Meta ads vs TikTok ads for ecommerce
Decide this on creative supply, not on platform preference. TikTok only works for a store that can put out several new short videos every week, because creative burns out there faster than anywhere else. Meta can be run on stills, catalogue ads and a handful of assets a month, so it survives a store with no filming routine.
The second half of the rule is the product itself. If the thing you sell has a visible before and after that lands in three seconds without sound, TikTok will show it to strangers cheaply. If the purchase needs comparison, a size chart or a warranty, Meta is the safer home because you can retarget the people who already looked and let the catalogue do the reminding.
Choose
Meta ads
when
- You can produce a couple of new assets a month and need stills and catalogue ads to carry the rest
- Your buyers sit outside the platform centre of gravity, for instance garden machinery or mobility aids
- You want to show past visitors the exact product they viewed rather than a general message
- The purchase is considered, with days between first view and checkout
- You have a customer list worth building broad lookalike audiences from
Choose
TikTok ads
when
- The product has a demonstration that reads in three seconds with the sound off
- Someone on the team can film and edit several videos a week without hiring a studio
- Your price is an impulse price, low enough to buy on a phone without research
- You sell into a trend or a season where being early beats being polished
- Meta costs have climbed and the same creative keeps reaching the same people
| Criterion | Meta ads | TikTok ads |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Dearer to reach a thousand people, warmer traffic, steadier cost per order | Cheaper views, colder traffic, more orders needed before the number means anything |
| Setup effort | Pixel, server side events, catalogue, then audiences | Pixel and events are quick, but a weekly filming routine is not optional |
| Time to signal | Two to three weeks per creative round | Days per video, several weeks to know whether the account holds up |
| Control | Detailed audience, placement and exclusion settings | Fewer levers, the creative is effectively the targeting |
| Best for | Considered purchases, retargeting, catalogue driven ranges | Demonstrable products, impulse prices, younger buyers |
| What can go wrong | Audiences overlap and you pay twice to reach the same household | Filming stops for a fortnight and the account performance goes with it |
| How we measure it | Blended cost per order and new customer share, week by week | Three second view rate first, then store level cost per order |
When both apply
Run both only if you can feed both. The constraint is footage, not money.
When output is four or more usable videos a month, cut each one vertical for TikTok and square for Meta, give each account its own budget, and let the same product carry different opening seconds. When output is lower, run one channel properly instead of two badly. With both live, read the store level cost per order for the week and expect both dashboards to claim the same orders.
Questions
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