Meta vs. TikTok: data that CMOs should consider before allocating their next advertising budget

Allocating advertising budgets between Meta and TikTok has become one of the key strategic decisions for marketers and CMOs seeking to balance reach, traffic, lead generation, engagement, and sales. The Social Ads Report 2026 by Metricool shows that Meta continues to dominate social media advertising, but TikTok is gaining ground thanks to lower costs at different stages of the marketing funnel.

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The report analyzes 628,969 campaigns from 44,355 advertisers worldwide, representing a combined investment of $471.5 million. The comparison covers the January-to-June periods of 2025 and 2026, providing insights into how advertising investment strategies are evolving across both platforms.

Meta remains the dominant platform for advertisers

Despite TikTok’s growth, Meta remains the default advertising platform for most brands. According to Metricool, 91% of the advertisers analyzed invest exclusively in Meta, while approximately 5% use only TikTok and around 4% run campaigns on both platforms.

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For CMOs, this figure indicates that Meta still accounts for a significant share of companies’ advertising infrastructure. However, among advertisers using both platforms, a shift in budget allocation is beginning to emerge.

In 2025, Meta accounted for 76.4% of combined spending among accounts advertising on both platforms, while TikTok represented 23.6%. By 2026, Meta’s share had declined to 74.3%, while TikTok’s increased to 25.7%.

Although the shift amounts to just 2.1 percentage points, Metricool highlights that TikTok is gaining ground within the advertising mix.

CMOs spend more per campaign on Meta

Another important trend is the increase in average spending per campaign.

On Meta, average campaign spending rose from $489.53 in 2025 to $718.45 in 2026, an increase of nearly 47%. On TikTok, the increase was considerably smaller, rising from $1,262.10 to $1,308.97, or approximately 4%.

However, Metricool warns that part of the increase on Meta is attributable to rising advertising costs. The cost of reaching 1,000 people increased from $1.97 to $2.64, while costs on TikTok remained much more stable.

This means CMOs must consider not only how much their budgets are increasing, but also how much additional performance those increases actually deliver.

TikTok offers lower costs for reach and traffic

At the top of the marketing funnel, TikTok has a cost advantage. The average CPM for awareness campaigns stood at $0.38 on TikTok, compared with $0.48 on Meta. This means TikTok is approximately 22% cheaper for generating 1,000 impressions.

Additionally, brands spend more per Reach campaign on TikTok, averaging $853.15, compared with $493.65 for Awareness campaigns on Meta. In return, TikTok delivers more than twice as many impressions.

The difference is also evident in traffic campaigns. TikTok’s average CPC is $0.03, while Meta’s reaches $0.07. According to Metricool, brands pay approximately 147% more per click on Meta.

An average traffic campaign generates approximately 35,493 clicks on TikTok, compared with 4,594 on Meta, although TikTok campaigns also have higher average budgets.

TikTok also reduces lead generation costs

Lead generation data reveals another significant difference. The cost per action for lead campaigns is $6 on Meta, compared with $2.69 on TikTok. With nearly identical budgets of approximately $1,550 per campaign, TikTok generates an average of 573.9 conversions, while Meta achieves 259.1.

However, there is a paradox. Meta records a CTR of 2.04%, significantly higher than TikTok’s 0.75%. Even so, a greater proportion of TikTok users ultimately convert into leads.

Metricool estimates approximately six leads for every 100 clicks on TikTok, compared with fewer than five on Meta.

Meta maintains its advantage in engagement

TikTok does not dominate every metric. In engagement campaigns, Meta generates more interactions per dollar spent. The platform delivers approximately 10.8 interactions per dollar, compared with 8.2 on TikTok.

Engagement rates are relatively close, at 2.15% on Meta and 1.99% on TikTok, but Meta achieves this result with a considerably lower average budget per campaign.

For CMOs focused on building communities, encouraging conversations, or driving interactions around a brand, this result reinforces Meta’s continued relevance as an advertising platform.

Brands concentrate their budgets where conversions happen

Another key finding of the report is the difference between the number of campaigns and where advertising budgets are actually concentrated.

On Meta, 67% of campaigns focus on traffic or engagement. However, 70.9% of total investment goes toward the bottom of the funnel, primarily lead generation and sales.

Sales campaigns account for just 11.25% of all campaigns but absorb 42% of the total advertising budget.

TikTok has a more balanced distribution, although 58.2% of its investment is also concentrated at the bottom of the funnel. Web Conversions campaigns account for 27.7% of spending, while App Promotion accounts for 11%.

Meta’s ROAS declines despite increased advertising investment

The metric that likely deserves the most attention from CMOs is return on ad spend.

The ROAS of Meta’s sales campaigns declined from 5.48 in 2025 to 4.57 in 2026. This means that every dollar invested generated $5.48 in sales a year earlier, compared with $4.57 today.

The decline occurred as analyzed advertising spending increased from $62.9 million to $151.8 million, while purchase value rose from $344.8 million to $694.4 million.

In other words, campaigns generated more sales in absolute terms, but advertising investment grew even faster.