A joint user behavior study released by Adobe Analytics and Forrester Research found that among users aged 18-24 (Gen Z), 40% turn to TikTok rather than Google first when looking for product recommendations, restaurant choices, or life tips. As recently as 2024, that figure was just 25% — a 60% increase in a single year. The differences between TikTok search and traditional search lie in the following: users prefer authentic, video-format experience sharing over text-based tutorials; search behavior relies more on "Discover" than on precise queries; and KOL recommendations carry far more weight than official content. The implications for brand SEO are significant: optimizing keywords in the titles, descriptions, and captions of TikTok videos has become a new discipline; after seeing content on TikTok, users typically go on to search the brand term on Google to learn more, creating a new funnel pattern of "TikTok drives traffic → Google converts." Brands are advised to incorporate their TikTok content strategy into their overall search marketing planning.