Study: User-generated TikTok videos have strong consumer appeal

Retailers with a mobile marketing strategy should include content generated by TikTok users.

A recent study of mobile video ads performed on the Realeyes video testing platform reveals TikTok user-generated content (UGC) videos score highly in several key metrics. The study covered 11 brands spread across retail, sports, QSR, beverages, and fashion. Realeyes tested one TikTok UGC video, one brand-created TikTok video, one Facebook video ad, and one conventional ad for each brand.

Both UGC and brand TikTok videos outperformed Facebook and conventional ads on Realeyes’ Quality Score, which is reported on a scale of 0-10 and measures a video's ability to perform live in market. It factors in the component of capture – the ability to capture audience attention in the first seconds, retain – the ability to retain the audience throughout the ad, and encode – the ability to encode the brand message into the brain through emotional engagement.

With an average score of 5.2, UGC TikTok videos scored 8% higher than the TikTok brand videos (4.8), 21% higher than Facebook ads (4.3), and delivered 68% higher quality scores than the conventional ads (3.1). Breaking down the score by component, UGC TikTok videos and conventional ads tied with mobile viewers not having their first distraction for 5.7 seconds. The average first distraction for TikTok brand ads and Facebook ads was 5.4 seconds.

For average retention (percentage of mobile viewers paying attention for at least 15 seconds or till the end of the video, Facebook ads led with 30%, followed by TikTok brand ads (24%), UGC TikTok ads (16%), and conventional ads (8%).

Where UGC TikTok ads show the most dramatic difference is in the component of encoding. The Realeyes measure of encoding is an index between 0-100 that indicates presence of emotional peaks and valleys and predicts viewers' propensity to become interested in an ad versus all other ads in a given ad’s industry benchmark. UGC TikTok videos (48) and TikTok brand ads (45) both dramatically outscored Facebook ads (13) and conventional ads (6).

Realeyes tested UGC videos featuring brands that were tagged to popular videos, many with over 1 million view counts. All videos ranged in length from five to 30 seconds, with two 60-second conventional TV ads. Each video was viewed on a mobile device by an average of 155 study participants between Dec. 21-30, 2020.