TikTok vs. Instagram Reels: Tiger Pistol’s Face-Off Reveals Clear Winner

As social media evolves and the landscape shifts, questions continue to swirl about what platforms and features perform best. This question emerges with greater frequency in the features arms race between Meta, Snap, TikTok, YouTube, and others. There’s a race to differentiate and, in some cases, replicate.

The answer to the question of performance depends on several factors. When looking at engagement, impressions, ROI, and several other key metrics for marketing – especially local business marketing – variables include the size and location of the business, as well as its vertical category and other nuances.

With that backdrop, multi-location marketing specialist Tiger Pistol decided to run an experiment. With the reality in mind that “it depends,” it wanted to see how TikTok and Instagram Reels performed for a single client with unique attributes – in this case, the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, a non-profit.

It conducted the experiment, with consistent variables in each campaign. For example, it ran identical creative and copy across each platform, using vertical video and calls to action that prompted users to donate at grocery store checkout aisles. The Cleveland-Akron DMA was geo-targeted in each case.

“This campaign underscores the importance of choosing the right platform for each unique objective,” Tiger Pistol VP of Business Development Sarah Cucchiara told Localogy Insider.

Tiger Pistol Adds Amazon Sponsored Display Ads to its Platform

And the Winner Is…

So who won? The results were surprising in that the winner held a commanding lead. Sparing you further suspense, the winner was TikTok, with 70 percent more clicks and a 102 percent greater click-through rate than the corresponding Reels campaign. It also cost 75 percent less per click (see more below).

But the real winner was the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, which generated more than $1,500 – a meaningful lift in checkout donations at its participating grocery stores in the area. This is telling of the results that can be expected in these two competing platforms, at least in this category and region.

It should also be noted that each campaign was optimized using Tiger Pistol’s platform, which gave it a boost of not only performance but another level of consistency across social channels. Its platform does several things like optimize creative assets, generate content, and manage multi-location campaigns.

“By leveraging TikTok’s highly engaging format and our advanced optimization technology, we were able to drive significant results for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank,” said Cucchiara, “making every dollar spent on social media work harder for this crucial cause.”

Header image composed using individual images from Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

Share Article...

Follow Us...

Stay ahead of the curve and get the latest on Local straight to your inbox.

By submitting this form, you agree to receive communications from Localogy. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Related Resources

AI Pricing: What Will the Market Bear?

AI Pricing: What Will the Market Bear?

In the early stages of AI’s current wave, there’s still lots of experimentation. Most of that is around where the technology works and doesn’t work, as we examined yesterday. But it’s also about the all-important matter of price elasticity. What are users willing to pay, and how does pricing impact demand?

AI Marketing Research Localogy

Silver Bullets & Slam Dunks: When Does AI ‘Need Not Apply?’

AI is great at some things but not others. And it’s not a silver bullet for everything, as its current hype cycle may have you believe. In fact it can do more harm than good in some situations, according to our research, such as marketing software to SMBs that’s labeled as “AI-powered”

Flexible & Frictionless: A Conversation with Bluehost

To get more color on Bluehost’s evolutionary path and directional heading, we recently had the chance to catch up with CEO Sachin Puri. Appointed to the role in May, Puri takes over at a time when Bluehost has ample momentum and velocity. So what’s the vision, and where will Bluehost go next?