# TikTok ad research Human Guide

## What This Is For
Supports paid TikTok ad intelligence, not organic creator or content discovery. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for social content: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the TikTok ad research agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for TikTok ad research.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the TikTok ad research guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Route the request with the table above.
- Apply `references/shared-contract.md`.
- Apply the selected workflow reference.
- Run the narrowest collection chain that can answer the first pass.
- Stop after the first pass and report scope, evidence, limits, and next
- Choose the smallest matching command or workflow from the user input and run
- Readiness diagnostics: `postplus doctor --skill tiktok-research`.
- If an owned CLI or script command fails, report the exact error and stop. Do
- Inspect a route with `postplus research run <route> --help` only when its
- Run `postplus research run <route> --<query/url/handle/hashtag flags> --limit
- Keep the first pass bounded; expand only after inspecting the first result.
- If the CLI returns a quote-confirmation challenge, run

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Reference Index, First Question, Run Discipline, Public Command Boundary.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- | Mixed paid and organic | Run separated paid and organic lanes; never fill one lane with the other |
- Do not ask for credentials, private exports, retry strategy, cookies, or music
- Do not present a public sample as full TikTok truth. Do not use paid ads as
- organic creator evidence. Do not use organic videos as paid ad proof. Use only
- `references/shared-contract.md`; do not inspect fixtures or product mappings.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the TikTok ad research human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the postplusai/postplus-skills skill entry for `tiktok-research`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# TikTok Research

Use this as the TikTok research entrypoint when the user wants public TikTok
evidence for a growth, marketing, creator, audience, competitor, or paid
creative decision.

TikTok music/archive download is not part of the released public surface. Apply
shared rulebook and user-guidance rules from `postplus-shared`.
When a supported command completes but evidence is empty, sparse, noisy,
off-topic, or the wrong record type, apply the `postplus-shared` reference
`research-quality-recovery.md`; hard execution errors still fail fast.

## Reference Index

Always apply `references/shared-contract.md` before running a route.

| User asks for | Apply |
| --- | --- |
| Brand account, competitor account, profile health, account comparison | `references/account-and-competitor-audit.md` |
| Organic examples, hooks, hashtags, formats, competitor videos, related videos | `references/organic-benchmark.md` |
| Comments, audience voice, objections, FAQ, phrase bank, buyer language | `references/audience-voice.md` |
| Creators, UGC makers, KOL/KOC, profile enrichment, creator shortlist | `references/creator-discovery.md` |
| Paid ads, paid hooks, CTA, offers, region/objective ad examples | `references/paid-ads.md` |
| Product demo fit, ecommerce angle, buyer objection, content-to-offer fit | `references/product-content-fit.md` |
| Launch campaign, hashtag challenge, branded activity, competitor campaign | `references/campaign-scout.md` |
| Market, region, language, cross-border localization, local angle comparison | `references/market-localization-scout.md` |
| Profile facts only | Apply `references/shared-contract.md`, then run a bounded `tiktok-profiles` or `tiktok-users` lookup |
| Mixed paid and organic | Run separated paid and organic lanes; never fill one lane with the other |
| Shop, LIVE, private analytics, backend audience, GMV, conversion, hidden contacts, exact targeting, spend, ROAS | Stop or ask for a supported public TikTok scope |
| Music/archive download or audio extraction | Not provided on the current public surface. Say so and stop; analyze user-provided local files through `media-router` instead |
| Cross-platform request | Run only the TikTok lane here; hand off other platforms |

## First Question

Ask one question only when the answer changes platform, route,
public/private boundary, first-pass scope, or output shape.

| Missing | Ask |
| --- | --- |
| Platform | `Which platform should I use first?` |
| TikTok seed | `Please give one TikTok seed: keyword, hashtag, profile, video URL, competitor, product, creator criteria, or paid-ad scope.` |
| Account audit without account | `Send the TikTok handle/profile URL, or tell me the brand and closest competitors to use as search seeds.` |
| Ecommerce fit without product | `What product, audience, market, or offer should I test against TikTok evidence?` |
| Campaign scout without campaign seed | `Send one campaign hashtag, slogan, brand profile, competitor, launch term, or example video.` |
| Localization without market | `Which market or language should I compare first?` |
| Audience voice without videos | `Send public TikTok video URLs, or give a keyword, hashtag, profile, or competitor so I can build a shortlist first.` |
| Creator discovery without seed | `Give one niche, product, hashtag, competitor, customer type, video URL, or collaboration goal.` |
| Paid ads without scope | `What paid scope should I sample: category, competitor, region/language, objective, hook, offer, or keyword?` |
| Private/backend request | `This needs public evidence. Should I continue with public TikTok examples instead?` |

Do not ask for credentials, private exports, retry strategy, cookies, or music
archive details.

## Run Discipline

1. Route the request with the table above.
2. Apply `references/shared-contract.md`.
3. Apply the selected workflow reference.
4. Run the narrowest collection chain that can answer the first pass.
5. Stop after the first pass and report scope, evidence, limits, and next
   action.

Result record shapes for every research route are documented in the
`postplus-shared` reference `dataset-item-schemas.md`; consult it before
writing result-processing code, and probe a single record only to verify.

Do not present a public sample as full TikTok truth. Do not use paid ads as
organic creator evidence. Do not use organic videos as paid ad proof. Use only
the filters shown by the selected route.

For local testing, optimize for a fast real first pass. Use the route cards in
`references/shared-contract.md`; do not inspect fixtures or product mappings.

## Public Command Boundary

- Choose the smallest matching command or workflow from the user input and run
  it directly.
- Readiness diagnostics: `postplus doctor --skill tiktok-research`.
- If an owned CLI or script command fails, report the exact error and stop. Do
  not bypass the failure with metadata-only answers, readiness probing, local