The network, which spans nearly 400,000 apps globally, ran for years as Pangle—which was first launched by ByteDance in 2018.
TikTok had been testing the network with U.S. users on a limited basis and is now opening it more broadly to U.S. and global advertisers, a TikTok spokesperson told ADWEEK.
The network sells ads inside TikTok’s own family of apps, as well as third-party apps, the spokesperson said. This covers 44% of the top 100 gaming apps in the U.S. Utility and productivity apps are emerging as its fastest-growing categories, the spokesperson added, but declined to share specifics.
“It creates more opportunities to connect with TikTok users as they move beyond TikTok to different apps,” said Neha Singla, managing director, product & client solutions, North America, TikTok, during a press briefing. “For people who use both TikTok and TikTok Ad Networks, these create 30% more touchpoints.”
According to Kate Black, evp, social strategy, Horizon Media, “historically, any type of brand safety and verification was not included within the Pangle placement.”
In September, TikTok added post-bid verification from Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify to the network.
IAS CEO Lidiane Jones said in a statement that the integration gives marketers “the full picture of their campaigns across viewability, invalid traffic, and brand safety, along with the confidence and transparency they need to turn media quality into a real driver of business growth.”
The short-form video app also plans to integrate with Zefr in the second quarter of 2027, TikTok confirmed with ADWEEK.
The network suits performance advertisers who are “less handcuffed” by brand regulations, Black said.
A TikTok spokesperson said advertisers can choose which apps their ads run on and can block specific apps.
Advertisers can opt in on TikTok’s Ads Manager to buy the network through TikTok’s automated media buying tool Smart+. They can add it to a campaign alongside TikTok placements or run a campaign on the network alone.
TikTok said its existing data privacy policies and ad policies apply to the network.
The U.S. push comes as TikTok moved its American app into TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC in January to comply with the divest-or-ban law. The venture controls U.S. user data, the algorithm, and content moderation. Advertising stays with TikTok’s global business, which runs the ad network.
Buying TikTok ads through Claude and Perplexity
TikTok is also making it easier to run ads from outside its own software.
The TikTok for Business MCP server, built on the open Model Context Protocol—an open-source standard that acts like a universal adaptor for AI models to securely connect to external tools—is now available as a connector in AI tools including Claude, Perplexity, Replit, Snowflake, and Manus, among others.
For advertisers, this means they can launch and manage TikTok campaigns from their Claude chat.
The demand is coming from the largest advertisers, according to a TikTok spokesperson. Those companies are supplementing the shrinking internal ad ops team with in-house AI. Typically, they build that AI on one platform, then want to plug every media partner into it.
Wayfair Canada is using the MCP to build campaigns, upload creative, and analyze performance, according to George Velonias, the company’s head of growth marketing.
“The TikTok MCP is indispensable to our AI-powered campaign workflows, including how we build campaigns, upload creative, and analyze performance,” said Velonias in a statement. “TikTok is a leader in helping brands leverage AI to grow.”