TikTok’s adapting role in the marketing machine | WARC | The Feed

TikTok’s adapting role in the marketing machine

Amid privacy-changes at a platform level, TikTok is seeing a lot of spend going its way – a new report suggests that though the ultra-short video platform remains a cheap way to reach a lot of eyeballs, many are left trying to work out what it’s for.

Why it matters

There’s always a new thing. Once, that new thing was TikTok, and it was a kind of niche, Gen-z trend. Now, having been around for years, best practices are emerging and evidence of ad effectiveness among the reports of its extremely high levels of daily engagement. The Business of Fashion’s report into its uses for brands suggests that experiences are various, complex, and sometimes a little disappointing.

The details

Meta-owned Instagram has been the dominant platform of the fashion industry now, but its relentless pursuit of Reels, its TikTok copycat, suggests that short-form videos are here to stay across the platforms.

Driving the story is the financial reality for some brands that goes against the grain of TikTok’s obvious cultural impact. Brands that spoke to BoF noted that despite the platform’s popularity it still struggles to meet the returns seen on Meta’s platforms.

Numbers

This is based on research from the analytics firm Measured, whose numbers report the following CPMs (cost per thousand impressions):

• $14.12 on Meta platforms
• $9.46 on TikTok.

But while it is more expensive to advertise through Meta, the returns on that investment tend to be higher. Over the course of a month, brands that spent $1 on each would expect to see median returns of

• $1.56 on Meta platforms
• $0.52 on TikTok

Ultimately, this is a lot less than some brands have grown used to.

Upshot

In part, it’s a story about a platform that is still maturing, compared to the advertising behemoth that is Facebook, with ad systems and platforms that it has been building over the last decade.

It is also about the marketers themselves, especially in smaller companies where a certain amount of budget for awareness alone is much less common, who are adapting to a constantly changing platform. It’s also a useful, if common, reminder that there is no such thing as a magic bullet platform; the mix matters.

Sourced from Business of Fashion, WARC