Nearly half of all consumers now use TikTok as a search engine, yet four in ten brands tracked by Influencer Marketing platform Refluenced score zero visibility across every TikTok search keyword the firm monitors, according to a new report published in 2026.
The “Found or Forgotten” report analyzed 1,068 consumer brands across seven industries and four markets, covering the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Researchers analyzed 52,649 keywords and 159,451 videos to generate visibility scores for each brand.
Widespread Invisibility
The data shows that 82% of brands score below 10 on Refluenced’s visibility scale of zero to 100, with a median score of 1.2. The firm describes the pattern as “widespread invisibility, not marginal underperformance.”
“Four in ten brands are completely invisible in TikTok search. This is invisibility at scale,” Managing Director Joe Adsett said in the report.
Refluenced scores each keyword from zero to 100 based on whether, and how prominently, a brand’s associated creator content appears in TikTok search results for that term. A brand’s overall visibility score represents a weighted average across all tracked keywords.
Of the 52,649 keywords tracked, 99.9% are directly linked to purchase intent. The report breaks down the keyword landscape by query type: category-level searches account for 65%, inspiration-led queries for 19%, research and comparison queries for 12%, and transactional queries for 4%.
Keyword Strategy, Not Content Volume
The report identifies keyword strategy, rather than content output, as the primary driver of brand invisibility on TikTok. Refluenced found that 38% of all category keywords have zero brand presence, and a further 25% have just one brand visible. That means 63% of the available keyword landscape carries little or no brand competition, while 20% of keywords, described as highly contested, absorb the majority of brand activity.
The report uses the skincare category to illustrate the problem. Ten brands competed for the keyword “daily skincare routine,” which carries a keyword difficulty score of 65 out of 100. Of the 72 brands Refluenced tracked against that keyword, 57 scored zero visibility. The highest visibility score recorded for that term was 47.8 out of 100.
A smaller brand identified in the report as THIS scored 91.4 on the keyword “vegan meat reviews,” while Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods scored 1.7 and 1.1, respectively. Adjacent terms in that cluster, including “high protein meals” with 329 million views and a keyword difficulty score of 12, and “plant-based protein meals” with 51 million views and a keyword difficulty score of 6, remained largely unclaimed.
In the footwear category, Nike led visibility on “white sneakers” with a score of 45.3, followed by New Balance at 36.4. No brand crossed a score of 50 on that term. Adjacent keywords, including “sneaker styling,” with 86 million views and a keyword difficulty score of 12, reached comparable audiences with far less competition.
Creator Content Dominates Search Results
Of the 159,451 videos analyzed in category search results, 99.67% came from independent creators rather than brand accounts. Of 1,068 brands tracked, only 135 brand-owned TikTok accounts had any ranking presence in search results at all.
Creator follower size also differs from common assumptions. Among ranking creators, 97.6% had fewer than 100,000 followers, with a median follower count of 5,906. Nano-tier creators, defined as those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers, made up 65% of ranking creators. The micro tier, with 10,000 to 100,000 followers, accounted for 33%. Mid-tier creators with 100,000 to one million followers represented just 2% of ranking content.
Engagement rates for nano creators averaged 6%, compared to 1.8% for macro creators with more than one million followers, a gap of 3.3 times.
Case Study: Kapten & Son
The report includes a case study from German accessories brand Kapten & Son, which ran two test campaigns on TikTok in April 2026. Prior to the test, four campaigns had generated 544 videos, of which only 34, or 6.3%, ranked in search results. Each video averaged 0.19 search appearances.
After briefing creators to include specific keywords within the first eight to ten seconds of each video and in captions, results shifted materially. Of 151 videos produced under the new brief, 110, or 73%, ranked in search results. The campaigns generated 1,288 total search appearances, with 57% ranking in the top ten. Each video averaged 9.14 search appearances, an increase of 48 times over previous campaigns. The brand recorded a visibility score increase of 136%, totaling 11.2 million impressions across 24 days.
Search Fragmentation Context
The report positions TikTok search visibility within a broader shift in consumer search behavior. It cites a Gartner forecast predicting a 25% drop in traditional search engine volume by the end of 2026 as users move toward AI agents and generative engines. Separately, the report notes that 37% of active AI users now begin searches inside generative engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, according to Semrush data cited in the report.
The report covers seven industries: beauty, fashion, food and beverage, drinks, health and wellness, home and DIY, and grocery. Data was collected and analyzed by Refluenced in April 2026.
Jonathan is a South African content creator, photographer and videographer with 25 years of experience in journalism and print media design. He is interested in new developments in AI content creation and covers a broad spectrum of topics within the creator economy.
Nearly half of all consumers now use TikTok as a search engine, yet four in ten brands tracked by Influencer Marketing platform Refluenced score zero visibility across every TikTok search keyword the firm monitors, according to a new report published in 2026.
The “Found or Forgotten” report analyzed 1,068 consumer brands across seven industries and four markets, covering the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Researchers analyzed 52,649 keywords and 159,451 videos to generate visibility scores for each brand.
Widespread Invisibility
The data shows that 82% of brands score below 10 on Refluenced’s visibility scale of zero to 100, with a median score of 1.2. The firm describes the pattern as “widespread invisibility, not marginal underperformance.”
“Four in ten brands are completely invisible in TikTok search. This is invisibility at scale,” Managing Director Joe Adsett said in the report.
Refluenced scores each keyword from zero to 100 based on whether, and how prominently, a brand’s associated creator content appears in TikTok search results for that term. A brand’s overall visibility score represents a weighted average across all tracked keywords.
Of the 52,649 keywords tracked, 99.9% are directly linked to purchase intent. The report breaks down the keyword landscape by query type: category-level searches account for 65%, inspiration-led queries for 19%, research and comparison queries for 12%, and transactional queries for 4%.
Keyword Strategy, Not Content Volume
The report identifies keyword strategy, rather than content output, as the primary driver of brand invisibility on TikTok. Refluenced found that 38% of all category keywords have zero brand presence, and a further 25% have just one brand visible. That means 63% of the available keyword landscape carries little or no brand competition, while 20% of keywords, described as highly contested, absorb the majority of brand activity.
The report uses the skincare category to illustrate the problem. Ten brands competed for the keyword “daily skincare routine,” which carries a keyword difficulty score of 65 out of 100. Of the 72 brands Refluenced tracked against that keyword, 57 scored zero visibility. The highest visibility score recorded for that term was 47.8 out of 100.
A smaller brand identified in the report as THIS scored 91.4 on the keyword “vegan meat reviews,” while Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods scored 1.7 and 1.1, respectively. Adjacent terms in that cluster, including “high protein meals” with 329 million views and a keyword difficulty score of 12, and “plant-based protein meals” with 51 million views and a keyword difficulty score of 6, remained largely unclaimed.
In the footwear category, Nike led visibility on “white sneakers” with a score of 45.3, followed by New Balance at 36.4. No brand crossed a score of 50 on that term. Adjacent keywords, including “sneaker styling,” with 86 million views and a keyword difficulty score of 12, reached comparable audiences with far less competition.
Creator Content Dominates Search Results
Of the 159,451 videos analyzed in category search results, 99.67% came from independent creators rather than brand accounts. Of 1,068 brands tracked, only 135 brand-owned TikTok accounts had any ranking presence in search results at all.
Creator follower size also differs from common assumptions. Among ranking creators, 97.6% had fewer than 100,000 followers, with a median follower count of 5,906. Nano-tier creators, defined as those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers, made up 65% of ranking creators. The micro tier, with 10,000 to 100,000 followers, accounted for 33%. Mid-tier creators with 100,000 to one million followers represented just 2% of ranking content.
Engagement rates for nano creators averaged 6%, compared to 1.8% for macro creators with more than one million followers, a gap of 3.3 times.
Case Study: Kapten & Son
The report includes a case study from German accessories brand Kapten & Son, which ran two test campaigns on TikTok in April 2026. Prior to the test, four campaigns had generated 544 videos, of which only 34, or 6.3%, ranked in search results. Each video averaged 0.19 search appearances.
After briefing creators to include specific keywords within the first eight to ten seconds of each video and in captions, results shifted materially. Of 151 videos produced under the new brief, 110, or 73%, ranked in search results. The campaigns generated 1,288 total search appearances, with 57% ranking in the top ten. Each video averaged 9.14 search appearances, an increase of 48 times over previous campaigns. The brand recorded a visibility score increase of 136%, totaling 11.2 million impressions across 24 days.
Search Fragmentation Context
The report positions TikTok search visibility within a broader shift in consumer search behavior. It cites a Gartner forecast predicting a 25% drop in traditional search engine volume by the end of 2026 as users move toward AI agents and generative engines. Separately, the report notes that 37% of active AI users now begin searches inside generative engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, according to Semrush data cited in the report.
The report covers seven industries: beauty, fashion, food and beverage, drinks, health and wellness, home and DIY, and grocery. Data was collected and analyzed by Refluenced in April 2026.
Image source: Refluenced
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