Media buying on TikTok now rewards speed, measurement, and a willingness to test. At an ADWEEK House panel co-hosted with TikTok, two agency winners from the inaugural TikTok Media Buying Excellence Awards shared what that looks like in practice. The takeaway was consistent: agencies that treat TikTok as a fast-moving media lab, rather than a static placement, are the ones delivering outsized client results.
TikTok’s Alexia Nüssli, head of product strategy and operations, opened with a framing that matters for every marketing services firm. “Brands turn to agencies not just for media performance; they turn to agencies to drive holistic business growth,” she said. That means the agency role now spans cultural relevance, media measurement, and business outcomes—not just campaign delivery.
Incrementality before scale
Zayit Bemmel, associate director of paid advertising, fashion at Power Digital, described an approach built on pressure testing TikTok spend within clients’ media mix models. Rather than reading in-platform metrics in isolation, her team checks whether TikTok is adding incremental value across fashion and CPG accounts. When tests validate the channel, they increase spend; when they don’t, they pull back.
This matters because in-platform engagement can look strong even when it is moving sales from another channel. Incrementality testing gives media buyers a clearer reason to scale.
AI creative as a testing layer
Warren Jolly, co-founder and CEO of Adquadrant, pointed to APAC as an early indicator for AI content. His practical advice was to separate AI’s two jobs: it can generate final creative, but it can also serve as a low-cost way to test narratives and keep pace with the creative supply chain.
“Even if you’re a brand that’s very anti-AI creative or conscious about it, leveraging AI-generated content as a construct to test narratives and to build at scale… is a great opportunity for differentiation,” Jolly said.
For media buyers, that reframes AI from a quality risk into a learning tool. The output may not be brand-ready, but the signals can sharpen where production budgets go next.
The winning playbook
- Run TikTok through incrementality tests inside media mix models before scaling spend.
- Follow platform and agency guidance on tools such as TikTok Shop.
- Use AI-generated content to test storylines and expand creative supply.
- Keep clients aligned to TikTok’s fast product road map so testing feels like a partnership.
Bemmel noted that client trust compounds. Once brands see a rigorous partner, they become more willing to test newer tools. Jolly added that agencies add value by keeping brands at the cutting edge of a platform that ships products quickly and disrupts incumbents.
Why it matters now
TikTok’s pace of product launches means the best media buyers are not those who know yesterday’s features. They are the ones with a repeatable test-and-learn system, a measurement-first mindset, and a creative testing pipeline. For agencies competing on performance, the panel’s message was simple: TikTok rewards speed, but only when spend is tied to evidence.
Source: Adweek
