TikTok Kills Custom Identity: What Spark Ads Buyers Must Do Now

What changed

TikTok has discontinued Custom Identity, the feature that let advertisers run paid ads under a made-up display name and avatar, completely decoupled from any real TikTok profile. Beginning in early 2026, every new campaign must originate from a verified TikTok profile connected to a Business Center account. If your setup still relies on Custom Identity, you can't launch new campaigns until you migrate.

The practical consequence lands hardest on Spark Ads. Spark Ads (TikTok's format that converts organic posts, either from your own account or from a creator who has granted authorization, into paid placements) require a verified account link to function fully. No linked identity means no Spark Ads. That's not a minor feature gap; for many performance buyers, Spark Ads carry the highest-performing creative in the account because they inherit the social proof (likes, comments, shares) from the organic post.

TikTok published a five-step migration guide called F.I.R.S.T.: Foundation (create an Organization Account), Integrate (link it through Business Center), Roles (set team permissions), Spark (activate your Spark Ads from the verified identity), Track (measure and adjust). The framework is straightforward, but each step has account-admin dependencies that can stall a team if the right people aren't looped in early.

Two smaller workflow updates ship alongside: you can now edit Spark Ad text directly in the ad setup UI without going back to the source post, and post-authorization code duration (the window a creator's content stays authorized for use as a Spark Ad) is now configurable, which matters for cost control when you're running a large creator roster.

Who it affects

If you've run TikTok ads through an agency or in-house team that used Custom Identity as a workaround, keeping brand profiles clean, testing with throwaway identities, or running ads for clients without building out a TikTok profile, this closes that door. The effect is sharpest for DTC brands, app advertisers, and retail accounts that depend on creator whitelisting via Spark Ads and haven't completed Business Center account linking. It also hits agencies managing multiple brand accounts under one Business Center that haven't gone through the Organization Account setup for each client.

Why it matters

The mechanism here is worth understanding. Custom Identity worked because TikTok, unlike Meta, didn't originally require paid placements to connect to a real profile. That made it easy to spin up campaigns quickly, but it also meant the ad had no organic anchor: no follower base, no comment thread building up, no social proof accumulating. Spark Ads, by contrast, run from a real post on a real profile. The ad and the organic post are the same object, so engagement on the paid side rolls back into the organic post. That compounding signal is genuinely different from standard in-feed delivery.

TikTok claims 59.3% of advertisers saw CPA fall by at least 10% after linking accounts. That number is from TikTok's own data and hasn't been independently verified, so treat it as a directional claim, not a benchmark you should expect to hit. What is plausible: a verified profile creates continuity between paid and organic performance, which feeds TikTok's algorithm more consistent signals on what content drives conversions for your account. Whether that's worth 10% CPA improvement depends entirely on how strong your organic baseline is.

The compliance angle is the one to take seriously right now. This isn't a new feature you can optionally adopt. It's a hard cutoff for new campaign launches. Missing the migration means your team literally cannot start new campaigns.

The play

1. Audit your Business Center today. Confirm which ad accounts are already linked to a verified profile and which still rely on Custom Identity. Assign an account admin to complete Foundation and Integrate steps for any unlinked account this week. The metric: zero accounts in Custom Identity status before the deadline.

2. Run a Spark vs. standard in-feed split at equal budget ($500+ per leg over 7 days minimum) once your profile is verified. Measure CTR and CVR (conversion rate, meaning clicks that become purchases or installs). If Spark outperforms by more than 15% on CVR, shift budget toward it as your primary format.

3. Test shorter post-authorization windows on creator Spark Ads. If you're paying per authorization code and running 20+ creators, set a 7-day window on a test cohort vs. your default. Measure cost per authorization and delivery volume. The target is equivalent delivery at lower authorization cost.

4. Use in-setup text editing to tighten CTAs without re-requesting creator assets. Pick your five lowest-CTR Spark Ads, edit the overlay text in the setup UI, and relaunch. A 10%+ CTR lift on revised copy justifies making this a standard optimization step.

Watch-outs

The CPA claim should not set your internal target. TikTok benefits commercially from advertisers linking accounts and running Spark Ads, so the 59.3% figure serves their narrative. Measure your own before/after CPA with a real holdout period.

Account admin access is the hidden blocker. Setting up an Organization Account and linking through Business Center requires the right permissions on both the TikTok side and your Business Center. If a client or brand owns the TikTok profile and an agency manages the ad account, the linking step requires coordination that can take days. Start that conversation now, not the week of a campaign launch.

Finally, verified profiles create a public footprint. A brand that previously used Custom Identity specifically to avoid committing to a TikTok presence now has to build and maintain one. That's a different operational burden, and creative consistency between your organic posts and paid Spark Ads matters more than it did before.

The WhyItWon angle

Forcing all campaigns through a verified, organic-anchored profile changes what "winning creative" looks like on TikTok. A post that performs well organically and also converts at scale is a different thing than an ad built purely for paid delivery. With Spark Ads now mandatory infrastructure, the question of which creative to put behind spend, and whether it's strong enough to pull double duty as an organic post, becomes more consequential before you commit budget. That's exactly the prediction problem WhyItWon is built for: reading what's already working in your account and in the feed, then scoring which creative is likely to win before you spend to find out.