TikTok Ads
What it is
Paid reach in a feed the algorithm assembles person by person. The ad buys its slot and keeps it by holding attention; anything that announces itself as an ad gets swiped past.
What it’s good at
Cheap attention at scale, in quantities other feeds struggle to match. Demand creation: it puts a product in front of people who were never going to search for it. And fast creative signals: within days you know which opening holds viewers, a read that takes weeks elsewhere.
What it costs to own
A video production rhythm, a standing commitment heavier than statics: a face on camera or a steady stream of creator footage, and an editor who ships weekly. Concepts wear out faster here than anywhere else. Footage finished to television standard performs worst; the platform rewards video that looks made this morning by one person, which most brand teams find hard to approve.
When it’s a poor fit
It fits poorly when the sale closes through a procurement committee, since the person scrolling is rarely the one who signs. It also fits poorly when the brand manual forbids the register the feed runs in, so every exception needs a meeting. And it gets hard when nobody can hand the channel new video weekly; the account typically starves within a month of the pipeline stopping.
What it sits beside
Usually the second paid channel, opened once Meta saturates. Run together they both claim the same orders, so they are usually read against one blended MER or a holdout. It pairs with TikTok organic, which tests angles for free before money goes behind them, and winning footage often travels to Meta.
My experience
What I have seen decide TikTok Ads is whether the company can keep making video every week; the media buying itself has been the easy part.