Social Media Advertising: Snapchat vs. TikTok

Facebook has proven that social media advertising can be effective and profitable. In 2020, Facebook’s advertising revenue worldwide amounted to 84.2 billion dollars. Snapchat and TikTok know finding a way to take a bite out of Facebook’s hold on advertising budgets is the only path to long-term success. The platforms will go the way of MySpace or Vine, with high adoption, and never profitable without steady advertising revenue. Let’s look at Snapchat and TikTok and execute advertising on each channel.

Social Media Advertising Pitfalls

As new social media platforms’ adoption rates increase, many advertisers wonder if the new platform will also be successful, leading to two pitfalls:

1. Advertisers dive in without understanding the new platforms. Many companies test campaigns that fail to deliver results and mistakenly believe that the platform isn’t right for them. 
2. Advertisers wait on the sidelines for far too long due to concerns that the new platform isn’t tested or proven yet.

Companies need to overcome those two issues for successful social media advertising. ALL social media platforms can be effective, so long as you understand the channels. It is important to remember that most social media is very different; after all, people don’t want a cloned version of Facebook; they want something different; otherwise, they would be on Facebook. Because each channel is unique, measuring success in advertising should be unique.

Average Ages of Users on Snapchat and Tiktok

The largest Snapchat age demographic is 18- to 24-year-olds. This age group makes up 37% of Snapchat users, and 25- to 34-year-olds make up about 26% of Snapchatters. Around 12% of users are aged 35 to 54, and only 2% are over 55. (info.sle.ac.uk)

TikTok’s Generation Z penetration is the highest in America. 47.4% of their active users are between 10 and 29. However, American adults using TikTok grew 5.5 times in the last 18 months, with a 2:1 female-to-male gender ratio. (Backlino.com)

How Snapchat and TikTok are Different

Snapchat is an app used for sending text, video, and photo messages that can only be opened for a short period. Snapchat features filters and graphic overlays for images and videos. The “Discovery” section is used by brands, celebrities, and influencers for advertising content. Snapchat can be more informal since it is often one-on-one messages filmed as brief selfie videos.

Meanwhile, TikTok is an entertainment platform, and the posts are primarily public ones. Video content is one second to sixty seconds and ranges from funny audio clips put to video, educational, informational, or confessional styles where personal thoughts are shared. TikTok videos are often more produced, or at least more staged. Because of the produced nature of the content, trends start to develop from others using similar video or audio clips.

These differences are essential to understand, but it is also important to remember that advertising on these channels will always be different from posting organically. If you are looking to build a following, you need to post organically and follow the trends of the platform you are on. If you are looking to advertise, you need to match the user experience and target your messaging toward users.

You cannot just take what worked on Facebook and assume it will work on Snapchat and TikTok; you will need to produce advertisements specific to each platform. The experience of the platform also changes the amount of creativity you need. For example, on Facebook, a user could scroll past your ad several times before actually viewing it, while on TikTok, they see the ad full-screen each time so you will hit ad fatigue much more quickly on TikTok than on Facebook.

Snapchat and TikTok Advertising Examples

Better Paid Social Media Results With Colling Media

As it turns out, social media appears like it is here to stay, and the number and variety of platforms will continue to grow. As long as these platforms have eyeballs, they will be great avenues for marketing and advertising. If marketers want to take advantage of this opportunity, they need to be aware that each platform has its ecosystem with unique content, users, interactions, and style. Any marketer who fails to recognize these differences is doomed to struggle with these platforms, and the marketer who can be flexible in their understanding of new platforms, with unique creative and distinct measurement paradigms will be well-positioned to take advantage of these new media.

If you need help getting better advertising results with your paid social media marketing, contact us.