The prospect of Tik Tok getting banned is very real and its future hangs in the air. For advertisers the switch could likely be made to Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlights Ads, YouTube Shorts Ads and Facebook Stories.

According to The Drum You Tube shorts hit 50 billion daily views earlier this year, it was at 30 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

Principal analyst at Insider Intelligence’s eMarketer Jasmine Enberg warns that “marketers who rely solely or primarily on Tik Tok [should] think about how and where they can diversify their spending.”

Enberg said Reels and YouTube would like be the “next best thing” for advertisers.

Stagwell’s Brand X Performance Network and global chief executive at Omni channel media agency Assembly in an interview with the Drum said, “We are in a wait and see game and we don’t believe marketers should pull back on day-to-day investments yet. The benefit of digital channels is they are both nimble and real-time and can be paused based on day-of-market dynamics.”

TikTok For Advertisers

Joshua Lowcock from UM Worldwide said that Tik Tok is not the first platform to have a dodgy record on data protection, Google and Facebook have also done so in the past.

“It’s time to reckon with the fact that big platforms all collect and use data (almost) the same way. In very plain terms, we are in an information economy, dealing with data infinity, accelerating into the digital age.”

Brands and advertisers have been caught in the middle. Gleam managing partner Melanie Kentish said, “There are huge audiences on TikTok and if you look at the return on investment in terms of reach and impressions, it’s cheap media.

“What could have been an Instagram and TikTok campaign will typically then turn into an Instagram with TikTok being dropped rather than it being around,” she said.

Andrew Stephenson, director of marketing EMEA and India at Treasure Data says that, “the platforms that are collecting the most data from Gen Z are ultimately the ones who facilitate the most engaging, entertaining and honest content. TikTok ushered in an era where users can easily engage with high volumes of content, allowing the platform to collect more data than ever before, and it’s no surprise that the likes of YouTube and Instagram quickly followed suit.”

However, “Social platforms tend to over-index on behavioral data points, which allow them to capture the momentary zeitgeist but lack the insights that build robust marketing strategies and brand loyalty for the long term.

“More and more brands are looking to piece together the full picture of Gen Z, and are realising the benefits of collecting first-party data as central to this. It’s no surprise then that the cracks may be beginning to show.”