TikTok has been rising in popularity at a breakneck pace for years. Following the recent mass exodus of Twitter users, their user base has grown even more rapidly – and so has their advertising business. With more than one in five Internet users regularly using TikTok, any advertising product from TikTok would likely perform well, but the platform they’ve given advertisers has also made it especially effective. Coupled with Twitter’s recent downfall, TikTok ads (and other emerging social media platforms) are primed to experience significant growth in 2023 and beyond.

Advantages of Advertising on TikTok

The first and most obvious benefit TikTok has is their massive base of engaged users. TikTok now has more than 1 billion monthly active users, with the average user spending more than 24 hours on the app each month (Statista). By comparison, Twitter has about 368 million monthly active users who spend an average of 10 hours a month on the site.

TikTok’s audience also doesn’t skew quite as young as critics would have you believe. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 60 percent of TikTok users are more than 24 years old. Even better for advertisers, these users are easily influenced. According TikTok itself, 67 percent of their audience has purchased a product they discovered on the site even when they weren’t intending to purchase anything. By advertising on TikTok, brands can reach a very large, active segment of their target audience, regardless of their age or other demographic information.

Budget-Friendly

Even with their already compelling user engagement, TikTok has drawn more brands to its platform with its wide range of affordable ad options. When TikTok first began rolling out ads, prices were high due to high demand and low inventory during early testing stages. Now that the ad platform has been launched in its entirety, any brand can start an ad campaign, with ads starting at $10 per 1,000 views. The most popular TikToks also tend to be more raw, conversational videos, which means brands don’t need a major production budget to produce an effective ad. In fact, it can be difficult to distinguish more organic ads from regular videos in the For You Page, which means many users end up watching and interacting with ads without realizing it.

Options for Different Size Businesses

Advertising on TikTok isn’t limited to major brands or high-profile agencies. Their ad platform breaks out solutions for businesses of different sizes to provide services that may be most helpful for their needs. For small businesses, TikTok suggests adding a boost to organic posts to extend their reach or turning an influencer partner’s video into an ad for an even more native approach. These methods help lower the barriers for smaller brands to start benefiting from running TikTok ads.

On the other hand, TikTok also offers options that are more suitable to larger businesses. Brands can work with the platform to create branded hashtag challenges, branded video effects and native shopping experiences, which are unique ways to appeal to their audience’s interests. In addition, TikTok has created educational exercises to help teach social agencies their best practices for creating content and paid ads in the app. By providing solutions tailored to a wide range of business needs, TikTok is showing that their ads can be easy to implement and effective for any type of brand.

Twitter’s Advertising Problems

TikTok’s many advertising benefits have recruited a wave of brands (and their ad dollars). In 2022, TikTok earned almost $9 billion in advertising revenue, an increase of 155 percent from 2021. Meanwhile, with its recent string of controversies, Twitter’s ad business has faltered, making matters worse for a site that already struggled to find its footing in advertising. In 2022, Twitter recorded about $4 billion in revenue, an 11 percent decline over the previous year (Reuters).

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and swift policy changes seems to have at least temporarily worsened their advertising situation. Data from tech agency MikMak indicates between Oct. 1 and Nov. 7 of 2022, Twitter’s ad clicks declined by 68 percent. The New York Times also recently reported that Twitter’s ad revenue in April and May 2023 was down 59 percent over the same period in 2022. These numbers make sense when you consider how many individuals and brands, including General Motors and Pfizer, have announced they’re taking a break from Twitter for the foreseeable future.

Most brands who have left the platform cited security and reputation concerns. Given the removal of Twitter’s verified checkmarks, deregulation of hate speech, and easier spread of false information, brands now see advertising on Twitter as a risk. Others are fearful of what changes might be coming next and are holding back campaigns until the water steadies and Twitter’s future becomes clearer. In the meantime, they’ve moved their ad dollars to other, more promising social media networks, like TikTok.

Other Sites Competing for Twitter’s Deserters

However, TikTok isn’t the only competitor stealing some of Twitter’s audience. In recent months, newer platforms have also picked up steam in their hunt to become the next social media site for breaking news and back-and-forth conversations. Mastodon has been the most popular so far, growing from 1 million to 3.5 million monthly active users last fall. Mastodon’s social network is made up of independent servers, each of which are organized around a specific theme, topic, or interest. While its server foundation makes the underlying functionality more akin to email, Mastodon does offer many favorite Twitter features, like replies, shares, likes, and hashtags.

Reddit has already been growing its user base for years, but it’s seen an uptick in activity in the last several months. The site is split into subgroups, also called subreddits, based on various topics. While you can’t view posts from all your subreddits in one feed, many groups do offer live threads and discussions, which can provide the real-time discourse many Twitter users enjoyed. Reddit is expected to reach 1.66 billion monthly active users in 2023 and recorded $424 million in ad revenue in 2022, a 39 percent increase over 2021 (Statista). Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey has also been growing his new site, Bluesky, which has earned praise despite its current invite-only status. In the months to come, watch for more major brands to join these growing platforms in an attempt to find a new home for their fast-paced, back-and-forth interactions with consumers.