Let's TalkLet's TalkNative-feeling video advertising for brands that need reach and discovery, run by people who understand the format is the targeting.
Most TikTok ad accounts fail because the creative is an Instagram post in a vertical frame. We write two concepts built for how the platform is actually watched - the hook for the first second, native pacing, no polish where polish hurts - so you can judge the thinking before committing to anything.
The failures we see repeatedly, and what each one actually costs.
The platform's audience is unusually intolerant of polished brand video, and the first frame decides everything. Brand-first framing, studio production and a logo before any reason to watch all reliably underperform content that would be worth watching on its own terms.
Creative lifespan here is the shortest of any major platform, which makes production capacity rather than media skill the real constraint. Brands that arrive with a monthly content cycle find the account cannot absorb budget no matter how it is managed.
Much of the influence is view-through and cross-device, which last-click reporting attributes elsewhere - often to branded search. Judging TikTok on last-click consistently undervalues it, and accounts get cut on the strength of a measurement artefact.
The demographic has broadened considerably and planning against a several-year-old picture of who is on the platform produces targeting and creative aimed at people who are no longer the majority of it.
The real deliverables, not a list written to make a proposal look thicker.
Native-first concepts written to be watchable, rather than existing assets recut vertically. This decides the test before any budget is spent.
Creator-led and Spark Ads whitelisting, because whitelisted creator content consistently outperforms brand-produced video and solves volume at the same time.
Production cadence matched to actual fatigue rather than to a monthly calendar, so the pipeline is always ahead of the spend.
Incrementality and blended efficiency alongside platform reporting, so a channel that influences more than it is credited for is not cut on an artefact.
Budget follows total marketing efficiency rather than in-platform return, which systematically understates this channel.
A streetwear brand with a regional cult following and no national demand - exactly the profile this platform serves, where culture travels faster than media budget. The work was creator-led and founder-led content produced on a continuous cycle rather than a campaign calendar, built native rather than repurposed. It scaled from regional to national demand, and the assets that carried it were the ones that did not look like advertising.
Read the full case studyThey told us our product was wrong for TikTok and to put the budget into Meta instead. They talked themselves out of a channel. That is why we gave them the whole account.
Our polished brand video did nothing. A creator filming in her kitchen on a phone outperformed it twenty to one.
Discovery on TikTok, conversion on Meta retargeting. Nobody had explained the channels could work as one system.
Sometimes, and often not. It is exceptional for discovery of visual, impulse-friendly products. For a considered high-ticket B2B purchase, the money is usually better spent on search. We will tell you which side you fall on before taking the work.
No. We source creators. Founder-led content performs well when the founder wants to do it, and badly when they are being made to.
Imperfectly, like everywhere else. We measure with a mix of platform data, post-purchase surveys and blended acquisition cost rather than trusting any single number.
More than any other channel. Fatigue is fast. Plan on continuous new concepts rather than a quarterly shoot.
You can, and it will underperform. TikTok punishes anything that looks like an advert - polished production, brand-first framing, a logo in the opening frame - because the viewer is one flick from leaving. What works is content that would be watchable if it were not an ad, which is a different brief and usually a different producer. Repurposed Meta assets are the single most common reason a TikTok test is judged a failure.
Days rather than weeks, which is the operational shock for most brands arriving from Meta. A concept that carries a month on Facebook may carry a week here. That changes the staffing question more than the media one: without a production pipeline running continuously, a TikTok account cannot be scaled regardless of how good the buying is.
This is one part of a bigger service. Here is the whole of it, and the closest neighbours.
Tell us what you are running today and what is not working. We will tell you honestly whether tiktok ads is the right thing to fix first - and if it is not, what is.