TikTok made me buy it, or didn’t it?

Did you buy a weird gadget because you saw it on TikTok? You are definitely the only. The hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit has been used for over 70 billion times. But who gets the credits? TikTok? No, because you searched the gadget through Google, all credits go to the search engine. The seed for the purchase was planted on TikTok though and that’s why the platform sees it as a problem.

Attribution period

The concept attribution period is essential to understand this. It refers to the time between seeing the product on TikTok and the actual time of buying it. Advertisers use attribution methods to measure which clicks and impressions led to conversions. Problem is that a lot of common attribution methods do not capture up to 79% of purchases driven by TikTok, mainly because users do not immediately buy the product after they see it in a TikTok-video. This is because they have to leave the app to make the purchase on the brand’s website.

Test, test, test

Want to run a similar campaign and want to measure your results on TikTok? TikTok recommends advertisers to use both click-through and view-through attribution periods to minimize data loss. Furthermore, TikTok emphasizes that the optimal view-through window differs greatly by industry. While some markets thrive by the use of shorter attributions windows, others need more time to make up their mind. This means that advertisers need to be flexible and adapt their attribution strategy to the specific campaign to measure TikTok’s impact on the buying process accurately. I see it, I want it, I buy it through TikTok.