Nielsen TikTok Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) study, aimed at quantifying the impact of TikTok advertising on FMCG brands in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with the main content as follows:
1. Research Background
- Development of TikTok in the MENA region: TikTok is loved by creators and audiences for its immersive full-screen, sound-on format and diverse video content, and has a large audience. It offers a variety of brand advertising options, such as TopView ads, in-feed video ads, branded hashtag challenges, etc.
- Research Purpose: Many marketers rely on third-party measurement providers to assess advertising impact. Due to the diversity and high traffic of TikTok ad products, robust methods and best practices are needed to quantify its business value. Therefore, TikTok commissioned Nielsen to conduct a marketing mix modeling study on 16 brands in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt (covering three categories: food & beverage, health & personal care, and home care).
2. Research Results
- TikTok advertising has a significant impact on sales
- Overall ROAS: TikTok's total return on ad spend (ROAS) in the MEA region is $1.83. The ROAS of paid ads is 3.5 times the average of other Nielsen-measured media, 56% higher than other digital media (excluding TikTok), and higher than all other media.
- ROAS by category: In the food & beverage category, the ROAS of TikTok paid ads is higher than all other media. The health & personal care and home care categories also achieved higher ROAS, and all categories exceeded the FMCG industry benchmark.
- Multiple ad formats and long-term campaigns can improve ROAS
- Multiple ad formats: Running multiple ad formats simultaneously in TikTok ad campaigns can improve ROAS. Compared to brands focusing on only one format, brands implementing multiple formats can increase ROAS by 10%, and by 31% in the UAE. Among different categories, the improvement in ROAS from multiple formats versus single format is more significant in food & beverage and health & personal care categories.
- Long-term campaigns: Running in-feed ads on TikTok for more than 20 weeks can increase ROAS by 16% compared to brands running ads for less than 20 weeks.
3. MMM Measurement Best Practices: In marketing mix modeling, TikTok should be modeled as an independent entity and should not be bundled with other digital or social strategies. TikTok can provide data extraction by ad product to facilitate measurement of its effectiveness and efficiency.
