For years, TikTok has been both overhyped and underestimated: a staple app for Gen Z and its juniors, yet often dismissed by “serious” marketers. But while many brands were busy debating its legitimacy, others quietly built multi-million-rand audiences, reshaped their digital strategy, and redefined what brand engagement looks like – all thanks to TikTok.
The truth is, TikTok isn’t a passing fad. It has evolved into a global marketing powerhouse, successfully driving product discovery, brand storytelling, and measurable conversions for those brands who know how to use it well.
In this article, we’ll separate fact from fiction, unpack the platform’s evolving audience, compare its advertising power to that of its competitors, and help you to determine whether TikTok deserves a spot in your marketing strategy.
Who’s Really on TikTok?
TikTok has long been labelled “the Gen Z app,” but that label no longer fits.
While the platform remains popular among younger audiences, it’s increasingly attracting working professionals and more mature consumers.
Here are some key statistics you should know about:
- TikTok boasts 1.8 billion monthly active users globally (DataReportal, 2025).
- The 25–34 age group now accounts for 32% of the app’s global users, while 21% are aged 35+ (Statista, 2025).
- In South Africa, TikTok has more than 10 million active users (Meltwater Digital Report, 2025).
- The average TikTok user spends 54 minutes per day on the app, surpassing the amount of time spent on Facebook or Instagram (Hootsuite Digital, 2025).
What does this mean? TikTok is no longer a “youth-only” space. Instead, it’s a cross-generational ecosystem of consumers seeking entertainment, education, and inspiration.
If your target market includes Millennials, professionals, or digital natives, we’re here to break the news that they’re already following your competitors on TikTok.
Brand Success Stories: Who’s Winning and How
Still think TikTok is just a place for viral dances? Think again. The app has quickly turned into a global discovery engine. Brands across industries have unlocked real ROI by leaning into authenticity, culture, and creativity.
- In South Africa, Nando’s blends local humour and real-time commentary to drive massive engagement. Its content feels relatable and conversational – never corporate – and consistently goes viral for this exact reason.
- The Washington Post transformed its newsroom into a creator-led storytelling brand, amassing millions of followers and positioning itself as the “human” face of journalism.
- Fenty Beauty redefined inclusivity by letting creators demonstrate products in real time, driving both engagement and sales spikes with every new launch.
- Gymshark used TikTok’s creator collaborations to drive community-led growth, contributing to a 6× increase in social engagement (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2024).
The common thread: Success on TikTok doesn’t come from brand polish, but from cultural fluency and creative agility.
Paid Reach: TikTok Ads vs Meta Ads
Both TikTok and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) deliver powerful digital advertising ecosystems, but hold very different roles in the customer journey.
TIKTOK ADS | META ADS | |
Audience Intent | Discovery & inspiration | Conversion & retargeting |
Creative Approach | Relatable, native, creator-led | Polished, brand-centric |
Cost (CPM) | Often lower with a higher engagement potential | Slightly higher CPM |
Ad Fatigue | Slower, as content blends with feed | Faster, as ads are overtly promotional |
Tracking & ROI | Improving with TikTok Pixel and attribution tools | Mature & widely proven |
According to Triple Whale (2025), TikTok ads deliver stronger engagement and reach efficiency, while Meta retains an advantage in bottom-funnel conversion tracking.
Best practice: Use TikTok to build demand and Meta to capture it. This allows for an omnichannel strategy that connects awareness with measurable ROI.
Ownership & Perception: TikTok’s Political and Corporate Landscape
TikTok’s rapid global rise hasn’t been without controversy. Questions about its ownership, data privacy, and regulation have shaped the public narrative around the platform – but they’ve also proven its resilience.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a global technology company founded in Beijing and valued at roughly $300 billion USD (Bloomberg, 2025). Following increased scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe, ByteDance restructured its ownership: as of late 2025, U.S. investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX Partners hold a 45% stake in TikTok’s American operations (Reuters, Sept 2025).
This move reflects the platform’s intent to localise governance and strengthen international trust. TikTok now operates with regionally segmented data storage and management frameworks (“Project Clover” in the EU and “Project Texas” in the U.S.) designed to ensure compliance with regional privacy laws.
Despite the political noise around the app, TikTok’s global growth trajectory hasn’t slowed down in the slightest. In 2025, it remains one of the top five most visited websites in the world (Similarweb, 2025) and continues to lead social media engagement metrics.
What this means for brands
Regulatory developments may change the infrastructure behind TikTok, but not its influence. Businesses should focus less on ownership politics and more on opportunity – visibility, reach, and creative storytelling – within a platform that continues to dominate on a global level.
Is TikTok Right for Your Brand?
It’s true: not every platform is a fit for every brand. But with TikTok’s extensive reach, the question isn’t “Should we be there?”, but rather “How can we use it meaningfully?”
To evaluate strategic fit, brands should consider three pillars: Audience, Alignment, and Capacity.
Audience: Are your customers there?
If your target audience includes Millennials (25–40yrs), Gen Z (18–24yrs), or young professionals, the answer is almost certainly yes. Even in traditionally conservative sectors like finance and healthcare, TikTok has seen rapid content adoption through educational and myth-busting videos.
Alignment: Does your brand voice fit the platform?
TikTok thrives on authenticity, storytelling, and community-driven dialogue. Brands that perform best on the platform:
- Prioritise human voices over corporate polish.
- Build trust through transparency (e.g., behind-the-scenes content, customer stories).
- Participate in cultural conversations, rather than interrupt them.
If your tone is very rigid, overly promotional, or disconnected from everyday culture (which, to be blunt, we don’t believe it should ever be), TikTok may expose that more than any other platform will.
Capacity: Can your team create and sustain short-form content?
TikTok’s pace is relentless. Trends evolve weekly, and the algorithm rewards consistency. To see measurable traction, brands should commit to:
- 3–5 quality posts per week (consistent testing > perfection).
- A blend of content styles; educational, entertaining, aspirational, and community-led.
- Tracking metrics like completion rate, saves, and comment engagement, not just views.
Strategic takeaway: TikTok isn’t all about chasing virality, but rather about building brand presence where the next generation of decision-makers spends their time.
What Works on TikTok: The Content Blueprint
The biggest misconception is that TikTok’s success is random. In reality, high-performing content follows clear behavioural and algorithmic logic.
Here’s what has consistently worked in 2025:
- Educational and Value-Driven Content
TikTok users actively seek useful, credible information – a shift that’s mirrored in the rise of “#LearnOnTikTok” (now over 600 billion views globally, according to TikTok Data, 2025). Industries from legal to logistics are using bite-sized tutorials, FAQs, and myth-busting videos to position themselves as thought leaders. - Authentic Storytelling
Relatability drives retention. Simple videos of founders, employees, or customers sharing real stories often outperform professionally produced campaigns. In South Africa, brands like Capitec, Woolworths, and FNB are mastering this balance, showing their “human” side without losing professionalism. - Creator Collaborations
Influencers still matter, but micro-creators (10K–100K followers) tend to deliver better ROI through niche relevance and credibility. A 2024 Influencer Marketing Hub study found that micro-influencer partnerships on TikTok generated 47% higher engagement and 32% lower CPA than traditional macro-collaborations. - Sound, Timing, and Context
TikTok’s algorithm favours videos using trending sounds, timely themes, or community-driven hashtags. Brands that “sound like the platform” earn organic boosts. But success also comes from timing: posting between 6–10 p.m. local time correlates with the highest average engagement (com, 2025). - Local Culture
In South Africa and across Africa, local humour, language, and shared experiences drive disproportionate engagement. The top-performing South African TikToks are culturally relevant, not globally generic.
The formula:
Authenticity + Timing + Relevance = Algorithmic Advantage.
Integrating TikTok into Your Broader Strategy
TikTok should never operate in isolation. When integrated into a broader marketing strategy, it amplifies every other channel.
Here’s how forward-thinking brands are using it:
- Top of Funnel: Build awareness and personality through storytelling and creators.
- Middle of Funnel: Use retargeting (via TikTok Pixel) to drive viewers to site-based content, lead forms, or Meta audiences.
- Bottom of Funnel: Collaborate with creators for product demos or social proof that converts browsers into buyers.
Advanced advertisers are also leveraging TikTok’s Smart Performance Campaigns (SPC), an AI-powered system that optimises delivery and creative rotation automatically, mirroring Meta’s Advantage+ structure.
Additionally, with TikTok’s partnership integrations (Shopify, HubSpot, WooCommerce), conversion tracking is no longer a guessing game.
In essence: TikTok is no longer the wildcard channel people once thought it to be. It’s a full-funnel, data-backed performance platform that you probably should be implementing into your marketing strategy.
The Takeaway
From a novelty to necessity, TikTok has evolved into a discovery engine, community builder, and increasingly, a conversion driver. The biggest myth isn’t that TikTok is “just for Gen Z.” It’s the belief that your brand doesn’t need to show up there, or that professional brands can’t thrive in spaces that are built on creativity and authenticity.
TikTok rewards those who adapt, experiment, and understand culture. For brands that are ready to lead that shift, the opportunity is enormous.At We Do Digital, we help businesses to translate creativity into commercial growth, whether that be through TikTok, Meta, or the next big thing in digital marketing. Want to know more? Let’s chat.
Written by Rebekka Strydom, Copywriter at We Do Digital.
