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The weekly TikTok Shop newsletter hitting better than the ice cream truck jingle on a summer day
Reading Time: 4 min
Readability: Grade 2 (Halloween next week…..My kids want me to be a Saja Boy…….…. Kpop Demon Hunter*)
Launching soon: 31 October
‘The exact strategies we've used to scale over 120 TikTok shops’
DEEP DIVE
The Algorithm That Ate Itself
TikTok Shop Ads
TikTok Shop built a machine that worked brilliantly, forced everyone to use it, and watched it collapse.
Six months ago, GMV Max Ads were optional (TikTok’s own ad algorithm…. it does all the heavy lifting….. but you are giving up control).
Set an ROI target, let TikTok's algorithm hunt for buyers, watch orders roll in.
It worked.
Then TikTok made it mandatory. Within weeks, the magic died.
Most ads now hit "Not Delivering" status immediately. Strong creatives that previously converted sit frozen. The algorithm refuses to spend money even when sellers beg it to.
The Promise Was Simple
GMV Max pulled in all your existing content where your product was tagged. No creative uploads, no manual selection. Just set a budget, pick a target ROI, and launch.
That simplicity felt revolutionary.
You were buying outcomes, not wrestling with targeting and placements.
I loved it (I hated it at first, but I ran my own campaigns alongside GMV Max to see who was more effective…… I got schooled by AI 🤬).
The algorithm tested hundreds of combinations, found winners, and scaled them.
But that elegance concealed a fragile assumption:
That TikTok could optimize everyone's campaigns simultaneously without the system collapsing.
TikTok built a system smart enough to optimize individual campaigns, then forced it to optimize all campaigns at once.
As of the beginning of October ‘25, sellers were forced into GMV Max ads….. no more manual campaigns (signalling the ‘Death of the Media Buyer’ as I predicted).
Who Knew and Who Didn't
I posted about this on LinkedIn. The response split cleanly.
Every operator in the comments knew exactly what I meant. They shared war stories and workarounds. They were living it daily.
My DMs filled with confused messages from brand owners and agency leaders. "Wait, what's broken?" "Should we be concerned?" They had no idea because they weren't in the trenches watching campaigns flatline.
That gap is where e-commerce mistakes compound quietly:
Operators don't escalate because they assume it's their fault.
Brand owners don't audit closely enough.
Everyone keeps spending because stopping feels worse.
Even more so as Q4 is here
The Inverted Playbook
When setting up your GMV Max ad campaigns (the only method to run ads on TikTok Shop), you can only adjust 2 metrics: the budget and target ROI (like I said, ‘death of the media buyer’).
The old strategy: When setting up your GMV Max ads, set your ROI target high (8, 9, 10) and let the algorithm hunt for efficient sales. Then lower/increase the ROI target until you hit a profitable outcome,
That now kills your campaign instantly.
The new workaround:
Start your ROI target as low as possible. You're telling TikTok you'll break even just to get it to spend. Once it moves budget and gathers data, inch the target up slowly.
Run Creative Max alongside GMV Max to force the algorithm to test more creatives and unstick "Not Delivering" campaigns (these are additional ad features once the campaign is up and running).
GMV Max Ads were supposed to remove complexity.
Instead it added ridiculous workarounds.
What to Do Now
If you're running TikTok Shop ads, lower your ROI target and turn on Creative Max/Max Delivery. Don't expect profits. Expect data. Track what gets through the wall.
If you're a brand owner or agency leader, talk to whoever runs your campaigns this week. Ask what's broken and what workarounds they're testing. Don't wait for the monthly report.
Automation and AI work best when it's optional, transparent, and operating in a diverse ecosystem. The moment it becomes mandatory and uniform, it stops being intelligent. It becomes a bottleneck….. hence, the current state of GMV Max ads.
Google's search algorithm once surfaced the best content. Then everyone optimized for the same signals. Google started fighting spam instead of ranking quality. The algorithm didn't get dumber. The inputs did.
TikTok Shop just compressed that fifteen-year cycle into six months.
The lesson isn't to avoid automation. It's to stay nimble enough to survive when it breaks. 👊
That's it for this week 👊
But I need to ask a favour...
What did you think of today's newsletter?
Thanks for reading.
- Paul 👊
PS…. TikTok Shop Ads can be a disruptor…. if you set them up correctly. If you need a hand, email me and let’s chat 🚀
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