This week, in data
The story: TikTok conversion rates on one-day clicks only accrual basis slipped double digits.
Under our model, TikTok spend accounted for 4.5% of the spend we tracked last week, so this is a consequential datapoint.
But is this a standalone incident or part of a larger trend? Looking at TikTok conversion performance over time across all Northbeam users shows an interesting movement:
TikTok 1-day clicks only conversion rates have slumped to a 12-month low.
So how do we interpret this data?
Dropping conversion rates are happening across all platforms as consumers feel the crunch, so this is a consumer spending pressure. If your TikTok ads feel like they’re losing steam even as your creative is hotter than ever, remember that TikTok sways younger. Bank of America says 42% of Gen Z consumers are living paycheck to paycheck. They can’t buy your stuff even if they want to.
Savvy advertisers are moving away from one-day clicks only as a model for measuring TikTok, so performance under this interpretation is dropping. Advertisers are optimizing their ads on different attribution models, meaning viewing this specific model shows a downward trend. To be fair, TikTok hasn’t always looked great on clicks only models because that’s not how people purchase via TikTok. Even TikTok will admit that click attribution will undervalue TikTok by 73%. That doesn’t stop most marketers from using this attribution model anyways. Rise above. Measure your TikTok with Clicks + Deterministic Views and know the true value of your TikTok ads.
Creative fatigue is more brutal than ever as the platform matures. It happened with Google and Meta, it’ll happen with TikTok. Increased volume of advertisers and a shaky ownership transition lead to a menagerie of downward pressure on performance in the short term. And yet… TikTok is still the home of some of the most clever creative assets and creators. It’s worth remembering TikTok is a legendary platform for discovery, especially organic.
We’ll accept no slander of TikTok. One of the hottest businesses in the world right now went from $0 to $700 million with a TikTok-native strategy and Northbeam measurement.
What does this data tell you about your own TikTok strategy?
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