Insider Store

The Objective

Prove the efficiency of TikTok

Insider is a pioneer in sustainable, high-quality textile technology. This is the raw material of the essential pieces designed for a modern routine made by the brand, such as t-shirts and pants that do not need to be ironed and withstand the test of time. Insider's portfolio serves from the fashionable to the sportiest audience, aiming to ensure comfort, sustainability and functionality to make life easier and respect the planet.

The brand is one of those that really got the spirit of advertising on TikTok. We've already told you a little bit about their story. Insider plans to keep an always-on campaign on the platform, so it's always up and running with up-to-date ads including news and promotions. With continuous optimizations, this frequent presence can be key to creating a relationship with the community and even bringing more sales.

But, to keep an always-on strategy going on, you need to prove the results. This was the brand's challenge at the beginning of the year: considering that traditional attribution models based on the last click do not capture the majority of purchases driven by TikTok, how to prove the efficiency of the platform and justify more investments?

The Solution

Testing, testing and testing

The content on TikTok is highly engaging. So much so that more than half of our users often visit a website or app of a brand later, so as not to cut the video browsing experience (1). So, when someone sees an ad here, they don't always click and buy right away: they can go after a product review, research more about the offer, and only then end up buying.

In the most commonly used attribution models in the market, the “kudos” of the conversion in these cases goes to the channel where the last click happened – even if the person was initially influenced by the ad they saw on TikTok. It is real: According to an analysis by KnoCommerce, 79% of TikTok-motivated purchases are not identified through attribution methods that are common to web advertisers (2).

To circumvent this limitation and help Insider have a clearer view of the impact of the platform, we suggested to test, test and test – in a strategy of always-on Conversion Lift studies.

The brand built, together with TikTok and an agency known as Elementar, a testing framework to run every two months, starting in March. During the tests, the brand would use different optimizations and attribution windows, both per click (CTA) and per view (VTA), changing every two months. Results would be measured with Conversion Lifts, which measure the incremental impact of ads on the platform in conversions.

The ads were mostly standard In-Feed Ads, with active value-based optimization (VBO), as the brand had been doing since the beginning. The combination helps to keep costs under control and find people who are more likely to spend more. Along the way, Insider also tested Video Shopping Ads, our dynamic catalog ad format that combines performance with native content.

The Results

More sales with the right optimizations

The strategy of testing and testing helped Insider clearly see the impact that TikTok has on sales and optimize accordingly, so that the results are even better. From the first to the last test, the brand got 3.6x more incremental conversions – which would not happen without TikTok ads – recorded, with 3x less cost per incremental conversion compared to the average ticket.

In the first round of tests, with ads optimized for the “purchase” event on the website, our platform brought +20% incremental conversions – but the return on investment in ads (ROAS) still needed to take it up a notch. In round 2, the brand changed the optimization to the “add to cart” event and increased the investment, but understood that this wasn't the way yet.

In rounds 3 and 4, the optimization changed to ROAS, counting on the help of VBO to find customers with the potential to spend more. It worked out well: Insider registered +12% incremental conversions between July and August, and +8% from September to October.

Even with these lower percentages compared to the first test, the average cost per incremental conversion in those two rounds dropped significantly. This made the average return on ad investment almost the triple compared to the first round.

Finally, in round 5, which only covered November, Insider tested a different combination: it activated VBO on both its ads fronts, web conversions – previously optimized for purchase – and Video Shopping Ads. In addition, they increased investment. And it went well once again: 3x more incremental conversions and again thrice the ROAS compared to round 1.