The new era of measurement: Unlock TikTok's impact on ROI

Great ads stay with you. We all still remember our favourite ads from when we were kids, and people will remember the great ads of today in 20 years' time. Video campaigns can improve brand favourability and consideration, bring more positive consumer sentiment, boost sales and can be responsible for billions in revenue years after the ad has run.

TikTok is a unique entertainment platform where views engage and drive significant actions: 61% of users have made a purchase either directly on TikTok or online after seeing an ad on the platform [1]. However, because of the engaging nature of content on TikTok, people don't want to leave the platform straight away. In fact, 94% delay visits to advertisers' websites or apps to not disrupt content browsing [2] and 41% of those that purchased or tried a product/service they saw on TikTok did so within a week of first seeing it on the platform [3].

So when it comes to measuring the impact of TikTok as a creative, conversion-driving channel, we have a problem. In the ever-changing landscape of digital advertising, traditional last-click attribution falls short of grasping the complexities of modern consumer behaviour and fails to provide a holistic and accurate understanding of campaign effectiveness. According to Fospha, 60% of revenue is misattributed when using pixel-based measurement [4]. Similarly, recent research identified that 79% of all conversions attributed to TikTok by users themselves were missed by last-click attribution models [5].

The focus on final touchpoints neglects the influence of earlier interactions, leading to an oversimplified view of the customer journey, significantly underestimating the full impact of the media mix. If you want to learn how to measure truer marketing ROI and uncover the full impact of your TikTok campaigns, read on.

The future of measurement is outcome-based

At TikTok, we believe in outcome-based measurement that helps understand the user decision journey holistically and drives business outcomes – no matter the sales channel. These are the four principles you need to know about to create an effective full-funnel measurement strategy.

1. Establishing robust data connections

The bedrock of a successful performance campaign on TikTok relies on putting safe and reliable data connections in place. This is because data connections measure and understand user actions on websites and apps, driving conversions and delivering personalised ads with unmatched precision, supercharging campaign performance and optimising ROAS.

We recommend that our advertisers enable both TikTok's Pixel and Events API with Advanced Matching to future proof their business against the ever-evolving changes within the advertising ecosystem such as deprecation of cookies. This also allows brands to further optimise towards the KPIs that matter most for their business and better utilise TikTok ad products to reach performance objectives, like Video Shopping Ads.

2. Understanding incrementality

Incrementality refers to an uplift in sales or any other additional impact that a specific ad, campaign or a channel caused. Sometimes, the impact of your campaigns goes beyond what you see on your dashboard. By conducting incrementality tests advertisers can evaluate full-funnel impact of their campaigns.

• TikTok Conversion Lift Studies help assess the incrementality of a specific ad campaign, using a scientific approach that compares test group users who were exposed to the ads, with a control group of users who were not. In simple terms, a CLS lets advertisers know if media spending caused users to perform a desired outcome. See how Bolt used this solution to reveal a staggering +1,977% relative lift in app installs.

• Sales Lift Studies help advertisers understand the impact their campaigns have had on incremental online and offline sales. Read about how Coca-Cola uncovered a notable lift in sales following an upper-funnel TikTok campaign with this study.

3. Uncovering impact across channels

Cross-channel analysis helps understand each channel’s role in the media mix and its impact on business outcomes. Knowing how many conversions you've driven through a campaign is important. But knowing where and how those conversions were driven is exponentially more impactful for optimising your campaigns to achieve your business goals.

Here are two measurement techniques advertisers can leverage:

1. Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)

When running campaigns on multiple digital channels, it's important to choose a reliable and advanced attribution partner and the right attribution model to understand which digital channel, campaign or ad contributed to a conversion. While the last-click attribution model gives all credit to the last touchpoint, MTA takes all of the touchpoints on the consumer journey into consideration, including impressions and clicks.

See how coffee brand Grind and its agency Highrise lowered costs and boosted ROI by moving beyond last click with Fospha as their attribution partner.

2. Media Mix Modelling (MMM)

This long-standing measurement approach closes the gaps left by MTA by giving an overview of the relationship between marketing activities and their impact on business outcomes, identifying channel ROI, cross media synergies, points of diminishing return and providing means to effectively control overall budget distribution. We've partnered with key Media Mix Modelling industry leaders – Nielsen, IRI, Analytic Partners, Ekimetrics and Neustar – to power advertiser models with TikTok data, allowing advertisers to gain more insights into their marketing investments.

Find out how L'Oréal Nordics used MMx to uncover that TikTok ROAS is on average 30% higher than other media channels.

4. Calibrating across solutions to achieve truer ROI

Calibration across measurement solutions helps to understand the roles channels play and the outcomes they are driving. Continuous iteration and a test and learn approach will bring you closer to a more realistic marketing ROI and uncover opportunities for growth.

Go beyond last click with performance you can measure

Measurement of outcomes will never come as a one-size-fits-all approach. We believe these four outcome-based measurement principles provide the foundation your business needs to make the best decisions on your marketing investments. If you're interested in learning more, dive into our measurement guide or speak to your TikTok rep to find the right measurement strategy for your business.