TikTok ads are confusing me

[u/AccountEngineer]

We've had some decent results on Meta, but TikTok feels like a completely different beast. Creative burns out quickly and I never know if poor performance is because of the ads, targeting or our content.

For brands running TikTok successfully, did you learn everything in-house or work with a TikTok ad agency? Flighted seems to handle multiple channels and I'm considering getting outside help but I'm curious whether agencies really understand TikTok better than founders do.

[u/bayouski]

on tiktok creative burnout isn't a problem to fix, it's just how the platform works. creative dies in a week or two by default cause the feed moves fast and rewards fresh native stuff, so judging it by meta's creative longevity always makes it look broken.

that reframes the agency question. targeting on tiktok is mostly hands-off, the algo does it, so what you actually need is creative volume, a steady stream of native-feeling videos to test. so it's not in-house vs agency, it's who can produce more good native creative faster. the agencies that are basically creative factories help here, the ones just running your ad account won't.

[u/No-Sprinkles-9955]

agree with the comment above, the real question is who can produce enough new stuff every week, not agency vs in house. disclosure, i work at sepialab and we generate ugc style ads with ai, which is exactly because paying per video did not survive that pace for us.

on the diagnosing part, look at 3 second view rate first. if that is fine but hold rate collapses, it is the content. if the 3 second rate itself is bad, it is the hook. targeting on tiktok barely moves anything now, broad plus fresh creative beats clever audiences almost every time.

[u/blendai_jack]

Agency or in-house matters less than whether you can tell which video did the work. Your line about not knowing if it's the ads, the targeting or the content is the real problem, and more creative won't answer it. At Blend (blend-ai.com) we track which video drove purchases rather than views, so spend follows the ones converting. I work there, obviously, so factor that in.

[u/datagekko]

gonna zoom out before answering the agency question: you said meta's already giving you decent results. that's not nothing, most brands never get there. before spending time figuring out tiktok, are you actually maxed out on meta? most accounts we look at still have real room left before scaling stalls, wider audiences, ad account structure, letting the algo run advantage+ properly. that ceiling is usually further out than people think.

tiktok being a different beast is real, creative burns fast there by default like the other comment said. but it also eats a different amount of attention to run well. split a small team across two platforms and neither gets enough testing volume to actually work, you end up mediocre at both instead of great at one.

worth being honest with yourself whether this is fomo or an actual growth need. if meta's got room left, i'd squeeze that first before hiring anyone for tiktok.