Burger King

The Objective

From start to finish

Burger King is far from a newcomer to TikTok. The fast food chain is already doing well in performance marketing, with a strategy of discount coupons and app downloads that has been bringing consistent results. But BK's investment in branding was still low around here, and they wanted to change that.

But in order to justify this move in the long term, the brand needed data. Or rather, they needed to provide undeniable evidence that their branding actions were going to affect the numbers at the end of the buying journey. What would be the best strategy for this?

The Solution

High impact and in-depth analysis

Burger King's interest in coming up with a branding strategy emerged after intensive discussion with TikTok's teams. Although BK's performance campaigns were already delivering really good results, a boost at the upper-funnel could help take the numbers to another level.

A meta-analysis with advertisers from different sectors showed that branding and performance campaigns running together can lower CPA by 14% and increase conversion rate by 15%.(1) Even if branded ads don't take people straight to an app's purchase or download screen, they help the advertiser expand their reach and engage with new potential customers. This way, you can pique their interest and make them more likely to convert at the end of the journey.

Burger King chose an always engaged strategy to boost its branding on TikTok. In other words, a mix of organic content with paid media and co-creation alongside creators, all with one final touch: constancy.

Videos posted on BK's profile are now boosted via Spark Ads, taking over the top of TikTok with the TopView (shown when you open the app) and Top Feed (shown in a feed's first ad slot) formats. Support followed, with In-Feed Ads acquired through auction. The performance strategy continued in parallel, with ads optimized to generate more in-app conversions.

The icing on the cake—or should we say the bacon in the sandwich?—was brought by measurement, with a type of analysis we call Causal Impact. In this study, we use the brand's historical results to estimate the expected numbers for the period, which would've happened if BK hadn't invested more in branding on TikTok. Then we compare them with the actual numbers.

The idea is to establish a cause and effect relationship between the strategies adopted and the results obtained. In other words, a study like this would help us to have a more in-depth view and provide undeniable evidence that the change was good for the brand.

The Results

Good without it, much better with it

What was already good just got better. Burger King's move to a full-funnel strategy on TikTok, boosting its investment in branding, helped to further improve results at the end of the buying journey. And it wasn't just here: in addition to our platform, the effect was seen across all the channels BK uses for performance marketing.

According to the Causal Impact study, considering only the periods with the greatest investment in branding, we could see a 41% increase in conversions recorded in the following month across all channels used by BK. The main digital channel saw a 15% improvement.(2)

Specifically on TikTok, in the month with the highest investment in branding, June, the conversion rate (CVR) for in-app sales increased by 39% compared to the projection from the Causal Impact study—i.e. to what was estimated based on historical results. For App Installs, the CVR rose 43%. And for coupon redemption, there was a 33% increase.(2)

Overall performance results dropped by as much as 17% in a month of low investment in branding, compared to a boosted month in this full-funnel strategy. That means covering the entire buying journey on TikTok really made a difference. What was already good without branding got even better by investing in it.