TikTok Works: How TikTok drives business impact for advertisers
With over one billion people coming to TikTok every month – and 150 million in Europe alone – our platform provides an unparalleled opportunity for brands to entertain and engage their audiences in ways that drive strong, measurable business impact. In fact, 92% of TikTok users take some kind of action after watching a video and 37% have bought something they discovered while on the platform [1].
While we know that TikTok drives strong results for businesses, we wanted to fully explore the impact the platform has on business objectives, so we partnered with trusted third-party partners to study campaign performance across numerous verticals. More specifically, we looked into how TikTok drives results for brands via sales impact, performance and creative quality.
Read on to find out just how effective TikTok is on the above metrics, and how to leverage the platform to reach – and exceed – your brand's business goals.
1. How TikTok drives sales for brands
Multiple studies have shown that TikTok generates business impact across several critical dimensions, including return on ad spend, sales efficiency, incremental sales and offline sales.
Over the past two years, four separate Nielsen Media Mix Model Meta Analyses commissioned by TikTok have consistently shown that TikTok drives positive ROAS and sales efficiency across the CPG vertical [2]. According to the studies, Europe saw a 64% higher paid media ROAS versus all digital media measured in the models, and almost three times the offline sales efficiency. Other regions such as the Middle East, US and Southeast Asia also saw increases.
Our partnership with data platform LiveRamp has also shown how TikTok can drive sales for CPG advertisers in the UK and France[3]. Our analysis revealed a +5.5% sales lift in the UK and a +11.4% increase in France, above LiveRamp's benchmark by 1.8x and 4x in each region, respectively. Additionally, the study found that on average, creative videos shorter than 15 seconds drove +38% higher sales lift than longer ads.
Combining the power of TikTok ads with data insights can help brands unlock how their ads drive sales outcomes on our platform. These findings highlight TikTok's position as a fundamental partner in driving sales with less spend for CPG brands in particular, as well as the importance of optimising ad length to really drive impact.
2. How TikTok powers effective and efficient media impact
TikTok has become a vital channel throughout the customer journey, from capturing first-touch discoveries to driving purchases. In fact, brands that implement a full-funnel campaign see a strong positive impact on their performance outcomes from their brand ads. This strategy can lead to a 3x increase in conversions compared with single-objective campaigns.
For brands seeking to quantify the performance of their TikTok Ads, Conversion Lift Study provides insights into the number of incremental conversions generated by each campaign. European mobility super-app, Bolt, utilised this study and uncovered a staggering 1977% increase in app installs in their latest campaign.
Contact your TikTok account manager to learn more about how you can implement a Conversation Lift Study to more accurately measure the impact of your TikTok campaigns.
3. How TikTok builds brand equity with creative, impactful ads
One of the most crucial elements in any TikTok campaign is the creative, and it's one of the best ways for clients to unlock ad effectiveness: according to Nielsen, 47% of a brand’s sales lift from advertising is the consequence of the creative, over any other element [4].
According to Kantar LinkAI analysis, more than 3,500 measured TikTok ads outperformed their own digital and TV norms by 15–20% on multiple metrics, including Persuasion (the likelihood an ad will drive immediate brand predisposition), Brand Relevance (whether communication points are valued) and Enjoyment (the resonance and application of an ad). Put simply, when viewers like the ads, the ads are more effective [5].
Our analysis has shown that creative that seamlessly blends into the platform's culture of authenticity and community-driven entertainment consistently outperforms repurposed and adaptive ads on TikTok, especially when brands understand how to use TikTok-specific creative codes like music, frequent scene changes, voice-overs and text overlays.
TikTok-specific creative also enhances brand recall: according to our analysis, incorporating TikTok-native creative increased ad recall by +19%. This impact can also be enhanced when collaborating with creators – the addition of creators to native content enhances ad recall by +27% [6].
So, what does this mean for marketers?
Overall, these studies show how TikTok works to deliver business results for marketers through effective, engaging ads that resonate with audiences. Here are the key things to remember:
1. TikTok is an effective and efficient part of the marketer's media mix – and it's one that drives big results.
2. Use TikTok as a full-funnel solution; the platform is a game-changer for business objectives across the entire marketing funnel.
3. Ad creative that is native to the platform performs best, and performance is even better when working in tandem with our creative solutions and guidelines. If you want to find creators that can make authentic videos that resonate with your audience, head to the TikTok Creator Marketplace.
At TikTok, we're dedicated to developing our platform to continue to meet the needs of advertisers and to demonstrate the real world impact of TikTok ads on businesses. TikTok Works shows just how effective our platform is when it comes to driving campaign performance and sales, and underscores our commitment to continually evolving our approach through strategic products, partnerships and more.
Fancy digging into the numbers some more? For more research and data about TikTok to give your campaigns a boost, check out our TikTok Insights tool. You can easily search, share and download insight cards by industry, audience types, event, region and more.
Sources
1. TikTok Marketing Science Global Retail Path-To-Purchase Study 2021 conducted by Material
2. TikTok Marketing Science, CPG Media Mix Model Meta-Analyses, METAP, US, EU, SEA, Conducted by Nielsen, 2020-2021. Countries Represented: METAP Study = KSA, UAE, and EG, US Study = US, European Study = UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, South East Asia Study = Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand * Food and Beverage category
3. TikTok Marketing Science, CPG Meta-Analyses, UK & FR, Conducted by LiveRamp, 2022-2023
4. TikTok Marketing Science, EU “Understanding the impact of Attention on TikTok”, 2022 Ad Format Study, Kantar, 2020
5. TikTok Marketing Science Creative Coding Analysis based on 3,500 TikTok ads that ran from 1/1/2021 - 10/1/2021 representing all major verticals, conducted by Kantar, 2022
6. TikTok Marketing Science EU proprietary creative analysis covering UK, FR, DE, ES and IT
