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TikTok's Custom Identity is on its way out. Starting in early 2026, TikTok confirmed that the feature letting advertisers run ads without linking to a verified brand account is being phased out. Every new campaign has to launch from an official TikTok profile, period. If you have been running ads behind a Custom Identity setup, your next campaign approval will be blocked until you transition.
The replacement is the F.I.R.S.T. framework: a 5-step process TikTok published to walk brands through the new identity requirement. And the upside is real. Per TikTok's own backend tests, 59.3% of advertisers saw their CPA decrease by at least 10% after linking their accounts.
What's being phased out
Until early 2026, TikTok let advertisers run ads under Custom Identity: a setup where your ad displayed a brand name and creative without a verified TikTok account linked behind it. No Organization Account required. No Business Center linking. No public-facing profile tied to the ad.
That flexibility created a transparency gap. Viewers couldn't reliably see who was actually behind an ad they saw in their feed. TikTok is closing that gap by requiring every new campaign to launch from a verified profile.
The transition isn't optional. Existing Custom Identity campaigns will be progressively restricted, and new campaigns have to comply from launch.
Why it matters
Three implications hit most advertisers right away.
Transparency becomes mandatory. Viewers will always see the verified organization behind any TikTok ad. If your brand has been running under a separate marketing alias or a campaign-level identity that doesn't match a real account, that alias is gone.
Paid and organic start merging. Organization Accounts mean your ads are linked to the same profile that publishes organic content. Planning has to account for both. A bad organic moment now shows up right next to your ad in the feed, and vice versa.
Performance usually improves after the link. Per TikTok's backend tests cited on their official blog, 59.3% of advertisers saw CPA drop by at least 10% after linking accounts. That's TikTok's own data (not independently verified), but the direction is consistent with how their algorithm seems to reward account-linked signals and Spark Ads formats.
What this means for your campaigns
If you run TikTok Ads today, three practical shifts happen in the next 30 days:
- Existing Custom Identity campaigns continue running but on borrowed time. TikTok hasn't published a hard cutoff date for all markets, but new campaign launches under the old model are already being restricted.
- New launches will be blocked until you complete the F.I.R.S.T. setup and have a verified Organization Account with linked profiles.
- Creative formats pivot to Spark Ads, which let you promote Organization Account content, creator-authorized content, or new uploads through Ads Manager. Pure "dark post" style Custom Identity creative isn't supported going forward.
For reporting, the cleanest way to validate the 59.3% CPA improvement claim is to baseline your account's CPA in the two weeks before you complete F.I.R.S.T., then compare against the two weeks after. Without pre/post tracking you have no way to confirm whether the transition helped, hurt, or left you flat.
The F.I.R.S.T. framework: your 5-step transition plan
TikTok's official framework breaks the transition into five stages. Each letter of F.I.R.S.T. maps to one step.
Realistic setup time: a few hours for a single brand, a few days for an agency running 10+ client accounts, mostly due to coordination with the client's organic team and getting permissions granted across stakeholders.
Timeline
- Early 2026: Custom Identity phase-out begins. New campaigns progressively required to launch from verified profiles. Non-compliant launches start being blocked as the transition activates.
- Throughout 2026: TikTok continues restricting Custom Identity campaigns. Advertisers who have not transitioned see more campaigns blocked at approval.
- Exact final cutoff: not confirmed publicly by TikTok as of this writing. The safe assumption is that Custom Identity support ends sometime in 2026. Plan to complete F.I.R.S.T. well before the end of Q3.
FAQ
Does this affect my existing Custom Identity campaigns right now?
Existing campaigns are not immediately killed, but they are on borrowed time. New campaigns launched under Custom Identity after the phase-out start are being blocked in markets where the transition has already activated. TikTok has not confirmed a single global cutoff date, but the direction is clear.
Do I need an Organization Account to run any TikTok ads going forward?
Yes, for new campaigns. The F in F.I.R.S.T. is non-optional. Without an Organization Account in Business Center linked to a verified profile, you cannot launch new ads under the post-transition rules.
What are Spark Ads and why is TikTok pushing them?
Spark Ads are ads that run using organic TikTok content, either from your own Organization Account or from creators who have given you permission. They look more like regular organic videos in the feed, which is part of why their performance tends to beat classic "dark post" ad formats. Post-transition, Spark Ads are the primary creative format TikTok supports.
Is the 59.3% CPA improvement stat real and independently verified?
TikTok published the number in their official transition blog post, attributing it to internal backend tests. It is not independently audited. The best way to confirm whether it applies to your accounts is to baseline your CPA before the transition and compare against the 2-4 weeks after completing F.I.R.S.T.
How long does the F.I.R.S.T. setup take?
For a single brand with an existing TikTok profile, a few hours of admin work. For an agency coordinating multiple clients, plan for a few days across permissions, creative reviews, and internal approvals. The actual Business Center clicks are fast; the slow part is human coordination.
Conclusion
Custom Identity was a flexibility that TikTok is replacing with transparency. The F.I.R.S.T. framework is the path. The upside, if TikTok's own backend numbers hold for your accounts, is a measurable CPA improvement. The downside of waiting is simple: new campaigns start getting blocked until you complete the transition.
Run F.I.R.S.T. in the next 30 days, baseline your CPA before and after, and let your own data tell you if the 10% improvement shows up. That is the only way to turn a compliance requirement into a performance win.
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