More and more people believe that TikTok, the video-sharing website owned by ByteDance, can produce full-funnel results, from discovery to search to purchase. However, marketers and artists are becoming too concerned because of worries over TikTok’s potential prohibition in the US.
WARC Media’s Head of Content, Alex Brownsell, claims: “On 18 January, US TikTok users were unable to access the video-sharing app for more than 12 hours due to regulation banning the app based on national security concerns. A 75-day deadline extension to 5 April by President Donald Trump does little to dispel the uncertainty around TikTok as an ongoing staple in many brands’ marketing plans.
“In this report, we explore the potential impact of a US ban on TikTok’s advertising revenue, and examine the platform’s role in consumer behaviour and campaign effectiveness,” he added.
WARC Media’s most recent Platform Insights study provides evidence-based insights on the potential and problems TikTok presents. It also provides an overview of the important information that advertisers need to know about the platform, including information on investment, usage, and performance.
It is anticipated that TikTok’s global ad income will exceed $32.4 billion. If TikTok is prohibited, about $12 billion in US spending could be at risk. If a US ban is not enacted, TikTok’s ad expenditure is expected to reach $32.4 billion in 2025, a 24.5% increase from the previous year.
Continuing, the video-sharing app TikTok is expected to gain 11% of the worldwide social media market this year, with its ad revenue expected to grow faster than Facebook (+9.3%) and Instagram (+19.0%).
Global marketers were more likely to expand their investment in TikTok in 2025 than in any other digital platform, per the results of WARC’s Marketer’s Toolkit survey, which was conducted late last year. Compared to their client counterparts (74%), agency respondents (81%) were even more optimistic.
According to an estimate by WARC Media, the US continues to be TikTok’s largest market, but over the past five years, its percentage of the platform’s overall ad revenue has decreased, falling from 43.3% in 2022 to 34.0% by 2026. Outside of the US, ad income is increasing more quickly, which could lessen the impact of any US prohibition.
According to WARC Media, Instagram stands to gain the most from a TikTok ban, with spend going to YouTube and Snapchat. TikTok’s ad reach is currently reported to be 1.59 billion, making it the second most popular app for women aged 16 to 24 and the fifth most used mobile app globally. The US remains TikTok’s largest market, with 136 million active adult accounts, or two out of five Americans. If a ban in the US is avoided, TikTok is expected to generate $11.8 billion in US ad revenue this year (up 21.0%, outpacing overall US social media ad investment, which is expected to grow 10.6%), rising to $13.4 billion in 2026, BrandSpur digital news platform reports.
With an average user spending over 35 hours a month on the app in 2024—more than twice as much as Instagram users—TikTok’s monthly usage considerably outpaces that of any other platform. With users spending an average of about 44 hours per month, or nearly 1.5 hours per day, on TikTok, consumption levels are much higher in the US.
Any prohibition in the US and conflict in Canada are expected to have a greater impact on well-known platforms with short-form video features, such as YouTube’s Shorts and Instagram’s Reels.
According to We Are Social, over half (57%) of TikTok users worldwide utilise the search feature of the app to follow or research brands and goods. To date, advertisers are “interested” but wary due to issues like efficacy and safety.
Amazon sales are impacted by TikTok advertising in terms of performance. TikTok, which is considered the “most fun” and entertaining platform, has once again taken the top spot, tied with Amazon, as consumers’ preferred advertising platform, according to Kantar’s most recent Media Reactions report. However, too much targeting can be a problem, as TikTok isn’t as trusted by marketers as YouTube, Netflix, and Instagram, which is below the industry average.
TikTok has identified several important themes for 2025, one of which is that performance can be enhanced by creative variation and quality. TikTok has developed several AI-powered tools, including TikTok Symphony and TikTok One, to help.
Research indicates that certain branded content produced in partnership with creators increases engagement, ad recall, and view-through rates.
According to a recent analysis by Fospha, spending money on upper-funnel advertising on websites like YouTube, Meta, and TikTok can have a big impact on Amazon sales. TikTok’s return on ad spend (ROAS) was 2.4x on average for direct-to-consumer sales alone, but when Amazon revenue was taken into account, the study’s term “Unified-ROAS” rose to 4.2x, indicating that TikTok has an impact on Amazon sales that had not been observed before.
