As Tik Tok continues to grow and mature as a platform, many DTC e-com brands have diversified and begun marketing on the platform. Comparatively to legacy platforms such as Facebook, there are notable differences that need to be taken into account when beginning to market on Tik Tok along with setting realistic expectations in terms of results. While the ad platform and functionality are relatively the same, Tik Tok ads compared to Facebook have two main differences. First off, Tik Tok style creative is an absolute must. On Facebook, you have the option of running a variety of creative formats and styles and being iterative to determine the best one. On Tik Tok, without using Tik Tok style creatives and changing them very frequently you will face challenges and difficulties. The second main difference is when you begin spending larger amounts of money. Tik Tok presents inconsistencies at scale due to it being a novel platform.
To kick it off, when should you diversify into Tik Tok ads? There’s no straight answer as it’s situational, but there are a few things that you should consider beforehand.
Firstly, if you’re a relatively new e-com business you may be under the impression that diversifying spend across a variety of platforms will give you a better chance of success. However, 9/10 times in the beginning or at low spend amounts your best bet is to consolidate your spend onto one platform to increase the speed at which you can make conclusive decisions, and ultimately find success. When you’re in a position where results are relatively consistent and you’ve scaled spend, it may make more sense to diversify onto other platforms. In most cases, consolidating spend to Facebook is your best bet in this situation. Facebook has the most advanced algorithm and largest user base, making it the ideal platform to begin marketing on with the highest chances of success. Spreading your spend too thin across various platforms is a poor course of action.
On the other hand, if you’ve marketed on Facebook for some time and have strong historic data along with spend, then it may be a good time for you to diversify into Tok Tok ads. If you’re diversifying with the hopes of achieving much better results than Facebook then the chances of you being pleased with your addition of Tik Tok is low. At scale, Facebook drives the best results for most e-commerce brands (in-platform metrics are inaccurate to analyze performance) and the chances of Tik Tok driving significantly better results at scale is slim to none. This isn’t meant to say it’s impossible, but for the most part, it won’t.
To summarize, diversifying onto Tik Tok is a great move for an e-com brand that’s established and has proven their ability to scale acquisition on a legacy platform like Facebook. A new e-com should allocate all their spend to the platform with the highest chance of success which at the moment is still Facebook. Running ads on Tik Tok is a great diversification play, and at Aplo we have begun marketing more heavily on it for clients of ours that are in a position where it makes sense to do so.
Want to learn more about branching off into Tiktok ads? Book a call with us!
.svg.png){kind=icon}
