outage. Meanwhile, clients are watching TikTok’s updated terms and conditions around immigration and citizenship data, which have sparked user backlash and raised advertiser concerns about potential impacts on user retention.
“This does not feel like business as usual on the buying side,” the executive said. “We’re hopeful this is short-term noise on the ads side.” Even as CPMs spiked on rival platforms, advertisers are keeping a close eye on TikTok for lasting damages.
Read the email TikTok sent to advertisers below.
