TikTok Will Dethrone Meta for SMB Marketing in 2024—Is Your Business Ready?

TikTok is headed into 2024 with serious momentum. In 2023, the ByteDance-owned social media platform managed to avoid state and federal bans in the U.S., rolled out an eCommerce program, and helped launch countless small business success stories. 

Using survey data from 364 small to midsize businesses,* GetApp has found that SMBs marketing on TikTok reap significant benefits, leading 71% to plan to increase their marketing spend on TikTok in 2024. As TikTok’s algorithm and eCommerce program evolves, SMBs can use our data-driven trends to adapt their strategy this year.

Key insights:

• 96% of small to midsize businesses on TikTok get more engagement on TikTok compared to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. 

• 97% of brands on TikTok use TikTok content and themes on other marketing channels.

• 92% already use generative AI to support their TikTok content strategy.

• 72% of SMBs on TikTok launched products on TikTok Shop in 2023, and 26% plan to do so in 2024.

We’ve all heard enough about Instagram’s slow death by competition and algorithmic flops to know that it’s increasingly unpopular among younger consumers. Small to midsize businesses are adapting by shifting their marketing efforts over to TikTok. 

TikTok’s discovery algorithm provides a unique opportunity for businesses hoping to get noticed on social media, which performance metrics support: 77% of SMBs on TikTok report a year-over-year increase in sales attributable to the app, and nearly all of them (96%) say their engagement on TikTok surpasses their engagement on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.

In 2024, more small businesses will focus their marketing efforts on TikTok, rather than on Instagram or Facebook. In fact, 71% of surveyed SMBs on TikTok will increase their TikTok marketing spend next year, while 37% will spend less on Facebook and 32% will spend less on Instagram.

TikTok differs from other social media platforms in that it calls for a specialized—but not necessarily expensive or time-consuming—approach to content creation and branding. While Instagram content can seem overly precious and polished, top-performing TikTok content is irreverent, candid, and often vulnerable.

Of course, your business’s success on any given social media platform depends on how much of your audience happens to also use that platform. If your target demographic is retirees, you may well have more success on Facebook right now than on TikTok. 

Here’s the caveat: With TikTok becoming wildly popular amongst U.S. consumers as a hub for product research, trusted reviews, and influencer content, 97% of SMBs in our survey are already repurposing TikTok content and themes in other marketing channels. That includes not just other social media channels, but eCommerce websites, in-store displays, and even the research and development of new products. In 2024, TikTok content will be everywhere—it will find your audience, wherever they are. It’s a good idea to get on board now. 

There are big advantages to spreading TikTok content to other channels, including attracting more customers, driving traffic to eCommerce websites, and boosting sales. As brands increase their marketing efforts on TikTok in 2024, they’ll use TikTok content and themes to imbue product pages, email campaigns, and even in-store displays with the app’s air of authenticity and entertainment.

The TikTok content you recycle doesn’t have to be only your own. In fact, you should regularly search TikTok for mentions of your brand in the form of UGC, or user-generated content. UGC provides social proof for your brand and products, and is especially helpful when created by micro-influencers, whose product reviews are gospel to their followers.

The vast majority of surveyed small businesses on TikTok (92%) already use generative AI in some capacity to fuel their social media content strategy. They generally lean on AI to improve, hasten, and scale content creation and campaign ideation, though they also use it to analyze and understand TikTok trends.

Additionally, new research by GetApp indicates that AI upskilling has become essential for SMB marketers, and that AI skills are prioritized when hiring junior-level employees such as marketing interns. 

In 2024, TikTok users will experience the impact of GenAI as SMBs adopt it for a variety of marketing purposes, including content creation and hiring decisions. It’s likely that much of the TikTok content posted by SMBs, including the topics, themes, scripts, and even visuals for video content will be generated or influenced by AI’s interpretation of TikTok trends. 

Whether this reliance on AI will yield the same quality of branded TikTok content—and by extension, user engagement and purchases—remains to be seen. Consumer outlook on the application of GenAI in social media suggests AI-generated content won’t live up to their standards. Over 70% of consumers think greater use of GenAI on social media will harm user experience; by 2025, a perceived decay in social media quality will lead half of consumers to spend less time on major platforms such as TikTok. [2]

Small businesses are already piling into TikTok Shop, TikTok’s in-app shopping experience. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of surveyed SMBs on TikTok had launched products on TikTok Shop in 2023, and 26% plan to do so in 2024. 

Given how Instagram transformed retail marketing and social commerce, from post-worthy store installations to hashtag-driven campaigns and the rise of influencers, it makes sense that its successor would follow a similar playbook. Nobody should be surprised that TikTok chose to capitalize on its incredible popularity by rolling out shoppable posts, an affiliate program, live commerce, and, soon, its own fulfillment logistics network. That TikTok is coming for Amazon’s crown should be seen as the logical next step for social commerce. 

Even so, TikTok’s leap into eCommerce is risky. After all, Instagram’s commercialization pushed many of its users over to TikTok in the first place; no longer a place to connect with friends and family, Instagram was replaced by a platform that provided the humanity users felt it had lost. [3]

By expanding its eCommerce program and pushing more sponsored content to “For You” pages, TikTok could find itself on a similar downward spiral. Users have already begun vocalizing their disdain for the influx of content created by brands, paid influencers, or affiliates, with some defecting from social media to private group chats, where they’re less visible to advertisers. [4]

Like Instagram, TikTok could remain a useful tool for product research and shopping, but see a decline in organic content creation and engagement as users seek new outlets for social interaction online. 

How should SMBs navigate TikTok’s evolution without alienating users? Complementing ads with plenty of organic content that embodies the spirit of “old” TikTok is a good start.

TikTok’s continued transformation into a fully-fledged eCommerce platform, and the algorithmic changes that come with it, means it’s about to get more difficult for businesses to stand out among a sea of competitors to a base of increasingly frustrated users. 

A tried and tested way forward is to prioritize content that users want to engage with, which requires empowering your marketing employees to get creative, have fun, and think outside the box.