Video Ads on Social Media: TikTok or Snapchat?

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Trapica

7 min readFeb 12, 2020

When it comes to advertising, video ads are leading the way and we expect them to be pivotal in 2020. While Facebook and Instagram are two of the largest platforms, today we want to talk about a couple slightly smaller platforms that should be receiving just as much attention. While Snapchat has been on the market for quite some time, it seems to be growing more and more as an advertising platform for marketers. On the other hand, TikTok has exploded within the past 12 months and offers a unique opportunity.

Which should you choose?

TikTok and the Power of Influencers

Last year was the year of TikTok. By surpassing one billion active users around the globe, the social media platform rose in popularity and found its way onto the devices of most young Americans.

Is it useful for marketing? Yes, there seems to be a younger audience and companies are quickly seeing the opportunities to reach out to this market with quality content.

It seems as though Gen Z doesn’t mind companies advertising to them; they’re even accustomed to the practice since they’re growing up in a world with technology and constant ads. TikTok could become the new Instagram, not only for general advertising, but for the power of influencers.

Rather than creating content themselves and hoping people see it, companies are deciding to invest in ready-made audiences. When an influencer has one million followers, it’s easier (and more effective) to pay the influencer to create content on their behalf.

Why Choose TikTok?

If you’re wondering why you should switch your attention to TikTok this year, whether through video ads or influencer marketing, there are a number of reasons. Firstly, TikTok is still growing, which means that the price of influencer marketing is still relatively low. While some content creators on YouTube and Instagram demand thousands of dollars, you only need to pay hundreds on TikTok to reach an audience of the same size.

Secondly, the reach on TikTok is impressive. With the platform still in its infancy, there aren’t too many competitors for marketers. Compared to Instagram or even Snapchat, the smaller competition means that each and every campaign has the potential to reach more users.

TikTok does have an advertising platform of its own. With a self-serve platform, advertisers on TikTok have a CPM around $10. As a result, agencies and marketers have decided to focus their attention on organic video ads. On Instagram, it’s easy to feel like you are being advertited to. With a simple post, you can find messages like ‘here’s my promo code’ or ‘buy this and use it for…’ On TikTok, it’s a very different story because the most entertaining videos seem to bring in the best results.

Rather than actively selling to social media users, marketers are allowing the creative juices to flow with videos that are entertaining and funny. With the product somewhere inside the video, it’s all about soft selling and making a first impression.

Additionally, we can’t forget that TokTok recently joined the likes of Snapchat by setting up their own audience network. As an advertiser, you can now buy ad spots on TikTok. However, with the audience network, you’re also buying ad spots on other apps. Although we’re still in the testing phase of this system and it’s only available in some countries, we know that Facebook has boasted higher click-through rates from their own audience network.

TikTok vs Snapchat

As we suggested in the title, we do want to compare TikTok and Snapchat, but we also need to be careful. Why? Because we don’t think that TikTok is a replacement for Snapchat Stories. In fact, we don’t think that it’s a replacement for Instagram either. At the moment, we’re seeing many comparisons between TikTok and Snapchat and this is natural considering the many similarities between the two. This being said, the differences might be strong enough to keep them separated in the marketing world.

For starters, Snapchat and other services with stories allow us to upload photos as well as videos. What’s more, we can upload videos without music in the background and while telling whatever story we want to tell customers. After 24 hours, the content disappears and there’s no feature for public commenting. With this in mind, those who post regularly to Snapchat won’t see TikTok as a replacement. We don’t think they will stop their Snapchat usage habits just because of TikTok.

To prove our point, TikTok has even added a feature which allows users to connect their Instagram profiles. As a further note, the audiences for Snapchat and TikTok are clearly different. Although both target the younger demographics, TikTok is popular amongst teens but not desirable to everybody. Snapchat attracts a wider demographic because even those who send the occasional snap to a friend can be targeted for marketing purposes. In a number of reports, it has been noted that a certain number of people who download and try TikTok actually delete the app within a certain amount of time because it isn’t for them. This suggests that Snapchat still has a role to play for video ads and marketing at large.

At the moment, Snapchat is under pressure because there’s a crossover between the users of Snapchat and the users of TikTok. In our belief, this doesn’t mean an end to the former. Snapchat still has an audience not found on TikTok, features not available on TikTok, and a positive track record.

Read More: Instagram vs. Snapchat: 2 Marketing Platforms Compete Over Young Ages Ads

Early Problems for TikTok

Before we assess more benefits of marketing on Snapchat, we want to explore one final point because TikTok has already encountered problems in its nascency. Not long ago, TikTok was investigated for how information on children was being collected in the UK and the US. Around twelve months ago, they were fined $5.7 million by the Federal Trade Commission. What’s more, they were thought to have violated the GDPR in Europe, which led to a full investigation from the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK.

TikTok has also been using its audience and their videos in advertising campaigns without permission. Although these users did upload to TikTok, they were still surprised to see themselves in official advertising campaigns by the company.

For example, Elijah Jay posted a video of a balloon-swallowing stunt and was surprised when friends messaged him about his appearance on an advert. As an aspiring influencer, he was initially pleased, but then disappointed that no permission had been sought to use his content in an official campaign. Soon after, he took to Twitter and asked TikTok why his video was used to promote the app and why he wasn’t paid or even informed.

We aren’t saying that Snapchat has avoided all problems, but it is now an established brand and marketers know what they’re getting with the platform. Given this recent history, we’d be surprised if agencies and marketers weren’t practicing a bit of caution when it comes to TikTok.

Benefits of Choosing Snapchat

Earlier, we unpacked a few reasons why TikTok is growing in popularity. In the interest of fairness, we want to finish with some reasons why Snapchat is such a good platform for video ads.

One of our favorite features on Snapchat for marketers is the Snap Pixel. By adding this to your website, you can see exactly how many people are accessing your website via your Snapchat video ad. Suddenly, you’re learning the success of your video ad as well as the behavior of users once they have arrived. Are they clicking on certain categories? Are they making specific purchases? With this knowledge, it’s possible to improve campaigns and allow success to repeat itself.

Compared to TikTok, Snapchat enjoys a much wider audience. It’s true, nearly four out of five are between 18 and 24. However, it is becoming more and more common for members of the older generations to embrace the app, and in that way, is following in the footsteps of Facebook.

Age aside, it’s fair to say that Snapchat video ads are so successful because the recipients are engaging with the content. After a successful campaign, Taco Bell once revealed that over 80% of snaps they sent to friends and followers had been opened. Even if a small percent of this population engages and clicks through, it’s still money and time well spent. If they don’t click forward, the brand still gets exposure and the name might carry into a conversation down the line.

Elsewhere, the benefits of Snapchat advertising include:

Getting consumers involved with the brand through competitions and behind-the-scenes videos
Breaking trends and news
Strong influencer marketing
Organized content that’s nearly impossible to lose even during busy times (unlike a post on a feed)
Integration with other tools
Partnership with Amazon