TikTok Ads for businesses in Romania: who it worked for and who it didn't

The question usually goes like this: "Everyone says we need to be on TikTok, is it worth it?" The honest answer is that it depends much more on the product than on the platform.

Where it worked

It worked best for products that explain themselves when you see them in your hand: homeware, cosmetics, food items, a service with an immediately visible result. Filming on a phone, in a shop or workshop, almost always beat beautifully edited material.

It also worked for a client with a low entry price, where the decision is made on the spot. The longer and more discussed a decision is within the family, the harder it is to measure the effect here.

Where it didn't work

For B2B services with a long sales cycle, we stopped after the first stage. We had views, we had traffic, but the enquiries didn't match the clients the company wanted. I'm not saying it's impossible – I'm saying we didn't succeed, in that context, and the money had a better place in search.

The second situation where we recommend not starting: when you don't have someone who can film regularly. TikTok demands new material often. If the only option is a pack of three films made once, the channel quickly fizzles out.

How we start, when we start

We start with a few simply filmed variants, with different openings, and let the platform find what sticks. We look at the first few seconds: where people drop off tells us more than the total number of views.

We link measurement from the start, and we compare what the platform reports with what the client sees in orders. Differences exist, and it's healthier to see them early.

What we tell the client beforehand

That it's a test with a limited budget, not a channel shift. That good material comes from them, from everything that happens daily in the company, not from us in the office. And that, if after the test phase nothing useful is seen, we stop and put the budget where it was working.

I can't promise a cost per result before we test. Anyone who promises it is making it up.

If you want to try the channel and aren't sure if your offer fits, tell us what you sell and we'll give you a direct opinion.

Comparison with what we were already running for the same clients

The question that always comes up is "is it worth moving budget from Facebook to TikTok?". Our answer is that they are platforms with different roles, and for some clients, TikTok has no place. The table below shows how we compare them internally, without figures, because the figures vary greatly from one client to another.

What we ask the client before we start

Three or four short videos, made by them or an employee, with the product in hand. We don't need lights or a written script. We need someone to show something and say why it would matter to the buyer. When we receive corporate presentation materials, we use them as a control test and they usually lose.

One thing we learned the hard way

Once, we insisted on adapting material made for Facebook, with only the format changed. It ran for three weeks and produced nothing but impressions. Not the client's mistake, ours: we didn't refilm because we wanted to start quickly.

When we tell the client not to put money here

Expensive services with long decision cycles, products bought only out of necessity, B2B companies with few large clients. Here we do not recommend TikTok, even if it would bring us more work. Other agencies have different opinions and that's fine – we're only speaking from the accounts we've actually managed.

If you sell a product that looks good on camera and you have someone willing to film once a week, it's worth a short test. Write to us and we'll tell you if we think your case fits.

What we review after a few months

Not according to a ticked list, but according to a simple question: if a new client were to come in tomorrow on this subject, would they find the answer here that would change their decision? If not, something is missing, and it's usually a practical detail, not an entire section. We revisit texts after a few months, when we see what people are asking us on the phone and what wasn't written anywhere.