How are people using TikTok in 2024? 3 key takeaways from the report

TikTok has evolved from a niche app for dancing teens and tweens into an essential element of many brands’ social media marketing strategy.

Brands today can leverage TikTok to advertise directly to customers and prospects, tap into influencer marketing opportunities and keep a pulse on what people are talking about in their industries—but that might all be about to change.

With a potential TikTok ban on the horizon (as a reminder, in April of 2024, President Joe Biden signed into law that TikTok will be banned if Byte Dance doesn’t sell it by the end of the year), Epsilon conducted a survey to better understand how people from different generations feel, how they use and engage with the app and how that might change if the policy goes into effect.

Download the full report, “How are people using TikTok in 2024? Usage trends, potential ban sentiment & more,” to learn more.

3 key takeaways from the report

1. People spend less money on TikTok than they do on other platforms, but TikTok is still an important social media platform to consider.

Both the amount of money users spend and how often they shop on TikTok Shop is less than we might expect. Only 13% of TikTok users report using TikTok Shop on a daily or weekly basis, while 44% of Instagram users use built-in Instagram shopping features in the same period.

That being said, if your audience is active on TikTok and has a heavy concentration of Gen Zers and Millennials, the app is still worth prioritizing. Over the past six months, the average user spent $120 on TikTok Shop and spent $123 as a result of an influencer post or ad they saw on the platform.

When we look at the spending differences generationally:

• As opposed to shopping directly on TikTok Shop, Gen Zers are 23% more likely to make a daily or weekly purchase after viewing an ad on TikTok and 30% more likely to make a purchase after viewing an individual's or influencer's post on TikTok.
• Millennials are 15% more influenced to make a daily or weekly purchase from ads they see on TikTok (as opposed to shopping directly on TikTok Shop) and 5% less likely to make a purchase after seeing an individual's or influencer's post on TikTok.

Gen Zers and Millennials, in particular, are also more likely to find ads they see on TikTok more convincing compared to ads on non-social media platforms.

1. TikTok users spend as much time on TikTok as the average person spends on all social media channels.

In our report, we found that the average user spends two hours and 20 minutes on TikTok per day, while research from Statista shows that most people typically spend that much time on social media platforms as a whole.

This means marketers have more opportunities to target their audience on TikTok and should diversify their content offerings to include media types like sponsored content, influencer and creator posts and in-app ads.

Time spent on TikTok by generation, Epsilon, 2024

1. If TikTok gets banned, users will shift their attention to Instagram Reels & purchasing behavior to Amazon.com.

When it comes to a potential TikTok ban, Americans are split generationally on sentiment, but most Americans feel confident that a new or existing app could replace what TikTok has to offer.

Sixty percent of users would shift their scrolling habits to Instagram Reels, and 73% would shift their shopping habits to Amazon.com, so marketers will need to be agile as the social media and online shopping landscapes continue to change.

Why this matters for marketers

As we wait to see whether the TikTok ban will go into effect, it’s important to be aware of how these policy changes will impact your overall marketing strategy, your marketing budget and how you engage with and reach your customers and prospects. That said, ensuring you're reaching the right people on those platforms is critical, which may mean buying third-party data from a provider like Epsilon Data to supplement your own first-party data, allowing you to target the best audience(s) for your brand.

If the ban goes into effect, it will be to marketers’ benefit to shift their spend and strategy focus to other social channels like Instagram, YouTube and Facebook and shopping sites like Amazon. And if you have budget allocated to TikTok, it might make more sense to spend it before the end of the year as opposed to carrying it into 2025.

Learn more about TikTok ban sentiment, app usage and more by downloading the full report.

How are people using TikTok in 2024?

Download the full report