Delivering Audiences to TikTok via the API - Narrative I/O Knowledge Base

This guide shows you how to build an unattended integration that uploads an audience to Narrative and delivers it to TikTok Ads Manager. The connector can create a new audience in an advertiser, or add members to an audience that already exists there. Before you start, complete the prerequisites and set up API access. You need a profile ID and an advertiser ID from List your advertisers.

1. Create the dataset

The dataset must carry at least one identifier column that TikTok can match on. Required columns lists them.

curl -X POST https://api.narrative.io/datasets \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "spring_buyers_tiktok",
    "display_name": "Spring Buyers (TikTok)",
    "description": "Hashed emails for TikTok",
    "write_mode": "append",
    "schema": {
      "file_config": { "type": "json", "normalize_field_names": false },
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "sha256_hashed_email": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": { "value": { "type": "string" } }
        }
      }
    }
  }'
# → {"id": 12345, "company_id": 1234, "display_name": "Spring Buyers (TikTok)", ...}

Record the id in the response.

Required columns

The dataset needs at least one of these identifier columns:

Column	Shape of each value
`sha256_hashed_email`	`{"value": ...}`
`hashed_email`	`{"value": ..., "type": "..."}`
`unique_id`	`{"value": ..., "type": "..."}`
`mobile_id_unique_identifier`	`{"value": ..., "type": "..."}`
`android_advertising_id`	`{"value": ...}`
`apple_idfa`	`{"value": ...}`
`narrative_id`	`{"context": "...", "value": ...}`
`e164_phone_number`	A string
`telephone_number`	A string

Each identifier column is named after its Rosetta Stone attribute, and the connector matches on that column name. A column holds either a plain string or an object. In the dataset schema, declare a string column with "type": "string", and declare an object column with "type": "object" and its properties:

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "<string_attribute>": { "type": "string" },
    "<object_attribute>": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": { "<property>": { "type": "<type>" } }
    }
  }
}

Send an object column as an object in each row:

{"<string_attribute>": "...", "<object_attribute>": {"<property>": "..."}}

See your connector’s reference page for the attributes it accepts and their exact shapes. A row with one identifier looks like this:

{"sha256_hashed_email": {"value": "<SHA-256 of the trimmed, lowercased email>"}}

See Supported identifiers for how the destination matches each identifier.

2. Activate the dataset

curl -X POST https://api.narrative.io/datasets/{dataset_id}/activate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"

The response is 201 with the dataset. Activation locks the schema, so activate only once the shape is settled.

3. Upload and ingest your file

Each line of the file is one row that matches the schema you declared in step 1. For the columns TikTok accepts and their shapes, see Supported identifiers and Required columns. You can load a file into a dataset over the API in two ways:

Signed-URL upload. Your integration uploads one file of up to 3 GB, then asks Narrative to ingest it.
Managed S3 bucket. You write files to an S3 bucket that Narrative manages, and Narrative ingests each batch on its own. Use a managed bucket for files larger than 3 GB, or for files that another system delivers on a schedule.

Choose a file format

The dataset’s file_config.type sets the format of every file you load into it. Parquet and JSON Lines both hold object columns, which nest properties inside one column:

Parquet (parquet) is the most compatible format for connector datasets. It stores nested struct columns and their types natively, and Narrative matches columns to the schema by name at every level.
JSON Lines (json) holds one JSON object per line. Narrative matches each nested object to the schema by name.

CSV datasets (flat) hold only scalar columns, so they can’t carry object columns.

Upload a file with a signed URL

Request an upload URL, then send the file straight to storage:

curl -X POST https://api.narrative.io/uploads/my-file.jsonl \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"
# → {"path": "<UPLOAD_PATH>", "url": "https://...", "expiry": "..."}

curl -X PUT "<url from the response>" --upload-file ./my-file.jsonl

The upload URL is valid for 30 minutes and carries its own signature, so send no authorization header with the PUT.

Keep the path from the response. Narrative assigns its own storage path, which does not match the name you requested, and the ingest request needs Narrative’s path rather than yours.

Then ingest the file into the dataset, passing that path as source_file:

curl -X POST https://api.narrative.io/datasets/{dataset_id}/upload \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"source_file": "<UPLOAD_PATH>"}'

Ingestion runs in the background. Watch the record count on the dataset to know when it has finished:

curl -s https://api.narrative.io/datasets/{dataset_id} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"
# → .stats.active_dataset_stored_records

The count moves from zero to your row count, typically within a couple of minutes. Each ingested file adds a new snapshot to the dataset, and every active connection on the dataset delivers that snapshot.

Write files to a managed S3 bucket

A managed bucket is an S3 bucket that Narrative creates for your company. You write each batch of files into its own folder under the dataset’s path in the bucket, then write an empty _NIO_COMMIT file into that batch folder. Narrative ingests every file in the batch folder when the commit file appears, so you make no upload or ingest request. A file can be as large as S3 accepts. See Ingesting Files from a Managed S3 Bucket to create the bucket, grant your AWS account access, and lay out the folders.

4. Confirm TikTok accepts the dataset

Before you create a connection, ask Narrative which connector interfaces the dataset satisfies:

curl -s https://api.narrative.io/datasets/{dataset_id}/interfaces \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"
# → {"dataset_id": 12345,
#    "accepted": [{"app_id": <APP_ID>, "interface_id": "<INTERFACE_ID>"}, ...],
#    "errors": [{"app_id": <APP_ID>, "interface_id": "<INTERFACE_ID>", "details": {...}}, ...]}

The response checks the dataset’s schema against every interface of the connectors your company has installed, and sorts the results into two lists:

accepted lists each interface you can connect the dataset to, by the connector’s app_id and the interface_id.
errors lists each interface the schema does not satisfy. Its details hold the reason, such as "required property '<column>' not found".

Add ?tags=<tag> to check only the interfaces that carry that tag. When the interface you want is under errors, the dataset’s schema doesn’t meet what the interface needs, for example a missing column or property. Activation locks the schema, so create a new dataset that fixes what the error names. For TikTok, look for the TikTok Connector ("app_id": 19) with the audience_first_party interface in accepted. Add ?tags=tiktok to check only the TikTok interfaces. Step 5 then checks the delivery settings with TikTok itself.

{"app_id": 19, "interface_id": "audience_first_party"}

5. Check your settings with TikTok

Before you create the connection, ask the connector to check the delivery settings against TikTok. This request uses the installation token. To create a new audience, name the advertiser in create_new_for and give the audience a name:

curl -s -X POST https://tiktok.narrativeconnectors.com/profiles/{profile_id}/validate-quick-settings \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INSTALLATION_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "audience_first_party",
    "create_new_for": ["<ADVERTISER_ID>"],
    "audience_name": "Spring Buyers",
    "historical_data_enabled": true
  }'
# → {"valid": true, "validation_errors": [], "details": []}

To deliver into an audience that already exists, send existing_audiences instead. It maps each advertiser ID to the audience IDs in that advertiser. Find an audience ID in the advertiser’s audience list:

curl -s -X POST https://tiktok.narrativeconnectors.com/profiles/{profile_id}/validate-quick-settings \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INSTALLATION_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "audience_first_party",
    "existing_audiences": {"<ADVERTISER_ID>": ["<AUDIENCE_ID>"]},
    "historical_data_enabled": true
  }'
# → {"valid": true, "validation_errors": [],
#    "details": [{"advertiser_id": "<ADVERTISER_ID>", "audience_id": "<AUDIENCE_ID>",
#                 "audience_name": "Spring Buyers", "status": "valid", "error": null}]}

The details list has one entry for each existing audience, confirming that the audience is in its advertiser. When valid is false, validation_errors and details say why.

6. Deliver to a TikTok audience

Create a connection with the same quick_settings you checked in step 5. Both type fields are required. The outer one identifies what you are connecting, and the one inside quick_settings selects the delivery interface.

Into a new audience

curl -X POST https://api.narrative.io/v2/connections \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "connections_dataset",
    "dataset_id": 12345,
    "profile_id": "<PROFILE_ID>",
    "quick_settings": {
      "type": "audience_first_party",
      "create_new_for": ["<ADVERTISER_ID>"],
      "audience_name": "Spring Buyers",
      "historical_data_enabled": true
    }
  }'
# → 201 {"type": "connections_dataset", "id": "<CONNECTION_ID>",
#        "app": {"id": 19, "name": "TikTok Connector"}, "dataset_id": 12345,
#        "quick_settings": {"type": "audience_first_party", "audience_name": "Spring Buyers",
#                           "create_new_for": ["<ADVERTISER_ID>"], "historical_data_enabled": true},
#        "profile_id": "<PROFILE_ID>",
#        "profile": {"id": "<PROFILE_ID>", "name": "Example Brand"}, "status": "active", ...}

The connector creates an audience named audience_name in each advertiser listed in create_new_for, then fills it with the dataset’s members.

Into an existing audience

curl -X POST https://api.narrative.io/v2/connections \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "connections_dataset",
    "dataset_id": 12345,
    "profile_id": "<PROFILE_ID>",
    "quick_settings": {
      "type": "audience_first_party",
      "existing_audiences": {"<ADVERTISER_ID>": ["<AUDIENCE_ID>"]},
      "historical_data_enabled": true
    }
  }'
# → 201 {"type": "connections_dataset", "id": "<CONNECTION_ID>",
#        "app": {"id": 19, "name": "TikTok Connector"}, "dataset_id": 12345,
#        "quick_settings": {"type": "audience_first_party",
#                           "existing_audiences": {"<ADVERTISER_ID>": ["<AUDIENCE_ID>"]},
#                           "historical_data_enabled": true},
#        "profile_id": "<PROFILE_ID>", "status": "active", ...}

The connector adds the dataset’s members to each audience listed in existing_audiences. What the connection does describes every field, its allowed values, and its default. One connection can carry both create_new_for and existing_audiences, as long as no advertiser appears in both. Record the connection id. You need it to stop the delivery.

7. Find the new audience in TikTok

List the audiences in the advertiser, as in List the audiences in an advertiser:

curl -s "https://tiktok.narrativeconnectors.com/profiles/{profile_id}/advertisers/{advertiser_id}/audiences?page=1&page_size=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INSTALLATION_TOKEN"
# → {"records": [{"id": "<AUDIENCE_ID>", "name": "Spring Buyers"},
#                {"id": "<AUDIENCE_ID>", "name": "Newsletter Subscribers"}],
#    "page_info": {"page": 1, "page_size": 100, "total_number": 2, "total_page": 1}}

The new audience appears under its audience_name within a few minutes of the connection’s first delivery. Its id is the audience ID in TikTok Ads Manager. Give each new audience a distinct name so you can pick it out of the list. To deliver another dataset into the same audience later, use this ID in existing_audiences.

8. Confirm the connection

curl -s https://api.narrative.io/v2/connections/{connection_id} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"

curl -s "https://api.narrative.io/v2/connections?dataset_id=12345" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"

Both responses show the connection with "status": "active" and the quick_settings you sent. To hear when each delivery finishes, subscribe to delivery notifications. The connector sends audience.delivery.completed when a delivery to a TikTok audience finishes.

Keeping the audience current

Write new data to the dataset with the same three calls as in step 3. The connection keeps running, so new rows reach the same TikTok audience without further calls.

Stopping delivery

curl -X DELETE https://api.narrative.io/v2/connections/{connection_id} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NIO_API_TOKEN"
# → 200 {}

Deleting the connection archives it and stops further deliveries. The audience stays in TikTok with its members. Delete it in TikTok Ads Manager if you no longer want it. To remove the dataset as well, send DELETE /datasets/{dataset_id}. To deliver to different advertisers or audiences, delete the connection and create a new one. To keep filling an audience the old connection created, name its ID in existing_audiences.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
`400` with `FirstParty must have either existing_audiences or create_new_for (or both)`	`quick_settings` names neither a new nor an existing audience	Add `create_new_for` or `existing_audiences`
Step 5 returns `"valid": false` with `"status": "not_found"` in `details`	The audience ID is not in that advertiser	Use an `id` from the advertiser’s audience list
`audience_first_party` is missing from `accepted` in step 4	No column is named after a supported identifier	Create a new dataset with a correctly named column, since activation locked the schema

Getting help

Contact your Narrative relationship manager with your company ID, the dataset ID, the connection ID, and the failing request and response.

Sending conversion events via the API

Send offline conversions to a TikTok Offline Event Set

TikTok Connector

Supported identifiers and connector setup

Connector Interfaces

Why a dataset connects to an interface rather than a connector

API Keys

Create and rotate keys for programmatic access

​1. Create the dataset

​Required columns

​2. Activate the dataset

​3. Upload and ingest your file

​Choose a file format

​Upload a file with a signed URL

​Write files to a managed S3 bucket

​4. Confirm TikTok accepts the dataset

​5. Check your settings with TikTok

​6. Deliver to a TikTok audience

​Into a new audience

​Into an existing audience

​7. Find the new audience in TikTok

​8. Confirm the connection

​Keeping the audience current

​Stopping delivery

​Troubleshooting

​Getting help

​Related content

Sending conversion events via the API

TikTok Connector

Connector Interfaces

API Keys

1. Create the dataset

Required columns

2. Activate the dataset

3. Upload and ingest your file

Choose a file format

Upload a file with a signed URL

Write files to a managed S3 bucket

4. Confirm TikTok accepts the dataset

5. Check your settings with TikTok

6. Deliver to a TikTok audience

Into a new audience

Into an existing audience

7. Find the new audience in TikTok

8. Confirm the connection

Keeping the audience current

Stopping delivery

Troubleshooting

Getting help

Related content