What TikTok’s Removal of Custom Identity Targeting Means for Marketers
/For years, TikTok has been the launchpad where new artists break, and catalog music gets another chance to shine. From Lil Nas X to Ice Spice, careers have been built because the platform rewards authenticity and organic fan connection. Now, TikTok is doubling down on that formula by deprecating “Custom Identity” — the feature that allowed advertisers to run Ads under a dark profile and image that wasn’t connected to a real TikTok account.
But starting in 2026, All ads must be tied directly to an authorized TikTok account.
At first glance, this might feel like a restriction. But for artists, labels, and music marketers, it’s actually a massive opportunity. By forcing ads to connect directly to real artist profiles, TikTok is ensuring that every campaign drives not just streams or ticket sales, but long-term fan growth.
⚙️ What’s Changing
Previously, advertisers had two options:
TikTok Account → Ads run under an authorized artist or label TikTok account.
Custom Identity → Ads could run under a fabricated profile with no organic footprint.
Going forward, Custom Identity disappears. Ads must be tied to TikTok accounts via Business Center. That means:
The profile name, image, and engagement all come from the artist’s TikTok account.
Ads can directly drive users to follow, engage, and interact with the artist’s TikTok page.
💡 Why This Benefits Music Marketers
This shift isn’t just housekeeping. It’s a fundamental improvement for how artists grow their presence on TikTok:
Authenticity Wins
Fans don’t want to connect with faceless ads. They want to follow the artist. By removing Custom Identities, every Spark Ad now deepens the bond between an artist and their audience.Organic + Paid in One Flywheel
Ads don’t just sell tickets or streams — they grow TikTok profiles. With the new system, a “+ Follow” button is baked into ads, and clicks redirect to the artist’s page. Every campaign doubles as profile growth.Smarter Algorithmic Learning
TikTok’s recommendation system thrives on organic signals. Ads tied to real profiles let TikTok’s algorithm learn from fan behavior, ensuring better optimization and stronger campaign performance.
📈 The Wavo Advantage: Turning Ads Into Audience Growth
At Wavo, we’ve built our Audience Dashboard to help music marketers capitalize on this shift. By connecting your TikTok profile directly to our platform, you unlock a new layer of visibility:
Track how ads drive real fan growth. See not just clicks or CPMs, but how many new followers and engagements your campaigns generate on an artist’s TikTok page.
Visualize the ad-to-fan journey. For the first time, you can connect media spend directly to artist presence on TikTok — how streams, ticket sales, and social momentum all tie back to TikTok profile growth.
Build long-term fanbases, not just one-off campaigns. Instead of ads living in isolation, every dollar spent contributes to a compounding effect: growing the artist’s owned audience on TikTok.
Real-World Applications for Music Marketers
Pre-release buzz: A label promoting a single can see which ad sets drove the biggest follower spike in the week leading up to release day, helping them double down on winning creative.
Touring campaigns: Managers can measure how ads for an upcoming tour don’t just sell tickets but also grow the artist’s TikTok following in each tour city — valuable for future targeting.
Catalog promotions: When pushing older tracks, marketers can track whether ads are helping revive interest not just in streams but in TikTok engagement, fueling UGC around back catalog.
Creator collaborations: With the dashboard, you can isolate the impact of creator-driven Spark Ads versus brand-owned ads, making it clear which strategy moves the needle most.
🚀 The Bigger Picture
Deprecating Custom Identity closes the door on a workaround, but opens the door to something far more powerful: measurable fan growth at scale.
TikTok is the cultural engine where new artists break, and this change ensures that every campaign you run feeds directly into the place where fans engage most: the artist’s profile.
With Wavo’s Audience Dashboard, music marketers now have the tools to see, prove, and scale that connection.
This isn’t just compliance with a new TikTok rule. It’s the start of a smarter era in music marketing — where ads don’t just sell, they build artists’ careers.