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.
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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
