Two numbers from the same period point in opposite directions, and almost every article about TikTok search only reports one of them. The gap between the two is where the actual strategy lives.
Adobe’s 2026 research found 49% of US consumers have used TikTok as a search engine, up from 41% in its 2024 report. Among Gen Z the figure is 65%. Those are the numbers that get quoted.
The number that does not get quoted, from the same research, is that Gen Z saying they would rely on TikTok more than Google fell from 8% to 4%. Preference halved while usage climbed.
There is no contradiction there. People are using TikTok for more searches and trusting it for fewer decisions. It has settled into a specific job rather than becoming a general-purpose search engine, and the early predictions that it would replace Google have quietly not happened.
Gen Z who say they would rely on TikTok more than Google
Reported over the same window in which overall TikTok search usage rose from 41% to 49%.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 8% |
| 2026 | 4% |
The queries that work there are discovery-first and visual. What does this place look like before I book it. Is this worth the drive. What do people actually do here. How does this work, shown rather than explained.
The queries that stay on Google are decision-last and verification-shaped. Opening hours. Directions. Is this company legitimate. What does it cost. Reviews with names attached.
For a hotel, a restaurant or a rental business, that split is the whole strategy. TikTok is where someone finds out your place exists and decides it looks worth it. Google is where they confirm you are real and then book.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| US consumers who have searched on TikTok | 49% |
| Gen Z who have searched on TikTok | 65% |
| Users who discover new products there | 40% |
| Gen Z who research further after an ad | 74% |
| Gen Z who would pick TikTok over Google | 4% |
| US consumers in 2024 | 41% |
Businesses that went all in on TikTok discovery and let their local search presence rot end up with reach they cannot convert. The visit happens on TikTok and the booking never happens anywhere, because the verification step failed.
The reverse fails differently and more quietly. Solid local SEO with no discovery presence means you are only findable by people who already knew to look for you, which caps you at the demand that already exists.
The 74% figure is the bridge. Three in four weekly Gen Z users go looking for more information after they see a product advertised. That search happens somewhere, and for a local business it almost always happens on Google or in Maps.
We stopped treating short-form video and local SEO as separate line items with separate reporting. The video earns the discovery, the local presence catches the follow-up search, and judging either one alone gives you a false read.
We put real work into the verification layer, because it is where discovery traffic leaks. Hours that are correct in the off season, booking that works on a phone in one tap, and reviews that look current rather than abandoned.
And we stopped optimising video for watch time alone. If the point is that someone goes and searches your name afterwards, then the name has to be memorable and legible in the video, which is a different creative brief than chasing completion rate.
The useful reading of this data is not that TikTok is winning or losing. It is that discovery and verification have split across two platforms, and most local businesses are only resourcing one of them. The businesses doing well are the ones treating it as a single funnel that happens to run across two apps.
Read more on local SEO. Read more on local SEO in Newport Beach. Read more on voice search optimization.
Sources: Adobe consumer research on TikTok search behaviour, 2024 and 2026; Search Engine Journal reporting on the Gen Z preference decline.
We map the whole path, from the video someone sees to the search they run afterwards to the booking that either works or does not.
