The 4% | Edition 012
Ok so as shared last edition, the world of digital advertising has been getting whacky. The main antagonist is TikTok and the usual reaction from the giants to absorb their leading features is no longer working.
Insta-Tok and Tik-Tube are receiving wildly different reviews from users. With the former absolutely slammed for their full screen/default to reels, while Shorts are being praised and welcomed.
At the same time TikTok's rate of development is alarming for the other platforms, with announcements on Spoti-tok (Streaming Service) and Tik-Shopping (Shopping Ads)
Maybe the best summary of TikToks influence on the digital advertising landscape is the sentiment right now that if you create a Tik-Tok style creative it will work on every platform; if you try and run any other platforms style creative on TikTok it will fail miserably.
It's not Video, it's Reels
So late July, Instagram made this announcement
In the midst of this announcement the testing of full screen views rolled out to more users and then the Kardashian thing happened, and so they walked back a lot of those changes (Suggested Videos, Default Full Screen etc..)
Casey Newton
It was rumoured that Instagram was aiming to increase to a 30% suggested post feed by end of next year. Now we're not so sure where that will sit.
Right now for advertisers you can keep uploading those Feed + Portrait Ads, but keep an eye out for any dimensions updates to consider.
Users vs Usage
While Meta is still ahead for total users, with YouTube in 2nd place. The stats that are scaring the giants to Tok-ify their platforms is the usage of TikTok.
August 13, 2022
The Daily Minutes of TikTok users is dwarfing the other platforms. And in this age of attention, that trend makes the others nervous.
Social App or Video App
This shift of TikTok user minutes is causing Instagram to panic. The playbook used to defeat Snapchat with Stories, is simply not cutting through this time.
One of the biggest reasons I see for this is that fundamentally TikTok and Instagram are very different platforms. In fact TikTok themselves as shared in Edition 009 wants to be a Video platform (YouTube competition), rather than a social media platform (Instagram).
This distinction is key and the way to consider this is that most TikTok videos are uploaded from a small percentage of its users. In that way it's closer to YouTube, with incredible view times, but limited uploaders.
Instagram you are more likely to update your Feed & Stories, and use this to connect with family & friends. In fact most people don't even seem to be following friends & family on TikTok, and never heard of anyone subscribing to a friends channel on YouTube!
This trend in itself is also a concern for Instagram. If Tik-Tok and YouTube become the channels you accept to see brands ads, follow brands, being sold to by influencers; then Instagram strategically could be the place you go to connect & share with family & friends (yet that's not a very positive ad business model!)
Game Changer
So there's no doubt in such a short space of time TikTok has changed the game for brands, advertisers and users.
The way we consume video in this season has absolutely been changed.
I hope anyone reading this would not still be using TV ads on digital platforms, if you are, stop! But even deeper if anyone is not thinking about digital ads as Portrait-first, please start!
It feels inevitable now that ad dollars will move to TikTok, they will improve the targeting and ad interface. The question that arrives then, is what happens to user minutes and engagement when Organic Reach dies?