Facebook used to run the social media show for a while. And it still does, remaining the world’s most widely used and populated social media platform. However, if we speak in terms of popularity, there’s a new kid on the block! If your guess is TikTok, you got it right! If you didn’t, well, you need some updates! Back in April of 2020, the app passed the mark of 2 billion downloads globally. What’s more important, the platform has more than 850 million active users worldwide. Despite breaking some astonishing records during its meteoric rise, TikTok is still nowhere near Facebook. But, we can definitely say there’s a rising star on the horizon and a new place where everyone wants to be.
Is TikTok as attractive for marketers as it is for regular users? Absolutely! The explosion of TikTok has been great news for various businesses to get out there and explore this goldmine of opportunities for promoting brands, their products and services. We can call TikTok a really strong contender in the social media advertising arena, but can it match against the king – Facebook, in the TikTok vs Facebook advertising clash everyone speaks of? Let’s find out!
TikTok vs Facebook advertising? There’s still plenty of room for everybody!
TikTok slowly started experimenting with advertising back in 2019. The TikTok ads format came with a huge price tag and was reserved only for those that wanted to invest big. But, with the introduction of an advertising auction marketplace, TikTok became much more affordable and accessible to small businesses. Similar to Facebook’s advertising auction marketplace, TikTok allows marketers to start advertising with small budgets to target users with specific demographics and interests.
What makes it different compared to Facebook? Well, first of all, Facebook, thanks to its size, is oversaturated with commercials of all types. They get in the way of truly experiencing what the platform has to offer. People start to ignore the ads, skip them, learn where they can expect to see them and can easily get tired of them. Also, because there are so many brands advertising on Facebook. Rivalry can be fierce and ruthless in a fight for winning the best advertising slots. With TikTok, being a relatively new marketing platform, you don’t have to worry about intense competition to get your spot . Also, the same fact means there are fewer ads on TikTok, making it easier and cheaper to stand out and reach out to your audience.
TikTok vs Facebook ad costs
For those interested in numbers, our dear colleague Vlad, Senior Customer Acquisition Manager at GrowMojo, provided some insightful information on what to expect in terms of costs for both Facebook and TikTok. “The main factor that dictates CPM is what you choose as an objective for your campaign”, Vlad said. Based on his experience, he pointed out that prospecting traffic CPM on TikTok is around $1, conversions between $2-3, and remarketing goes up to $5 for 1000 impressions. On Facebook, previously mentioned strategies are more expensive, sometimes up to 20 times compared to TikTok. According to Vlad, ”How expensive ads on Facebook will be depends mostly on the niche the company is in.” But, don’t let large CPM fool you. Sometimes it may be a good call to invest in your ads. Facebook knows its users pretty well and can easily deliver conversions, while TikTok is still buildings its data – and all this is reflected in the prices the two platforms offer.
Cross-platform advertising opportunities
The truth is that when it comes to placing your ads across different platforms, you can’t really beat Facebook. The Metaverse today consists of Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and, most importantly, Instagram, which means that you can use a single ad with a single link and deliver it across all these massively popular apps. What’s even more important, you can make small adjustments to the ad format to assure a better fit with the specific platform in the Metaverse. That way, you achieve a consistent brand presence through a smooth ad delivery experience that benefits both you as the marketer and the users who receive the ad. Plus, if one of the platforms is oversaturated with your competitors, you can always place the ad in the other platforms where the air is “clearer.”
You don’t get this sort of flexibility with TikTok. With this app, you only have a couple of venues for ad placement – the For You page and the Discovery feed. However, TikTok has one thing working for it, that Facebook no longer has – it has a tremendous, unsurpassed potential for virality.
There’s another thing: if you create a video ad specifically for TikTok, you can always reuse it on Facebook. A lot of companies do it and in many cases it works out fine. You can’t do it the other way round, though. Facebook ads simply don’t work on TikTok.
Creativity vs rules and restrictions
Ever felt that all Facebook ads seem so dull, uncreative and ruining your app experience? Limits, guidelines, creative restrictions, and strict rules are all part of Facebook advertising. With TikTok, it’s all about entertainment, authenticity and enjoyment. That’s what makes it a breath of fresh air among social media apps and the same rule applies to ads, too! The most effective TikTok ads start out looking like a normal TikToks.
On TikTok, best advertising practices dictate that ads shouldn’t feel like ads. Instead, they need to be adapted to the platform and its users or created specifically with TikTok in mind, making sure they perfectly fit with the user experience that TikTok brings.
TikTok is there to help you!
The TikTok ads platform comes with an integrated Video Creation Kit, designed to help and make it easier for marketers to create ads. It provides you with tons of images and video templates with a huge free background music library that will help you customize and fine-tune your ads to make them more interesting for placement on the app. This flexibility also makes the whole process so much more exciting and pulls you right in to try new, cool things unique only to TikTok. If this sounds overwhelming, the best thing you can do is contact us and leave ad creating to the professionals.
Facebook Analytics vs TikTok Analytics
Facebook is the industry leader when it comes to user targeting and analytics. Over the years it has gathered millions of data points on your potential customers to allow for the most ideal targeting. Facebook does an excellent job of giving advanced marketers the insights into those customers to be able to target Lookalike audiences. TikTok is working on similar analytics, but their platform is still learning. It started with the most basic insights but diligently kept adding more and more ways to learn from your ad performance so you can create even better campaigns. Meanwhile, advanced marketers have other tools that can help get the most out of the TikTok advertising platform, making up for what the platform nativelly lacks.
Silent rejection vs solid support system
It’s every advertiser’s nightmare to have their ad rejected or taken down for no clear reason. You lose money and the chance for conversion, and you don’t even know why. It happens to everyone, and it’s not even a rare occurrence, especially with Facebook. You simply receive a notice that your ad has been rejected and you don’t get any explanation on why that happened. The platform just shoves their Policy in your face and leaves you wondering what it is that you’ve done wrong.
With TikTok, it’s a whole different pair of sleeves. Whatever sort of issue you encounter through your business account, you can count on TikTok’s excellent support team to help you out. If your ad gets rejected, you just need to submit a support ticket and someone will get back to you within 24h. In most cases, the feedback includes specific and clear instructions and explanations on what went wrong and what you can do to get your ad out there.
TikTok’s secret sauce – the fast-learning algorithm
Targeting on TikTok is similar to the one that Facebook offers, even though Facebook leads in this department and provides more options at the moment. What really makes the difference when it comes to targeting is TikTok’s unique algorithm. The more time users spend on the app, the algorithm knows them better and what they really like. Thanks to this secret sauce, which is a critical part of the app, your ad will most likely end up delivered to the right users!
TikTok vs Facebook advertising – which is better for your business?
If there is one thing we can say with certainty, it’s that both TikTok and Facebook are awesome social media platforms for advertising. Their reach is incredible and they don’t lack in terms of formats, placement methods and tracking solutions. If you can’t or don’t want to use both, the best way to decide which is better is to consider the nature of your business or brand, your objectives and your target crowd. TikTok is better for some things, Facebook is better for others. Let’s break it down:
Facebook is better if:
- Your ads are static (images)
- Your target audience ranges from young to elderly
- You have a solid budget
- You aim for both B2C and B2B
TikTok is better if:
- You are targeting a younger audience
- You want to use video ads
- Your brand is youthful, creative and laid-back
- You want to reach a lot of people in a short time
- You work in a B2C industry
Of course, these are very general considerations. There is no universal rule that decides which of these two you should pick for your campaigns. If you’re unsure, it’s always best to talk to an expert who will help you decide based on a number of finely tuned factors and help you set up a successful, cost-effective campaign.
Conclusion
TikTok vs Facebook advertising – who is the final winner here? Well, we are not going to lie – it depends! Facebook still does a really good job, especially with an older audience. And TikTok offers some new, exciting advertising venues especially with younger demographics.
We need to ask a different question then: Is TikTok advertising worth it? Most certainly! TikTok can be a powerful tool for engaging, connecting and presenting your brand, and can be an excellent conversion driver. No matter the results and the decision where you redirect your funds, the reality is that TikTok will keep growing! And it’s definitely a place to be right now. If you see your target audience and opportunity for your brand, consider hiring a specialized Tik Tok marketing agency like GrowMojo! Feel free to contact us anytime for a free consultation!
