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TikTok Audiences

TikTok Audiences lets you keep a TikTok Custom Audience in sync with a dataset of user identifiers (for example, hashed email or phone).

Introduction to TikTok Audiences​

  • Goal: keep a TikTok Custom Audience up to date with your upstream audience table.
  • How it works (high level): we periodically upload a file of identifiers to TikTok for a selected advertiser; TikTok then adds/removes users from the audience based on that file.
  • Official TikTok docs:
    TikTok Business API – Custom Audience File Upload.

Authentication and Access​

  • Connection: authenticate the TikTok Audiences destination using TikTok OAuth.
  • Permissions: make sure the TikTok account you connect has access to the advertiser(s) you want to manage and can create/update Custom Audiences.
  • Advertiser selection:
    • The Advertiser dropdown is dynamically populated from TikTok using your access token.
    • All audiences created/updated by this destination live under the advertiser you select.
  • Audience configuration:
    • Audience name (optional): if set, we use this as the TikTok audience name; otherwise we use the stream title.
    • Identifier type / data contract: pick one of the supported contracts (EMAIL_SHA256, PHONE_SHA256, GAID_SHA256, IDFA_SHA256) to match the identifiers in your source.

Troubleshooting common issues​

  • Authentication errors
    • Re-run the TikTok connection flow and ensure you complete all consent steps.
    • Verify that the TikTok account still has access to the advertiser; access can change if you are removed from a Business Center or ad account.
  • Advertiser not appearing in the dropdown
    • Confirm that the advertiser ID is part of the TikTok account you authenticated with.
    • Check TikTok Business permissions (you may only see advertisers your user or app is allowed to manage).
  • Audience not updating
    • Make sure the stream is connected to the correct Advertiser and audience name.
    • Verify that your data matches the chosen data contract (correct identifier field, hashing/formatting, and required columns).
    • Check that new/removed rows are actually being produced by the upstream model; if nothing is changing, TikTok won’t receive new files.
  • Identifier formatting and hashing issues
    • For PHONE_SHA256, ensure phone numbers can be normalized to E.164 (include country codes where needed).
    • For email/IDFA/GAID identifiers, confirm you are sending strings and, if you pre-hash, that they are exactly SHA‑256 of the normalized value.

Hashing and normalization​

  • When Apply hashing (SHA256) is enabled, Extract trims and lowercases email, IDFA, and GAID identifiers before hashing.
  • Phone identifiers are normalized to E.164 before hashing.
  • More detail: Identifier Hashing and Normalization.

Data Contract Information​

audience_email​

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audience_phone​

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audience_gaid​

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audience_idfa​

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