TikTok GMV Dropped, TikTok GMV Max Ads are known as a powerful tool for generating significant revenue for shops. However, there are cases where GMV Max doesn’t deliver the expected sales, or perhaps it performed exceptionally well initially—bringing in substantial revenue—but over time, despite spending the same budget, sales have noticeably declined.
If you are experiencing a situation where your ad spend remains the same but your revenue, ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), and ROI (Return on Investment) are falling, this is a warning sign. It indicates that you need to pay closer attention to your ad performance. Based on deep experience running TikTok Ads, specifically GMV Max, here are the 4 “Fatal Points” you might be overlooking if you find your TikTok GMV dropped.
Why Has Your TikTok GMV Dropped? 4 Critical Checks for GMV Max Ads
1. TikTok Policy Violations (Low Reviews, Shipping Issues)
The first and most common culprit is violating TikTok’s policies. When a shop violates these policies, it often results in a significant reduction in product visibility (shadowban or traffic limitation).
TikTok policies cover many areas, but for TikTok Shop, the critical ones usually involve:
- Late shipment rates
- Consistent negative reviews or low star ratings
- Listing products that violate community guidelines
Any of these issues will severely impact visibility, causing organic traffic and sales to drop. Even if you continue running GMV Max ads as usual, you will notice a clear decline in ROAS and ROI. The money spent will generate much less GMV compared to normal periods when your shop is in “good standing.”
Real-world experience:
I have managed clients (e.g., Shop A) who were hit by policy violations. The owner notified me immediately. We tracked the data from that specific date and found that sales and ROAS plummeted. In such cases, continuing to pump money into ads for Shop A might not be worth it. The strategic move is often to shift the budget to another shop or platform temporarily until the violation status is lifted.
The Fix:
This is an external factor that digital marketers often cannot control directly, as it relates to operations. The solution lies at the root cause:
- If ratings are low, improve product quality or include “thank you” cards to encourage 5-star reviews.
- If shipping is late, optimize your logistics to ensure on-time delivery.
2. Neglecting Affiliate Marketing (Few “Add to Showcase”)
To understand why your TikTok GMV dropped, you must understand how GMV Max works. It optimizes ads across all TikTok placements to maximize sales. This includes Product Cards (ads in Search or the Shop tab) and Video Anchors (videos with yellow product baskets).
Video Anchors come from two sources:
- Your Official Account: Videos you post on your own channel.
- Affiliates/Creators: Other people adding your product to their showcase/basket.
To get others to promote your products, you need to enable Affiliate Marketing in TikTok Shop. You can set a commission rate (%) to incentivize creators. Naturally, higher commissions attract more creators to pick up your product.
The Risk:
If you do not open Affiliate Marketing, you close the door on external creators. Your GMV Max ads can only be delivered through your own channel’s videos (and Product Cards). This means potential sales from affiliate videos become zero.
The Opportunity:
The more creators that have your product in their showcase, the more “ad inventory” or options the system has to deliver your ads. Creators produce diverse content—from real-life reviews to aesthetic showcases.
- Pro Tip: For some successful shops, 10-40% of their revenue comes from Affiliate Marketing, depending on the product category. Don’t let this revenue stream disappear.
3. Lack of Video Ads (Relying Only on Product Cards)
This point connects directly to the previous one. If you aren’t doing Affiliate Marketing, the pool of available videos for ads is already small.
However, the problem gets worse if your own TikTok Official Account also lacks video content. If you don’t post videos about your products, the GMV Max system has “no material” to deliver as video ads. It gets stuck running only Product Cards, which limits reach and engagement.
The Strategy:
At a minimum, your shop’s Official Account must have video content to feed the GMV Max algorithm. This opens up more sales channels because a massive number of users prefer to buy after watching a video ad on their Feed rather than just browsing the Shop tab.
4. Wasted Budget on Low-Quality Products or Creatives
This is a factor that Digital Marketers can directly manage and control through TikTok Ads Optimization.
Sometimes, the drop in sales comes from the campaign efficiency itself. You need to dive into your GMV Max campaign data:
- Check which campaigns have low ROI/ROAS.
- Drill down to the Product level: Is there a product consuming a lot of budget but generating few sales? If so, gradually turn off ads for that product.
- Drill down to the Creative level: Look at your videos. Is there a specific video spending high budget but yielding low returns? Remove it.
Why do this?
By cutting out the “dead weight” (poorly performing videos or products), you stop wasting money. This naturally lifts the average GMV, ROAS, and ROI of the entire campaign in the long run.
Summary: Fix the Root Cause to Recover Your Sales
If you notice your TikTok GMV dropped while running GMV Max ads, do not ignore it.
Start by investigating these 4 points to find the real cause. Whether it requires a short-term fix (optimizing ads) or a long-term solution (improving shop operations/policy compliance), taking action will ensure your ad spend returns to being profitable.
Ignoring these signs usually means the underlying problem remains unsolved, making your advertising inefficient. If you’ve checked these 4 points and still face issues, or if you’re looking for professional TikTok Ads Optimization to scale your business in Thailand, feel free to reach out for a consultation.
Get in touch with Digital Break Time for expert Digital Marketing services.
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Originally in Thai. Translated to English with the help of Gemini.
