By Lauren, Paid Social Media Manager, Launch
With half of the UK population on TikTok, and over 1 billion global monthly users*, you would think it would be a no-brainer for many brands to run content on TikTok.
There are, however, several barriers that are putting marketers off and getting in the way of businesses reaching a massive proportion of their existing and potential audience.
Unlike Meta and Pinterest, TikTok has a reputation for being a fast-moving platform, with a young audience. This of course is true to an extent. On TikTok you have (what feels like) a split second to catch your audience’s attention, and there is a massive benefit to consistently releasing content.
Many marketing managers feel that they can’t keep up with the pace TikTok demands, or believe that even if they did manage to keep up, their audience isn’t on the platform anyway so the time would be wasted.
Within this article, I’ll address three of the most frequently mentioned barriers we hear from marketers who are considering adding TikTok to their social media strategy, walking you through how many of these might be more manageable than they first seem.
Barrier #1: ‘TikTok has a young audience’
While there are plenty of young people on TikTok, those who pigeonhole the platform as only attracting younger people could be missing out on a lucrative marketing opportunity.
At a recent TikTok event in London, they shared the following stats:
- More than half the UK population is on TikTok.
- Over 10 million users on TikTok are over 45.
- Those aged 35 and above are the fastest growing segment within the UK.
Looking at those numbers, it’s clear to see TikTok is a platform with a full range of customers. As many of us will have experienced from personal use it also has an incredibly strong algorithm and highly engaged user base.
With 95% of their users’ time spent on the ‘For You Page’ there is a huge opportunity to reach customers who are looking to discover new brands.
Barrier #2 ‘We can’t keep up with creative demand’
Another barrier some marketers reference when TikTok comes up in conversation, is that they don’t have the ability to keep up with creative demand. In other words, they don’t feel they can produce enough video content to run on TikTok.
While this might be the case for some businesses, there are several things to consider before you rule it out:
- You don’t need to be churning out content on a daily basis. If you’re limited by creative, you can start with one video every 7 – 10 days and build this number up over time.
- Reuse your content! If you repurpose a video that you’ve already posted, the algorithm will see it as a brand-new video giving you a new opportunity to reach your audience.
- Use TikTok One. This is a platform that allows influencers to apply to promote content which fits their interests and audience.
You might also be overthinking the type of content that works on TikTok. Videos as simple as timelapses of products being made or founder stories can have a great impact.
‘Budgets are too tight’, ‘We need to focus on ROAS’, ‘We don’t have the extra funds to start a new platform’
These are understandable concerns we hear from ecommerce marketeers in the industry.
There are always extra fees when it comes to setting up and running a new platform and understandably of course this will have an impact on decisions.
One solution could be – rather than seeing TikTok as an extra cost – reallocate a small proportion of your existing social media budget to try out the platform. When comparing TikTok to Meta, many brands find that TikTok produces lower CPCs and CPMs for top of funnel activity, making it the ideal option if you’re looking to enhance your brand recognition and overall reach (which let’s face it, we all should all be doing!).
Takeaways
If TikTok is a platform that you haven’t tried because it’s been pigeonholed as ‘too expensive’, ‘too time consuming’, or ‘too young’, then it might be time for a review.
Many of the barriers to entry are easier to overcome than they might first seem and you can lean on your performance marketing agency to help you to overcome them.
TikTok is a platform which offers some serious growth opportunity with a highly engaged and increasingly diverse audience.
With more brands recognising the power of TikTok, the question is becoming less about ‘can we afford to be on TikTok?’ and more towards ‘can we afford not to be?’.
Interested in TikTok but not sure how it fits with your paid social strategy?
Here at Launch we have a highly experienced team of Paid Social Media Managers who are diving deep into client business goals day in, day out. We’ll zoom out and take a wider look at your marketing strategy to see how TikTok can best fit into the picture for the greatest impact.
If that’s the kind of help you’re looking for, get in touch.
*Source: TikTok Means Business Agency Masterclass (attended in person) May 2025