I hear a lot of marketers talk about TikTok like it's a completely different planet. Like you need to throw out everything you learned on Meta and start over. Build a whole new creative strategy from the ground up.

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I don't think that's true.

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The same folks scrolling their Facebook feed have TikTok on their phone, too. There's a bigger overlap than most people think. We just have different expectations when we switch between apps.

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If you're already spending on Meta and you've got ads that are working, you're much closer to TikTok success than you realize. In fact, you probably have enough right now to get started and find winners fast. You won't need cycles and cycles of testing. Much of what's already performing for you just needs to be tailored to the channel. The key is knowing which levers to pull.

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Start with what you know

When I'm helping a brand get started on TikTok, the first thing I tell them is go look at your top performers on Meta. And I mean both videos and statics. A lot of folks forget about their image ads when they're thinking about cross-testing to TikTok. Don't do that.

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For a brand launching on TikTok, I typically recommend 50–75% of their creatives be iterations on their best Meta ads. The remaining material should be net-new, TikTok-specific concepts you're excited to test. That’s the fun part! But it's also more of a gamble at first. We hedge against that risk by leveraging our Meta concepts to comprise the majority of each round.

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Let's talk about how to do that.

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Lean on your videos

Your top Meta videos are probably the easiest to bring over first. But you can't just drop them in unchanged. There are a few things I typically recommend:

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Shorten ‘em.

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Get them down to 10-20 seconds if you can. When deciding what to cut, remove anything salesy or fluffy. On TikTok, people will quickly flag something as an ad if it feels forced. It reads really out of place next to the type of organic content people are consuming on the platform.

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Strip the stock music.

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If the music isn't actually meaningful to the concept, take it out. Your TikTok audience is used to hearing the biggest songs of the moment under the videos they share and create. If they scroll to your ad and hear a stock tune, it will stand out. And not in a good way.

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Start with a face.

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Depends on your product, depends on your audience. But often, opening on a person works.

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Hit the hook faster.

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On Meta, you might get away with delivering the perfect hook in the first 3–5 seconds. On TikTok, I usually recommend landing the visual hook in the first second. With your verbal hook, try to fit it into the first three.

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Cut the pauses.

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If your creator is pausing between thoughts, cut those gaps out unless it’s necessary for the concept to land correctly. You want things to feel off-the-cuff and quick, like someone just grabbed the camera and started talking. No dead air.

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Most of your cross-tests won’t need all of these adjustments above. And as you amass learnings on TikTok, you’ll uncover additional tactics specific to your brand on the platform. Here’s a great example of what it can look like when you focus on shortening a Meta ad and front-loading the hook (Meta on the left, TikTok on the right).

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Don't sleep on your statics

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This is the one a lot of people miss. You've been refining a static on Meta for months. The headline is optimized. The visual performs incredibly well. But most marketers look at an image ad and think, how do I make that into a TikTok video?

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Lift the headline

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The easiest thing to go after is the headline. Take that winning copy and imagine it as the verbal hook of a TikTok video. How would you turn it into something someone says to camera? It's just about making it more conversational, finding the right creator to deliver it, and then building a script around that hook. What would the rest of that conversation look like if that headline were the first thing out of someone's mouth?

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One of my favorite examples found us reimagining a beautiful lifestyle Meta static (left) as an organic-style TikTok video (right) that crushed it at scale for months.

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Animate the static

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You can also use animation or AI to bring the static to life. Turn the visual you've already unlocked into a video! In the example below, we quickly transformed a top-performing Meta image ad (left) into a winning TikTok video (right) with a little AI magic.

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When you bring a static to TikTok as an animated video, you get a little more permission to be direct. Your audience will recognize the video as an ad more immediately (because it’s likely more designed), so they'll expect to be advertised to. And that’s okay! Just make it a good ad.

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In our work for Orkin, we took things a little further, imbuing a proven visual for us on Meta (text convo executions) with a more humorous, storytelling feel in video form (right).

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Soften the hooks

The hooks that crush on Meta often need to be softened when they come over to TikTok. You want to keep the same directness—that punch—but disguise it a little.

I always think about it like this: how would you call up your best friend and quickly tell them about a product or service you just tried? You'd get to the point. You'd be compelling and earnest. But if you were too enthusiastic, they’d… start to worry.

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On language

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Sometimes it's as simple as changing the language. Make it casual and conversational. If brand guidelines allow, consider mixing in colloquialisms like "gonna" instead of "going to." Little things that make it feel like a real person and not a copywriter.

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On delivery

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This goes for tone of delivery too. On Meta, especially with a slightly older audience, a bit more energy and enthusiasm can work. On TikTok, try dialing it down. Not monotone, but matter-of-fact. Trusted. Like someone who doesn't need to sell you because the thing speaks for itself. Nine out of ten times, that's going to perform better.

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Here’s a great example of playing the hook delivery a bit cooler when you create the TikTok version (right) of a Meta ad (left).

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Don't fall for trends

Ok, so we've talked about how to leverage your Meta work. How about the net-new TikTok concepts you'll sprinkle into each batch of creative?

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The first directive every CMO will give their teams is, "We need to be hopping on TikTok trends!"

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But here's the thing. If you're seeing a trend, so are a million other marketers. And they're all going back to their teams, excited to try it for their brand. More often than not, this all takes place with a sense of urgency (trends are fickle!) and without much strategy. And when this happens, your TikTok audience sees right through it. Your ad reads like a brand trying to be cool. When advertisers leave the comment section open on videos that fall into this trap, you'll almost always see a flurry of disapproving "Nice try Diddy" chirps.

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Because trends come and go, shelf life is brutal. You might produce something on-trend this week, and two weeks from now, it's old news. Even if it performs during that fortnight, it will likely sour as the trend does—well before you've had time to scale it.

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The only time I'd encourage a brand to chase a trend is if they have incredible conviction it will resonate with their audience. This means they've done the strategy work. They know with certainty that their target customer is consuming and creating similar content. And they’re confident they can add something to the conversation that feels authentic and entertaining.

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Oh, and trending sounds and songs? Almost always a no-go. Unless you can secure the rights, you risk a cease-and-desist. I can't tell you how many brands have come to me with horror stories.

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Make magic with micro trends

If macro trends are the ones a million marketers are already consuming, micro trends are those that only a plugged-in creative strategy team is tapped into. And you don't uncover these overnight. You'll need to follow the same accounts your customers follow. Watch the same videos they watch and the same videos they create. Study the comments sections. While you’re there, take field notes. Keep track of the phrases people are saying. What kind of language do they use when they grab the camera and talk to their followers? Where are they making content from? If they're often in coffee shops, film your next concept in a coffee shop. If they're using a certain kind of humor, weave that into your scripts.

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For our client Homeaglow, our strategists uncovered the key insight that many recent movers still enjoy watching playful realtor videos like this (where realtors hide in different parts of the home). The perfect micro trend to explore! So we created our own version, paired with a “secretive” pro-tip headline that meshed well with the concept's clandestine vibe.

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Another great example comes from our work with Toybox. We used the phrase “who the duck” in our hook after finding that many parents of young children (our target customer) habitually avoid swearing. Playing to that very human idiosyncrasy was the perfect way to prime parents to think of their little ones. And it worked!

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Unlike macro trends, micro ones have staying power. And over time, following them is the key to unlocking highly performant new concepts for TikTok that look nothing like your Meta ads.

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Don’t try to be perfect

Your TikTok content needs to be entertaining, relevant, and real. And “real” is a moving target. More and more, I'm seeing that there's permission to be less perfect. Don't stress if the audio picks up a microphone tap. Don't worry if the camera is a little shaky or if a car passes by in the background. When they're not distracting, those things typically boost performance. They help your ad blend in with the organic content between which it will be sandwiched.

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On audio

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Here's a specific thing I've seen perform time and time again. If you're getting raw content back from creators and the sound quality is perfect—maybe they’ve got a great microphone and there's no background noise at all—mix in some ambient sound (coffee shop chatter, a passing car—whatever makes sense for your concept). You don’t want your ad to sound like it's happening in a vacuum chamber.

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In the ad below, we took an otherwise silent clip and layered in just the right amount of outdoor sound to make it feel raw and organic while dialing up the scene's humor.

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On visuals

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There's a visual version of this, too. You don't want your creator filming in some oddly sterile rented set. Have them film at home, if the concept allows. A little tasteful clutter here and there is ok—great even. Maybe there's some dappled sunlight on the wall or golden hour rays across their face.

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If you’re ready to expand to TikTok but prefer some expert help, book a call with my team.

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