Mexicali Blues, an apparel retailer, recently experienced a surge in sales after one of its store employees posted a nine-second video on TikTok. The video, which showed different ways to wear one of the store's ponchos, was viewed over 50,000 times and generated 100 sales of the garment on its ecommerce site, MexicaliBlues.com.

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Jacqui Segura, the store's director of marketing, said the post was a success because it was "fun and creative." She added that the post was "a great example of how to use TikTok to engage with customers in a way that is entertaining and informative."

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The success of Mexicali Blues' post highlights the importance of using creative and entertaining content when advertising on TikTok. While more traditional, sober ads may work on other platforms such as Facebook, TikTok users are more likely to engage with content that is fun and creative.

The only problem is, Segura has no idea why this video worked and why others haven’t.

“I want to crack the code, but I’ve gotten nowhere near cracking the code,” Segura says about TikTok ads.

Many retailers share Segura’s frustration about TikTok ads. Only 30% of retailers that advertise on TikTok said their ads were effective, making it the lowest ranking effective ad channel, according to Digital Commerce 360’s marketing survey of 97 retailers in May 2023.

In fact, social media platforms in general are a mixed bag for merchants in terms of effectiveness and positive return on investment, according to the survey. While 70% or more of retailers ranked email, paid search and Amazon ads as effective, only 54% of retailers said the same about Instagram ads, 50% about Facebook ads and 34% ads on social networks other than Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Sources: https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/06/26/why-wacky-ads-work-on-tiktok-while-sober-is-better-for-facebook/