TLDR: Social platforms are no longer just places to scroll, they’re where people go to find things. TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube now function as search engines for a significant and growing share of users, particularly younger audiences who want to see real people, real places, and real products rather than a list of blue links.
Why social platforms are now search engines (and why it matters for paid)
A generation ago, the default response to any question was “Google it.” Now, for a significant portion of the population, particularly anyone under 35, the instinct is to go to TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube instead.
The reason is simple: social platforms deliver something Google doesn’t. If you’re researching a skincare product, you’re looking for a real person showing you how it sits on their skin. If you’re planning a trip, seeing actual footage of a place beats reading a review. If you want to know whether a pair of shoes are worth the money, you want to see them on a person.
For paid social, your ads need to be discoverable in search results. Users who are actively searching are higher intent than passive scrollers. If your paid content is built only for interruption and not for discovery, you’re leaving a meaningful part of the audience untouched.
The platforms have responded to this. TikTok has built out dedicated search ad formats. Instagram’s algorithm increasingly surfaces content based on caption keywords rather than hashtags. YouTube has always been a search engine. It now matters more than ever. Getting your paid content optimised for social search isn’t a future consideration. It’s something your competitors are either already doing or haven’t figured out yet.
Step 1: Research the keywords your audience is searching on social
The most accessible place to start is the search bar itself. On TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, the autocomplete function surfaces the most popular searches related to any term. Start typing a phrase relevant to your product or service and see what the platform suggests. Those suggestions represent real search volume from real users. They’re the platform’s way of telling you what people are actually looking for.
This isn’t the same as using Google Keyword Planner, and it doesn’t need to be. The goal at this stage is to understand the language your audience uses when they’re searching on social, which is often more casual, more specific, and more intent-rich than the terms they’d type into Google. Someone searching “Adidas Sambas review” on TikTok has very different intent to someone passively scrolling their For You page.
TikTok also has a Creative Centre with keyword insight tools that show trending search terms, search volume, and how terms are performing in ads. It’s worth building this into your research process, it gives you a more structured view of what’s gaining traction across the platform before you commit creative budget to it.
For paid social specifically, the exercise is about finding terms that align with purchase intent. Look for searches that suggest someone is close to a decision, comparing products, asking for recommendations, looking for reviews. Those are the moments where well-targeted search-optimised content can convert, not just reach.
Step 2: Write captions that include searchable keywords naturally
The role of the caption has changed. Hashtags are no longer the primary discovery mechanism they once were, people don’t search “#Sambas” on TikTok, they just search “Sambas.” What that means in practice is that the keywords now need to live in the caption itself, written naturally as part of the copy.
Keyword stuffing is noticeable, off-putting, and increasingly ineffective. Users can tell when copy is written for an algorithm rather than a person. The goal is to include searchable terms in a way that flows with the rest of the caption and sounds like something a human would actually write.
What that looks like in practice depends on the platform and the objective. On Instagram, only the first line or two is visible before the caption collapses, so that first line needs to hook the reader rather than lead with a keyword. The keyword can come naturally in the body of the caption once people have clicked through. A beauty business trying to appear for “nervous system reset facial” doesn’t need to open with those words, it can open with the hook (“most clients come in thinking they want a sculpted jawline, but this is what they actually need”) and bring in the specific term once the reader is engaged.
On TikTok, captions are shorter and people tend to read them less, but they still matter for searchability. Keep them concise, include your core searchable term where it fits naturally, and don’t try to do too much. The caption is there to support discoverability, not replace the video.
The broader principle applies across platforms: write for the person first and build your keywords in as a natural part of that. If you’re a restaurant in Mykonos, your caption should reference Mykonos because that’s where you are and it’s what people are searching for.
Step 3: Use text overlays with searchable terms in video content
TikTok indexes text that appears within video content. That means the words you put on screen, as on-screen text overlays, can contribute to your discoverability in search results, not just the caption or audio.
From an organic content perspective, on-screen text is already standard practice. Most reels and TikToks include some form of text hook at the start to pull viewers in. For paid social content built for search, the opportunity is to make those text overlays do double duty: hook the viewer and include a searchable term at the same time.
This doesn’t have to be heavy-handed. A simple overlay that reads “Best facial in Leeds?” or “The Samba review you actually needed” serves as a hook while also including the terms someone might search. The text is visible, the algorithm can read it, and the viewer gets an immediate signal about what the video is about.
On Instagram and YouTube, text indexing from video content works differently and is less reliable, but on-screen text still serves a purpose as a hook and engagement driver, so it’s worth including regardless. On TikTok, where text indexing is more established, making sure your text overlays include at least one searchable term is a low-effort optimisation with a measurable upside.
The same principle applies whether the content is a polished paid ad or a more lo-fi creative. The format matters less than whether the text is there and whether it maps to what your audience is searching for.
Step 4: Set up TikTok Search Ads
TikTok Search Ads are a relatively recent addition to the platform’s ad formats, and they represent a direct parallel to paid search on Google, except the creative is video-first and the audience is actively searching within TikTok’s own ecosystem.
When a user types a query into TikTok’s search bar, your ad appears among the organic content in the results. The ad is matched to relevant searches based on the keywords you target, your bids, and the quality and relevance of your creative. According to TikTok, 57% of users actively use the platform’s search function, and 23% perform a search within the first 30 seconds of opening the app, high-intent behaviour that most advertisers aren’t yet set up to capture.
To set up a TikTok Search Ad, go into TikTok Ads Manager and create a new campaign. Select Sales or Website as your objective, and choose Search Campaign as the campaign type. From there, the setup follows a familiar structure: choose your keywords, set your match types, set bids and budgets, and attach your creative.
Search Ads on TikTok typically have a higher CPC than standard In-Feed Ads, because of the intent signal, but CTR is correspondingly higher at around 2–6%. The keyword list per ad group should be focused, 10 to 50 keywords is a workable range. Review your search term reports regularly, especially in the early weeks, and add negative keywords for anything irrelevant.
Creative alignment matters here as much as it does on Google. The keyword, the ad, and the landing page all need to tell the same story. If someone searches “best running shoes for beginners” and clicks your ad, they need to land on a page about running shoes for beginners, not your general footwear homepage. The intent is specific; your response needs to be too.
Step 5: Optimise your landing pages for social-driven traffic
Social-driven traffic behaves differently to search traffic. Someone clicking through from a TikTok Search Ad or an Instagram post has been in a visual, fast-moving environment. They’re engaged, but they’re also easily lost. If the landing page they arrive on doesn’t immediately match the expectation set by the ad, they’ll leave.
The basics apply here: message match, page speed, and mobile optimisation. If the ad is about Sambas, the landing page needs to be about Sambas, not a general trainers category page. If the ad uses a specific visual or tone, the landing page should echo it. Any gap between what the ad promised and what the page delivers creates a moment of doubt, and doubt kills conversions.
For social-driven traffic specifically, it’s also worth thinking about the format of the landing page. These users are used to consuming content on a phone, in portrait orientation, in short bursts. Long blocks of text don’t hold their attention. Visual content that mirrors the style of the social content they just came from, real imagery, direct copy, a clear next step, will hold attention better than a traditional ecommerce or lead gen page.
UTM parameters are non-negotiable. Tag every piece of paid social content with campaign, source, medium, and content parameters so you can track where traffic is coming from and what it does once it arrives. Without this, you can see that social is driving traffic in aggregate, but you can’t tell which ads, which formats, or which search terms are performing and you can’t optimise what you can’t measure.
Step 6: Measure discoverability performance
Measuring social search performance requires looking in more than one place, and being clear about what each data source is actually telling you.
Platform-native reporting will show you engagement, reach, click-through rate, and cost per result within the platform. This is useful for understanding which ads are working and which aren’t, but it doesn’t tell the full story. Social platforms tend to report on their own contribution generously, and comparing ROAS from a social platform to ROAS from Google in isolation will almost always make social look weaker, because the intent and the stage of the customer journey are different.
GA4 gives you a last-click view of what social traffic does on site, which is useful as a sense-check but incomplete as a primary measure. Social content often influences decisions that convert elsewhere later. Someone who watches your TikTok on Tuesday and converts via direct traffic on Thursday won’t show as a social conversion in last-click reporting, but social was part of that journey.
The most useful way to evaluate social search performance at scale is to look at the overall picture: what’s happening to brand demand, direct traffic, and marketing efficiency ratio as social activity increases. If those numbers are moving in the right direction while social spend is running, social is contributing, even if the platform-level ROAS doesn’t reflect it.
For in-campaign optimisation, focus on what the platform data does show well: click-through rate by ad, cost per click by keyword, and which creative formats are driving engagement versus which are generating traffic without conversions. Pull back spend on anything driving cost without converting, and test small changes, a different hook, a different text overlay, on the ads that are working before scaling them up.
The goal is a reporting approach that neither ignores platform data nor takes it at face value. Use it to make tactical decisions about creative and keywords. Use broader channel data to evaluate whether social search is earning its place in the overall media mix.
For more information on how you can set up Search ads within TikTok, contact the team at Modo25, send us an email at [email protected].
