TikTok search ads in 2026: what Gulf brands can buy

TikTok has become a place where people look things up: somewhere to eat, something to buy, a trip to plan, a skill to learn. The platform has built an advertising business around those searches, and in 2026 it added brand pages that sit at the top of the results. For a brand advertising in the Gulf, the detail matters. The most controllable form of TikTok search advertising is sold in Saudi Arabia, but TikTok's own availability list does not yet include the UAE.

Automatic placement: your in-feed ads, also in search

Automatic Search Placement, previously known as the search ads toggle, extends ordinary in-feed ads into the search results page and the search feed. It is on by default, available globally and bought through the auction. It works with most objectives, including reach, video views, traffic, app promotion, lead generation and website sales. It also accepts negative keywords, so you can keep your ads away from searches that do not suit the brand.

Keyword campaigns: Saudi Arabia yes, the UAE not yet

The second route is the Search Ads campaign, which shows ads only on the search results page and only for keywords you choose. It launched in the US in September 2024. TikTok's availability page, last updated in April 2026, lists the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Australia. In Saudi Arabia it supports the website conversion and traffic objectives. Neither the UAE nor any other Gulf country is on the list.

The mechanics will feel familiar to anyone who has run search campaigns on Google:

• Broad, phrase and exact match types, which can be changed while the campaign is live.
• Up to 1,000 keywords and 10,000 negative keywords in each ad group.
• A keyword suggestion tool, a search terms report and an automated keyword option to build and trim the list.
• Video ads, carousel image ads, and search catalogue ads for sales and travel.
• A budget of roughly 20 times the bid, according to TikTok's launch guidance.

In its July 2026 preview, TikTok said Smart+, its automated campaign type, is expanding to Search Ads campaigns. It gave no date and no list of markets.

Search Hubs: a branded page above everything else

Search Hubs were announced at TikTok World in May 2026. A hub is a page owned by the brand that sits at the very top of search results. Branded Search Hubs, for the brand's own name, are generally available. Category hubs are in beta, and sponsor hubs for major cultural moments are in alpha. They are not bought in Ads Manager but through TikTok's sales team, and in June TikTok said they were available across the Middle East and North Africa. A companion product, Keyword Amplifier, adds clickable searches to creator videos that lead viewers into the hub.

The regional example is Visit Saudi, which TikTok says was the first advertiser in the region with a Branded Search Hub. It also ran search ads on terms such as travel to Jeddah and tourism in AlUla, and TikTok reports more than 1.5 million hub page views and 18 million engagements.

Statistics you can quote, and those you should not

These are the search figures TikTok itself has published:

• Billions of searches a day, up more than 40 percent year on year, with one user in four searching within 30 seconds of opening the app (June 2025).
• A purchase lift twice as high when a campaign includes dedicated search ads (September 2025).
• 86 percent of Gen Z internet users searching on TikTok every week, from a WARC study that TikTok cites.

Many numbers in pitch decks do not come from TikTok at all. The widely shared figure for US consumers using TikTok as a search engine comes from Adobe, and the Saudi equivalent from an academic survey. Claims that searches rose 174 percent, or that 40 percent of Gen Z in the UAE prefer TikTok to Google, could not be traced to any source. TikTok has not published a search statistic dated 2026.

What a Gulf brand should do now

• Keep automatic search placement switched on for most campaigns, and add negative keywords for searches the brand should stay away from.
• In Saudi Arabia, trial a keyword Search Ads campaign on high-intent terms: your brand name, your product categories and comparison searches.
• In the UAE, rely on automatic placement and on creator content that people find through search, until TikTok adds the market.
• Make creative that answers the search. A video showing the product doing what someone searched for works harder in results than a brand film.
• Read the search terms report every week, as you would on Google.

Search on TikTok is changing quickly, and the Gulf markets are not moving at the same pace. If you would like help deciding where search belongs in your TikTok spend, the ALXO team would be glad to talk it through.