TikTok's CPMs are cheap. The treadmill isn't.

The pitch is true: TikTok CPMs typically run 30–50% under Meta's for comparable reach. The invoice nobody shows you arrives in a different currency: creative velocity. On Meta, a winning ad can run for weeks. On TikTok, the For You engine burns through your audience so fast that most winners fatigue in days — the platform's superpower (explosive distribution) and its tax (explosive decay) are the same mechanism.

The real budget line

This is also why TikTok rewards a different production philosophy: volume of native-feeling, phone-shot, hook-first videos beats one polished hero asset. Your Meta creative usually fails here on arrival — it looks like an ad, and the For You page is an ad-detection machine run by teenagers.

What actually works, mechanically

Hook in 0.5s or death: retention curves decide distribution; the first frame is 80% of the ad. Spark Ads over dark ads: boosting real posts (yours or creators', with permission codes) carries organic social proof — comments, likes, the account attached — and consistently outperforms sterile ad-account creatives. Broad-only targeting: even more than Meta, TikTok's interest options are decoration; the algorithm reads watch behavior better than any checkbox. Creative IS the targeting, fully realized. Comments are creative R&D: the objections and jokes under your ads are next week's hooks, free.

The funnel shape nobody warns about

TikTok traffic clicks curious and converts colder: expect lower on-site CVR than Meta traffic and a longer assist window — TikTok plants demand that Meta retargeting and brand search harvest days later (check your platform-claimed revenue against store reality before crediting anyone). Two consequences: judge TikTok on blended MER movement, not last-click ROAS; and impulse-friendly offers (roughly sub-$70 AOV, visually demonstrable, giftable, slightly weird) massively outperform considered purchases.

TikTok Shop changed the equation

Shop collapses the funnel — discovery to checkout without leaving the app — and TikTok is pushing it with aggressive placement preference. If your product fits Shop, the native checkout often out-converts your website from TikTok traffic. If it doesn't fit, you're driving the coldest traffic in advertising to a website conversion — doable, but price it honestly.

Who should be here

Yes: sub-$70 impulse/visual/demo products, brands that can produce (or source via creators) 3+ native videos weekly, anyone whose customer lives on the FYP. Not yet: high-consideration/high-AOV without a nurture funnel, teams that can't feed the treadmill, and anyone who hasn't first made Meta work — TikTok amplifies creative operations; it doesn't replace the need for them.