Shopify + TikTok Ads: data sharing levels, Events API and catalog sync

What this integration unlocks

• One-click TikTok Pixel installation from the Shopify admin
• Server-side events through the Events API at the Enhanced or Maximum data sharing level
• Advanced Matching, sending customer information that helps TikTok attribute events
• A marketing catalog built from your Shopify products for catalog-driven ads
• Product sync to TikTok Shop, with orders and inventory managed in the Shopify admin

Setup steps

1. 1

   Install the TikTok app and connect three accounts

   The Shopify app is now simply called TikTok, published by TikTok Inc. and free to install, with ad spend billed to your TikTok ad account. Once installed, open TikTok under Sales channels in the Shopify admin. You connect or create three accounts: TikTok for Business, a Business Center, and a TikTok Ads Manager account.

   Connect the Business Center you will actually run ads from. The catalog is created under it, so connecting a throwaway one means rebuilding later.

2. 2

   Choose the data sharing level: Standard, Enhanced or Maximum

   This one setting decides whether you get the Events API at all.

   Standard uses the TikTok Pixel only, which browser ad blockers can stop from collecting data. Enhanced adds the Events API and Advanced Matching to the pixel. Maximum adds Shopify APIs and In-App Shopify Checkout on top of that. For most stores spending real budget, Enhanced is the minimum, since it is the lowest level that sends server-side events. Then select Create Pixel for a new pixel, or select an existing pixel if you already have campaign history on one.

3. 3

   Remove any manually installed TikTok pixel

   Stores that ran TikTok before the app often still have a pixel in the theme, in GTM, or in a custom pixel under Customer events. Leaving it in place while the app also fires the pixel sends each event twice.

   TikTok can only deduplicate events that share the same event name and event_id. Its rules merge or drop matching pixel and Events API events received within 48 hours of the first one. A stray manual pixel is unlikely to share the app's event_id, so TikTok cannot recognise it as a duplicate. Remove it rather than relying on deduplication.

4. 4

   Check the marketing catalog the app creates

   After the Business Center is connected, TikTok creates a marketing catalog automatically, using the primary market set in your Shopify store settings. If you sell in several markets, check that the primary market is the one you want to advertise first.

   Product status shows as approved, pending or disapproved under Settings > Product Catalog in the app. Fix disapprovals on the Shopify product so the change carries through the next sync.

5. 5

   Set attribution windows before you publish

   TikTok sets attribution at the ad group level. Click-through windows can be 1, 7, 14 or 28 days, and view-through can be off, 1 day or 7 days. Attribution settings cannot be changed once an ad group is published. Changing them means a new ad group.

   Decide the windows before launch and keep them consistent across ad groups, otherwise you are comparing ad groups measured under different rules. If you include view-through, TikTok will credit itself with purchases from people who saw an ad and did not click, which is why its numbers run ahead of Shopify's.

Common issues

Common questions