TikTok vs. Instagram vs. YouTube: сomparing the business results of going viral
Short videos are everywhere. Even LinkedIn started to prioritize them. Many businesses and experts are trying their hand at TikTok and similar platforms, but only some are successful.
Our clients' shorts typically get 500K-10M views. In this post, I'll share how to tie viral marketing to business growth, how TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels would be different for your growth, and what turns viral views into buyers.
In my next post, we'll reveal strategies and mechanics to help you reach millions on each of these platforms. If you work with influencers, this can help you get the most out of your budget.
Goal Setting
Before jumping on the TikTok bandwagon and adding it to next quarter's plan, I suggest you think about what you can and can't get out of millions of short video views, where short videos fit into your content strategy, and how audiences differ across platforms. Their audiences vary.
Short format versus long and the myth about attention span
B2C brands are investing in video-first platforms because those platforms are great for sales and upsells. B2Bs see this format as an additional point of contact. For now, let’s put distribution on LinkedIn aside.
It might look like all media consumption is trending towards short videos and funny memes. But most companies that invest a dollar in TikTok only get 50 cents back, if they can even calculate the ROI. Why is that?
Right now, the most-viewed TikTok is Zach King's Magic Ride, with 2.5 billion views. The storyline is pretty impressive. A guy in a Harry Potter costume seems to be flying down an ordinary street. But then it turns out he's riding a skateboard with a mirror between his legs.
Do you want to subscribe to this?
Not a single clip on the official Harry Potter channel or even on the channels of the actors who played in the film has come close to reaching that number of views. But the actors in the Harry Potter series are world-famous, while we can't even remember the name of that TikToker.
The truth is that short viral content, even if each video gets millions of views, does not make the creator or the brand famous. It doesn't build audience loyalty and a community around it.
True popularity comes from relevant, unique, long-form content. And you shouldn't be afraid to produce it.
The short attention span is actually a myth. Modern attention is not clip-like, as previously thought, but selective.
Even TikTok is changing the possible length of videos in favor of longer formats. Reesa Teesa and her "Who The F Did I Marry?" used longer videos to stand out against the backdrop of fast-food content on TikTok, going viral on the platform and becoming wildly popular off of it. Keep in mind—her story is a series—50 episodes of 10 minutes each = more than 8 hours to watch—phenomenal for TikTok. Now streaming platforms want to adapt this saga.
No matter what business you're in, if you're not focused on one-time sales, you need to move from the idea of virality to building relationships with your audience. Only this will result in online popularity and sales.
Have you ever found yourself thinking: "I started a cool TikTok, and one of the videos went up to 10k! We really need to invest in here! Or even worse: " A competitor started a TikTok, and his videos are getting millions of views. We need a TikTok too!
Short-form content will get you views and subscribers, maybe even millions. The problem is that without the long one, this audience will most probably become a burden on your balance sheet.
You'll see how six months will pass; you'll already have 100 or 300,000 subscribers, but the reach will not increase; it will decrease!
This is exactly what happens with most influencers and brands—they shoot more videos, and invest more resources, but there are no results—no increase in monetization, no growth in brand awareness, and no conversions.
If you want to attract an audience, you don't have to copy Mr. Beast and Khaby Lame's reels. The foundation of your content should be an engaging long-form format. And TikToks and YouTube shorts are distribution channels to get your story out to a wide audience.
Platforms and their varying contributions to online popularity
The biggest trend in marketing today is creating your own audience. Many marketers and even founders measure success by the number of subscribers and likes per post.
But if we want to focus on business growth, we should look at KPIs differently.
The media presence on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok is very different.
The audiences of short videos across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are different, even demographically.
100 thousand on LinkedIn is comparable to 1-1.5 million subscribers on YouTube and 3-5 million on TikTok.
The number of subscribers and likes is by no means a measure of an influencer's success and potential profitability.
What should you focus on instead?
Reach
Artificially inflated 10k followers on LinkedIn and paid likes from teenagers is an outdated, ineffective practice.
If you've driven 757 thousand bots directly or even gotten 60k subscribers with the help of shorts, it's too early to think of yourself as a million-follower blogger.
The artificial audience is seen as artificial, but after a few months, the social network might write off these inflated numbers as dead weight or, worse, block you for fraud. It will also limit your growth because you simply won't know what content resonates best with your audience.
Reach depth
If you only have the reader's attention for 15 seconds, you can only sell lipstick in a funny package, and even then you have to invest in influencers. But based on that alone, you will never build long-term relationships.
The most popular TikToker in the world, Khaby Lame, has over 100 million views. This is many times more than the Kardashians' reality shows and even episodes of Squid Game. But can we compare the popularity of Kim and Khaby? One is a billionaire and global star with, however you look at it, a huge loyal audience buying Kim's products. The other is a meme whose name you probably can't remember.
Charli D'Amelio, the first TikToker to reach 100 million subscribers, tried to become the second Kim, but via TikTok, but seemingly failed. Her show on Hulu became the lowest-rated show in history, on her YouTube channels with 9 million subscribers, each video gets a maximum of 100k views, her brand websites are not updated, and many believe the reason is a lack of demand.
The TikTok top-10 is dominated by reality and YouTube stars. However, there are few TikTokers who have achieved popularity outside of the platform.
Recognition and loyalty
Socrates needed only 30 followers to spread his philosophical ideas across the planet.
Second-tier TikTokers didn't have enough, even with 12 million to be remembered.
By now, there are 50 thousand people with more than 1 million subscribers on TikTok. In the UK alone, there are 150 TikTokers with millions of followers. Of these, 100 have managed to transfer this audience to Instagram or YouTube. And, obviously, not all of those. At most, half.
About 10 people out of thousands of British TikTokers have managed to establish themselves on YouTube and TV and have been able to monetize their virality.
Most influencers whose shorts (reels) get 2-3 million views have around 10 thousand people watching their long videos. This means that in reality they only manage to get 0.5% of their own audience interested in their content and products. Keep this in mind when buying influencer integrations.
It's much harder for the three-hour Oppenheimer to hold a viewer's attention than it is for a TikTok blogger. At the same time, Oppenheimer is one of the top 3 highest-grossing films of 2023—it made almost a billion. We all know that movie. Do we all know a top-ranking TikToker?
When the short format is effective
If the goal is not to build a brand and long-term engagement but to sell low-cost, one-time products, then TikTok is the best choice. Please don't spend separate resources on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. They work differently.
Here is why:
TikTok is designed to sell; it's even called "the new Amazon"—the ability to redirect and buy is very easy. The difference in conversions between TikTok and YouTube Shorts on our projects reaches up to 2-3%.
TikTok gives creators more viral reach, faster.
Audience Difference: the core of TikTok's audience is Gen Z, YouTube's—Millennials. Gen Z, although they may be less solvent, are more prone to emotional purchases and impulse buying if something catches their eye.
The general logic behind short-video algorithms
For video-first content, there's a "five-second rule.
The rule means that when editing a video, no shot should last longer than five seconds or the viewer's eye will start to yawn and move on.
When it comes to clip thinking, it's not the "guppy memory" that's interesting, it's the image density.
MrBeast, the man who cracked YouTube algorithms, managed to conquer the short format too. On TikTok, he has 103 million subscribers (he's in the top-3 global TikTok leaders). The average number of views on each short video is 100 million or more.
What's the secret?
The most important metric for growing a TikTok, Reel, or Short is not subscribers or likes, but time spent watching. It's driven by intrigue, suspense, surprise,, and other action. MrBeast masterfully hypnotizes the viewer with the image, bombarding them with fast dopamine.
For viewers over 30, MrBeast's regular videos would be intolerable—too many cuts.
His shorts are even more dynamic, with four attention-grabbing events happening literally every second: changing shots, zooming, inserting images, sound, and subtitles. In 45 seconds, 176 such moments will hypnotize the viewer.
So, now the 5-second rule becomes 0.25 seconds. 20 times.
Good luck with your short videos, and get started now!
In a separate post, I'll crack TikTok, Reels, and Shorts strategies that help brands go viral there.