As a TikTok Shop beginner, you might encounter this problem: your ad campaign has just launched, but traffic drops, ROI fluctuates wildly, and new products barely gain traction. This is not the platform targeting you or limiting traffic; it is the GMV Max cold start mechanism at work.

This article will help you quickly understand how GMV Max cold start works and guide beginners on how to prevent flow drops, accumulate traffic efficiently, and maximize the performance of your content and products.

I. Understanding the GMV Max Cold Start Mechanism

To understand GMV Max cold start, the first thing to know is that GMV Max is not a “tool to sell products” in itself. It is a model system that uses historical data to maximize transaction efficiency. Its only goal is to generate as much GMV as possible within controllable costs.

This means GMV Max assumes you already have three things:

• Historical transaction data
• A target customer group
• A reference conversion path

The cold start phase is exactly when all three of these are absent.

When a new product link enters GMV Max for the first time, the system knows almost nothing about it. It does not know who will click, who will buy, or what content will drive conversions. In this case, the only thing the system can do is test with minimal traffic.

This is the essence of cold start. The platform allocates a portion of test traffic, placing your product, video, and price into different audience pools to quickly evaluate whether your product has potential to become a “modelable product.”

If clicks, conversions, or sales cannot support the ROI target you set during this testing phase, the system concludes that the product is temporarily not worth scaling.

As a result, traffic drops. Many beginners think this is the platform limiting them, but in reality, it is a rational outcome of GMV Max. The system does not refuse to give you traffic—it simply cannot continue learning from insufficient data.

II. Cold Start Pitfalls: Common Mistakes for Beginners

The main bottleneck during cold start is that the system cannot accurately evaluate content value or audience potential. This often makes new content appear ineffective in the first few days, causing anxiety and frequent adjustments that actually disrupt the system’s learning process. Common mistakes include:

1. Content Homogenization
   During cold start, the system is still learning about your content and potential audience. It needs small-scale traffic tests to measure effectiveness. If your content is highly repetitive, the system cannot distinguish which content has real value. Many sellers batch-create videos by only changing backgrounds or captions. While it seems like quantity is sufficient, the system sees them as “duplicate content.” Even with higher budgets, traffic will not be fully allocated, and new content fails to gain momentum.
2. Extreme ROI Settings
   Overly aggressive or overly conservative ROI settings interfere with the system’s judgment during cold start. Cold start is not about immediate profit—it is about collecting, learning, and modeling. Improper ROI settings can cause insufficient data or misjudgment, preventing the system from scaling.

• High ROI: The system sees your content failing to meet the target and withholds further traffic testing. New content never gets a chance to “prove itself,” prolonging or failing cold start.
• Low ROI: Traffic may be allocated, but targets are too low to reflect real potential. The system still cannot build trust in your content and audience, limiting traffic growth.

III. How to Successfully Run GMV Max Cold Start

Here are four key strategies to ensure each piece of content is properly evaluated and lays the foundation for GMV Max scaling:

1. Content
   During cold start, content is the system’s only “window” to judge your product potential. No matter the budget, if your content cannot capture attention or convey value, the system cannot accumulate meaningful data and will not scale. Content should be designed specifically for cold start, with these key points:

• Capture attention in the first three seconds
• Clearly highlight benefits or pain points
• Deliver information clearly and directly, avoiding long stories or brand-focused narratives
• Ensure differentiation between content pieces, such as one emphasizing product demonstration and another highlighting user experience or results, so the system can recognize the value of each piece

2. Deployment Rhythm
   The pace of ad deployment during cold start is crucial. Creative Boost automatically allocates extra test traffic to new content to help the system evaluate its value. You cannot manually control this “heating,” but you can maintain content stability, avoid frequent changes, and ensure consistent budget consumption. If content is frequently swapped, bids adjusted, or accounts switched early on, the system may reset the learning phase, making cold start impossible to complete.
3. Budget Strategy
   During cold start, the budget is not just spending—it is a key tool for the system to collect data and identify content value. When using small BOOST tests, ensure the system completes at least part of the spend to record content tags. After stopping BOOST, monitor the content’s natural traffic performance. If it receives stable exposure and conversions, it has passed the preliminary evaluation and can enter regular deployment. If not, return to content optimization rather than blindly increasing the budget.
4. Multi-Account Matrix Deployment
   A single account often cannot handle all testing tasks, and cold start requires reliable data. The system is extremely sensitive to fluctuations during this period, and minor deviations can be misinterpreted as abnormal behavior, causing traffic drops.

Beginners can use a multi-account matrix to achieve precise division of labor:

• White accounts or channel accounts test high-risk content
• Official accounts focus on stable conversions
• Pseudo influencer accounts simulate real user experiences to increase trust and conversion potential

The purpose of the matrix is to spread risk, allowing each account to run in its own “lane” without affecting overall judgment. In this setup, IP acts as the foundation: if multiple accounts share the same network or device, the system may misinterpret traffic fluctuations as account issues, prematurely cutting off traffic. Experienced teams often use tools like IPFoxy to provide stable, exclusive IPs. A clean IP environment ensures the system evaluates accounts themselves, not network or device anomalies, resulting in reliable data accumulation during cold start and smooth scaling.

For example, sellers focusing on the US market often equip several US static residential IPs so each account runs independently in a “local environment.” Even if one account fluctuates, the system will not misjudge the entire matrix.

Overall, successfully running cold start requires fully prepared content, steady execution, proper budget allocation, and a stable environment. Following this logic allows beginners to ensure each content piece is properly evaluated and lays the groundwork for GMV Max scaling.

Conclusion
There is no shortcut to GMV Max cold start, but there is a clear logic to follow. Mastering content strategy, deployment rhythm, budget control, and multi-account matrix management is key to passing the system’s observation phase smoothly. Creative Boost, though seemingly mysterious, simply heats content automatically to give potential pieces a chance to be recognized. What you can control is consistent content output, avoiding frequent changes, and ensuring a safe and independent environment. With tools like IPFoxy providing exclusive IPs, data remains clean and reliable. Beginners can stabilize cold start, build audience assets and content weight, and pave the way for GMV Max scaling.

Remember, cold start is not a sprint but a learning period. Patience, consistency, and systematic operations are the only way for beginners to prevent flow drops and successfully run GMV Max. Master this logic, and every piece of content and every account becomes a potential sales asset.