TikTok Ads: why most campaigns fail to deliver results

The platform has more than 22 million active users in Italy and an average CPM of around $6, one of the lowest on social media. Yet people who have already tried TikTok Ads often tell the same story: budget spent, few results, campaign paused.

The problem, almost always, isn’t the channel. It’s the way it’s approached.

Anyone who treats TikTok Ads as an extension of Meta ads, adapting the same videos, using the same audiences and measuring the same KPIs, almost invariably gets disappointing results. TikTok has its own logic, and ignoring it is the quickest way to waste budget. In this article we look at the most common mistakes, the formats that really work in 2026, where TikTok beats other channels and where it doesn’t, and the opportunities most Italian advertisers are still ignoring.

The first mistake: adapting instead of creating

TikTok Ads aren’t an advertising slot. They’re content that appears among other content, judged by the algorithm exactly like any other organic video: on how much users interact with it in the first minutes of distribution.

If your video is skipped within two seconds, distribution stops. If it generates interactions, it keeps receiving reach. This means a video shot vertically in natural light with direct sound can beat a €5,000 professional production optimised for other channels, because the second looks like an ad and the first doesn’t.

TikTok Ads that work follow three rules of form before you even think about the message: native vertical format, a visual or informational hook within the first 3 seconds, and integrated audio. Content with sound design that fits the platform’s trends gets more organic distribution, which lowers the effective cost of the paid campaign.

The formats the best brands use

Spark Ads: amplify what’s already working

Spark Ads let you promote organic content that has already been published, whether yours or from creators who mention your brand, with their permission. The result is an ad that keeps all the original interactions (likes, comments, shares) on the account, building social proof over time.

Spark Ads generate a ROAS 2–3 times higher than standard In-Feed Ads. The reason is simple: the algorithm has already validated that content organically. Amplifying it with budget means accelerating something that’s already working, not betting on something new.

The practical tactic: before investing in purpose-made creative productions, identify the best-performing organic content on your profile or on the accounts of local micro-creators (10,000–100,000 followers) who cover your sector. That content becomes the basis of your TikTok Ads. You reduce creative risk and capitalise on what the platform has already rewarded.

In-Feed Ads: the basic format, but not the simplest

In-Feed Ads are the videos that appear in the “For You” feed with a CTA and a link to a website or landing page. They’re the entry point for most TikTok Ads campaigns, but their effectiveness depends almost entirely on the first second and a half of video. A weak hook undoes any investment in the rest of the production.

The structure that works: a question or strong statement in the first 3 seconds, development with concrete examples or data, and a visual CTA overlaid in the final third of the video. The message must hold up without sound, because a significant share of users watch content on mute.

TikTok Search Ads: the opportunity almost nobody is using

TikTok has introduced Search Ads in Italy, and few advertisers are really making the most of them. They’re ads that appear directly in the search results within the platform, reaching users who are actively looking for something, not just scrolling.

This changes the logic of the channel. Until now, TikTok Ads were considered a demand generation tool: you create demand for products users weren’t looking for. With Search Ads, TikTok enters Google Search territory, but with generally lower CPCs.

Eventbrite, testing Search Ads with keywords related to travel and local events, recorded a 66% increase in CTR and a 33% reduction in CPA. Steve Madden, with a strategy based on product category keywords and cost-cap bidding, achieved an incremental ROAS of 4.08 with a 54% lower CPA.

For anyone running campaigns across several channels, TikTok Search Ads capture an intent that sits halfway between the awareness generated by In-Feed and Google’s final conversion. They work particularly well for products people discover on TikTok but that require a moment of research before purchase.

TikTok Ads vs Meta ads vs Google: when to use what

There’s no universally better channel, but there are useful rules of engagement for structuring the mix.

TikTok Ads are the most effective channel for reaching new audiences at low cost. The average CPM in Italy is between €5 and €15, compared with €10–25 on Meta and €8–20 on Google Display. They work well in sectors such as food, beauty, fashion, lifestyle and sport, and for any product that lends itself to visual demonstration.

Meta ads remain more mature for advanced retargeting and targeting by complex interests. Meta’s pixel has years more data. For bottom-of-funnel conversion campaigns on audiences that are already warm, Meta is still more predictable.

Google Ads captures demand that has already formed. Someone searching for “men’s trail running shoes” already knows what they want. The cost per click is higher, but the quality of intent is different.

The structure we build with our clients doesn’t choose one channel at the expense of the others: it uses TikTok Ads to generate awareness and reach new audiences, Meta for retargeting users already exposed, and Google to capture explicit demand. Each channel plays its part in the funnel.

Want to work out how to split your budget across these channels based on your goals? Book a call with our team

TikTok Shop Italy: what changes for online sellers

TikTok Shop arrived in Italy in March 2025 and introduces an element that changes the rules of e-commerce on this platform: the ability to complete a purchase directly in the app, without being redirected to external websites.

For e-commerce businesses working in visual categories, this removes one of the main drop-off points in the funnel. Conversion rates in native videos linked to TikTok Shop are 40% higher than in equivalent Meta ads campaigns.

There are three formats available.

• Video Shopping Ads integrate clickable product tags into the video.
• Live Shopping Ads promote live streams during which products are sold in real time.
• Product Showcase is a shop window within brand or creator profiles, useful for those working with performance-based affiliates without a fixed fee.

TikTok Shop isn’t right for every business. It works for products with a low to medium price, a strong visual impact and impulse purchasing. It works less well for complex services, B2B products and categories that require lengthy evaluation. Knowing where this boundary lies before investing saves months of pointless testing.

Targeting by funnel stage: the difference between those who optimise and those who don’t

One of the most frequent mistakes in TikTok Ads is using the same message for every audience. The algorithm can do a lot, but it can’t make up for creative that’s wrong for the funnel stage.

For cold audiences you need videos that build awareness: a strong hook, a native format, a message that works without any prior context. For retargeting (people who have already watched the videos, visited the website or added to basket) you need different creative: testimonials, unboxings, product comparisons, time-limited offers.

The TikTok Ads pixel, correctly installed and integrated with the server-side Events API, lets you build these segments reliably even in a post-cookie tracking environment. Since 2025 this integration has been available natively for Shopify and WooCommerce, which significantly lowers the technical complexity.

For lookalike audiences, TikTok Ads work best when you start from qualified lists of existing customers. The more specific the seed list, the better the quality of the audience generated.

How to structure a sensible test

TikTok Ads aren’t something you set up once and leave running. They require iteration on creative and audiences, constant reading of the data in TikTok Ads Manager, and clarity about what to measure based on the goal.

A concrete starting point for anyone wanting to build a solid strategy: a test budget of €500–1,000 a month, 3–4 different creatives on cold audiences, Spark Ads on content already validated organically, and the pixel installed with the Events API. Read the data after 2–3 weeks and scale what works, not what looks best.

Budget alone doesn’t solve anything. 24% of marketers name TikTok as the social platform with the highest ROI, but those results come from people who have understood the platform’s logic, not from those who have simply raised their budget.

If you’re considering how to bring TikTok Ads into your channel mix, or want to find out whether your product and sector lend themselves to this channel, our team is available for a practical analysis.

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