Why Are You Still Pouring Millions into TikTok? Let's Be Honest.

It's the question every CMO is secretly asking: If TikTok is a dopamine slot machine hostile to deep brand building, why is my budget for it doubling every year?
The answer is uncomfortable. The spending isn't driven by a clear-eyed analysis of strategic value. It's driven by a powerful cocktail of institutional fear and flawed data.

This is why your budget is locked on a platform that may be actively working against you.

1. The Mirage of "Massive Reach."
The numbers are intoxicating. A million "views." Ten thousand "shares." The dashboard looks like a victory. But it's a data mirage. On a platform designed for infinite, high-speed scrolling, a "view" is a fraction of a second of a user's subconscious pattern recognition. The metrics are massive, but the attention is microscopic. It's the marketing equivalent of empty calories—it feels filling, but provides zero nutritional value for the brand.

2. The Institutional Fear of Being Left Behind.
The greatest career risk for a marketing leader today is being perceived as "out of touch." The pressure from the board, from junior staff, and from the industry echo chamber to "be on TikTok" is immense. The spend is not an offensive strategy to win; it's a defensive strategy to not look old. It's a hugely expensive insurance policy against the fear of irrelevance.

3. The "Something Must Be Working" Fallacy.
Because of the sheer scale, some value inevitably trickles through. A video goes viral, a product sells out. These random, unpredictable lightning strikes are then used to justify the entire budget, creating a dangerous confirmation bias. It's the strategic equivalent of playing the lottery: you ignore the hundreds of losses and celebrate the one small win as proof the "system" is working.

4. The Path of Least Resistance.
For agencies and internal teams, TikTok is the easiest way to hit massive, top-line KPIs. It is far simpler to generate a million low-quality views on TikTok than it is to increase brand consideration by 5% through a complex, multi-channel strategy. The incentives are aligned for volume, not value, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of spending on the easiest, but not necessarily the most effective, platform.


The solution isn't to quit TikTok. It's to stop lying to yourself about what it's for. Redefine the win. Stop measuring "views" and start measuring a single, brutal metric: "Exit Rate"—the percentage of users who were motivated enough by your content to leave the addictive dopamine loop and visit your owned platform.

Treat it as a pure, top-of-funnel discovery engine, and measure it with the same ruthless financial scrutiny as any other media buy.