What Is Zhitu Xing?
Zhitu Xing is an AI assistant built natively into the Ocean Engine App — ByteDance's mobile platform for managing Douyin advertising campaigns. It was rolled out as part of a major platform update and reflects ByteDance's broader push to embed generative AI across its advertising products.
The assistant is accessible via a floating button on the home screen and through contextual entry points throughout the app. Unlike third-party analytics tools or external chatbots, Zhitu Xing has direct access to your account data — meaning it can read your campaign performance, diagnose issues, and surface recommendations without you exporting a single CSV file.
Zhitu Xing is part of the Ocean Engine App (巨量引擎APP), not the Ocean Engine web dashboard. You need the app to access it. The app is available on iOS and Android via Chinese app stores or through a QR code scan from a certified agency.
The Four Core Capabilities
ByteDance has documented four main use cases for Zhitu Xing in its official product manual. Each addresses a different layer of the advertising workflow.
Ask any advertising question by text or voice. Zhitu Xing responds in plain language. No digging through help docs. One question, one answer.
Summarizes macro performance across one or multiple accounts. Spots anomalies, identifies top and underperforming accounts, and benchmarks against industry data.
Query campaign data in natural language. Supports filtering by time, ad unit, creative ID, objective, and metrics like spend, CTR, CVR, and ROI.
Identifies low-performing creatives and ads, offers one-click cleanup of ineffective spend, and supports one-click fix-and-relaunch for rejected creative.
1. Smart Q&A — Your Inline Knowledge Base
The Smart Q&A function lets you type or speak a question and get a structured, plain-language response from the assistant. This replaces the need to search the Ocean Engine help center, ask your account manager, or try to interpret a support ticket reply.
In practice, it is most useful for operational questions: why is my ad in review, what does this metric mean, how do I set up a retargeting audience, what's the difference between oCPX and CPC bidding. The assistant understands context-rich questions and gives answers at an appropriate level of detail.
For audit-related issues and human review escalations, ByteDance routes those to a separate system called Juliangwenwen (巨量问问). Zhitu Xing handles general knowledge and account questions; Juliangwenwen handles compliance and review status.
2. Account Analysis — One Summary Across All Your Accounts
If you manage multiple advertiser accounts — which most agencies and large brands do — the multi-account analysis feature is particularly useful. It gives you a consolidated view of what is happening across your portfolio and where problems are concentrated.
The analysis output includes:
- A macro overview of combined spend, volume, and conversion across all accounts
- Identification of accounts performing below or above industry benchmarks
- Root-cause suggestions for underperforming accounts (budget constraints, creative fatigue, audience saturation, etc.)
- A ranked list of anomalous accounts that need attention
The industry benchmark comparison is a notable addition. It means the analysis is not just internal — it tells you whether a 1.2% CTR is good or bad for your category. For advertisers without dedicated data teams, that context is genuinely valuable.
3. Smart Data Query — Talk to Your Data
The data query function is essentially a natural language interface over your campaign database. Instead of navigating dashboards and building custom reports, you ask in plain Chinese and get structured results.
Supported query types include:
- Time-based: "Show me spend last week broken down by day"
- Metric-based: "Which plans had ROI > 1 in March?"
- Creative-based: "Top 10 creatives by spend this month"
- Dimension combinations: "CTR by ad unit for the last 30 days, filtered to mobile only"
The supported dimensions include time, ad unit, creative ID, and marketing scenario. Supported metrics include spend, click-through rate, conversion rate, and ROI. This covers the most common reporting needs without requiring SQL or a BI tool.
A media buyer checking in at noon can pull "spend vs. daily budget utilization by account this morning" in one question, spot the accounts pacing too fast or too slow, and make budget adjustments — all inside the app without switching to a laptop.
4. Diagnostic Analysis — From Insight to Action
The diagnostic tool goes beyond surfacing problems — it offers actions. Two features stand out:
One-click cleanup (一键清理): The assistant identifies low-efficiency ads and creatives based on performance thresholds. You can clear underperformers in bulk rather than auditing each unit manually. For accounts running hundreds of active creatives, this saves significant operational time.
One-click fix and relaunch (一键修复和投放): For creatives that were rejected by the review system, Zhitu Xing can diagnose the likely rejection reason, apply the fix, and resubmit — all from within the app. This is particularly useful during high-pressure periods when review queues are long and manual resubmission is slow.
The diagnostic tool is calibrated to account size. Larger-spend accounts receive more granular breakdowns and more aggressive optimization suggestions. Smaller accounts get simpler summaries.
Connecting to the Broader App: Multi-Account Management
Zhitu Xing does not exist in isolation. It is part of a broader upgrade to the Ocean Engine App that also introduced improved multi-account management tools. Key things to know about the app environment:
- Account limit: One device can have up to 5 accounts logged in simultaneously. Additional accounts are managed via authorization.
- Dashboard views: The home screen supports both a list view (with period-over-period trends) and a card view. You can customize which metrics appear.
- Budget management: Budget adjustments can be made directly from the account overview page or via a long-press shortcut (Juliangmarketing only).
- Quick tools: Comment Management and Lead Management now live under Home → All Accounts → Account → Common Tools.
How to Access Zhitu Xing
Zhitu Xing is available to advertisers and agencies with active Ocean Engine accounts. Entry points in the app:
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Floating button on the home screen Available whenever you are logged in. Tap the Zhitu Xing icon to open the assistant interface.
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Contextual scene buttons Appear in-context while browsing campaigns, creatives, or account reports. Tap to get AI analysis of whatever you are currently viewing.
What This Means for International Advertisers
For international brands working through an agency like TMG, Zhitu Xing changes the operational workflow in two ways.
First, it compresses the turnaround time for data questions. Rather than waiting for a reporting cycle or emailing your account manager, you (or your agency) can get an account-level answer in seconds. The assistant is available 24/7 and does not require scheduling.
Second, the diagnostic and cleanup features reduce the manual overhead of managing large creative pools. Douyin advertising at scale involves hundreds of creative variants rotating constantly. The one-click cleanup and relaunch tools make it practical to run aggressive creative testing without a proportionally large operations team.
The industry benchmark comparison in the account analysis feature is also worth highlighting. International brands often lack baseline performance data for Chinese platforms — knowing whether a 3% CVR is strong or weak for your category in China is exactly the kind of context that reduces wasted spend.
We use Ocean Engine App tools including Zhitu Xing as part of our standard campaign monitoring workflow for clients on Douyin. If you have questions about what Ocean Engine can deliver for your brand, reach out directly.