Wow thank you for this. I have been nonstop pushed this content on my feed and as a startup founder myself feel like I needed to up my game. I’ve ratcheted up my posting on our company and my personal account (by no means to the same extent) but I completely missed how the algo just pushes content claiming it’s a ‘successful’ strategy because (duh) it gets more views. Anyway you found me on Substack and I’m glad you did- I feel like followers here mean so much more. Truly a wild experiment thank you for posting 🫶
This was incredible— I cannot believe you could dedicate 12 days to posting at that volume, because I wouldn’t have lasted a single day. Props to you for conducting this experiment and giving not only the most serious attempt but also for taking the time to share the details with us all.
I obviously don’t understand about what goes into being a skincare brand founder—but I do struggle in moving forward without any roadmap for growing something as seemingly simple as a blog. I posted a note earlier about taking a couple of weeks off from writing and my realized my engagement took a hit. Not the same of course, but it does make me wonder, what pushes a tik tok post to the top, what is the tipping point where virality takes place? When doesn’t it? What is the IT factor that sets one apart? Or it is all luck, chance…hmm 🧐🥴😵💫😵💫
Great article!! Made me think. Supporting you from afar🫶🏻
Girl if I could figure the algorithm I would not be struggling with my brand right now lol. The algorithm makes no sense just like a human makes no sense. Like I posted how I posted exactly the same post 4x with different results
Exactly!!! It’s insane. I wish it was intuitive and more like Substack?? Idk if I wish that or not, but the effort it took me to post a single failed video was enough for me to back away. Your tik tok seems like you are on the path to success if you just stay consistent with maybe 2-3 videos a day instead of 20+. I’ve had a few friends go very viral recently, and they’ve just consistently posted 2-3x a day multiple days per week. You seem like you’re well on your way with near 60k!!! I hope you keep going 🩷🩷 the customers and success will follow
I’ve stayed consistent since stopping posting 20x a day with 5-8x a day, but no dice. Still plugging away though… the myth is that the app rewards consistency. It’s just so exhausting
I guess it really isn’t the consistency, it’s just those that got lucky saying it was the consistency instead of realizing that alone may not equal causation.
Ok this experiment is WILD and I love the amount of transparency you put into this post!! Thank you for sharing! Are you feeling like TikTok is any different from when you were actively posting on it in 2020-2022? I might need to slide into your DMs if you don’t mind, I have so many follow up questions!
Hi, feel free to ask here I'm happy to answer. Yes, Tiktok is different. Views are a lot more competitive now. Also, original content seems to be the best way to actually get views, it wasn't that way 2020-2022 so much. Sucks for me that I'm not good at it yet, I'm still working on it.
Yea I’m only just getting a feel for the platform, it’s not exactly a place I want to be spending my time (because of all the negative side effects you mentioned), but it seems to offer the most meritocratic promise of exposure out of all the algorithms out there? Although it sounds like maybe that is changing.
Ok additional questions:
- I saw you mention you weren’t spending much, if anything, on ads. I’d love to see a breakdown of where your customers/sales are coming from. SEO? Press features? Organic reviews on social? I’m only 2 months in to my brand and it’s so hard to figure out the best use of my time when it comes to how to get new customers.
- would you say your growth over time has been steady or were there specific instances (like a press feature or influencer shout out) that “boosted” you so to speak into a new bracket of sales volume? I’m figuring this out for myself in real time so I’d love to hear from more founders about what it was like for them.
- the last is about your burn. I see that breaking $50k in sales a month is just barely getting into the black for you. Would you mind doing a breakdown of the expenses that come with scaling up and how that number became the minimum viable sales volume for the business? That would be so helpful for planning future growth.
Omg Adeline, this is wild. I'm so curious about your email, paid media, event and press strategy. Is that something you're interested in growing/exploring? Personally I think doubling down on your owned audience via growing your email list is worth more than posting so frequently to TikTok. Do you have an subscription model enabled so that people automatically get re-ups of the products?
"I then started seeing more creators say they experienced exponential growth once they started posting 20 times a day." <-- this pinged a red flag for me because this is a strategy that's good for the platform, not necessarily the creators. they want more people using all their time on the app and this is a method to convince people that it's 'worthwhile' to do so.
- I’ve been big on email since I launched my brand. Email still requires traffic. TikTok has been the biggest driver of growth to my email list. I understand the owned audience part. I also have an sms list.
- press and PR: I paid a PR agency in 2023 who did nothing for me. I spent the whole of 2024 pitching and had more than 20 placements including prestige outlets which did nothing for my sales and list growth.
- I also currently have a gifting strategy which hasn’t shown much at all in terms of results
- I’m honestly leery of subscription models so I haven’t really pursued that
- I do not run ads. Meta banned me from running ads in 2020 and I haven’t managed to talk to anyone to get the account fixed because Meta is a dumpster fire. I’ve run ads on other platforms that have had zero results.
- I’ve tried everything you’ve suggested and more for five years and honestly nothing has moved the needle like virality on TikTok
Truly a wild experiment and thanks for being generous with sharing your findings!! I have conquered fleeting urges to be on TikTok in a personal capacity, but I know if I had a business to grow, the pressure would be so much stronger.
Wow thank you for this. I have been nonstop pushed this content on my feed and as a startup founder myself feel like I needed to up my game. I’ve ratcheted up my posting on our company and my personal account (by no means to the same extent) but I completely missed how the algo just pushes content claiming it’s a ‘successful’ strategy because (duh) it gets more views. Anyway you found me on Substack and I’m glad you did- I feel like followers here mean so much more. Truly a wild experiment thank you for posting 🫶
Thank you so much for reading and for this kind comment! It honestly seems like such a frustrating black hole
Truly, no one can figure it out except the people who get pushed to your feed apparently!
😂 what amuses me is that all of them are either:
Posting about how successful they are posting multiple times a day on personal accounts (not brand), or:
Selling you masterclasses on how to succeed on TikTok
Also re #1, they also fall off my FYP pretty fast so I wonder how long this technique was successful for
This was incredible— I cannot believe you could dedicate 12 days to posting at that volume, because I wouldn’t have lasted a single day. Props to you for conducting this experiment and giving not only the most serious attempt but also for taking the time to share the details with us all.
I obviously don’t understand about what goes into being a skincare brand founder—but I do struggle in moving forward without any roadmap for growing something as seemingly simple as a blog. I posted a note earlier about taking a couple of weeks off from writing and my realized my engagement took a hit. Not the same of course, but it does make me wonder, what pushes a tik tok post to the top, what is the tipping point where virality takes place? When doesn’t it? What is the IT factor that sets one apart? Or it is all luck, chance…hmm 🧐🥴😵💫😵💫
Great article!! Made me think. Supporting you from afar🫶🏻
Girl if I could figure the algorithm I would not be struggling with my brand right now lol. The algorithm makes no sense just like a human makes no sense. Like I posted how I posted exactly the same post 4x with different results
Exactly!!! It’s insane. I wish it was intuitive and more like Substack?? Idk if I wish that or not, but the effort it took me to post a single failed video was enough for me to back away. Your tik tok seems like you are on the path to success if you just stay consistent with maybe 2-3 videos a day instead of 20+. I’ve had a few friends go very viral recently, and they’ve just consistently posted 2-3x a day multiple days per week. You seem like you’re well on your way with near 60k!!! I hope you keep going 🩷🩷 the customers and success will follow
I’ve stayed consistent since stopping posting 20x a day with 5-8x a day, but no dice. Still plugging away though… the myth is that the app rewards consistency. It’s just so exhausting
I guess it really isn’t the consistency, it’s just those that got lucky saying it was the consistency instead of realizing that alone may not equal causation.
I keep on keeping on since I don’t really have a choice. Maybe in 6 months I’ll tell you something different. Lol cry
Ok this experiment is WILD and I love the amount of transparency you put into this post!! Thank you for sharing! Are you feeling like TikTok is any different from when you were actively posting on it in 2020-2022? I might need to slide into your DMs if you don’t mind, I have so many follow up questions!
Hi, feel free to ask here I'm happy to answer. Yes, Tiktok is different. Views are a lot more competitive now. Also, original content seems to be the best way to actually get views, it wasn't that way 2020-2022 so much. Sucks for me that I'm not good at it yet, I'm still working on it.
Yea I’m only just getting a feel for the platform, it’s not exactly a place I want to be spending my time (because of all the negative side effects you mentioned), but it seems to offer the most meritocratic promise of exposure out of all the algorithms out there? Although it sounds like maybe that is changing.
Ok additional questions:
- I saw you mention you weren’t spending much, if anything, on ads. I’d love to see a breakdown of where your customers/sales are coming from. SEO? Press features? Organic reviews on social? I’m only 2 months in to my brand and it’s so hard to figure out the best use of my time when it comes to how to get new customers.
- would you say your growth over time has been steady or were there specific instances (like a press feature or influencer shout out) that “boosted” you so to speak into a new bracket of sales volume? I’m figuring this out for myself in real time so I’d love to hear from more founders about what it was like for them.
- the last is about your burn. I see that breaking $50k in sales a month is just barely getting into the black for you. Would you mind doing a breakdown of the expenses that come with scaling up and how that number became the minimum viable sales volume for the business? That would be so helpful for planning future growth.
Thank you!!
Omg Adeline, this is wild. I'm so curious about your email, paid media, event and press strategy. Is that something you're interested in growing/exploring? Personally I think doubling down on your owned audience via growing your email list is worth more than posting so frequently to TikTok. Do you have an subscription model enabled so that people automatically get re-ups of the products?
"I then started seeing more creators say they experienced exponential growth once they started posting 20 times a day." <-- this pinged a red flag for me because this is a strategy that's good for the platform, not necessarily the creators. they want more people using all their time on the app and this is a method to convince people that it's 'worthwhile' to do so.
Is TikTok your biggest sales driver?
Hey! To answer your questions:
- I’ve been big on email since I launched my brand. Email still requires traffic. TikTok has been the biggest driver of growth to my email list. I understand the owned audience part. I also have an sms list.
- press and PR: I paid a PR agency in 2023 who did nothing for me. I spent the whole of 2024 pitching and had more than 20 placements including prestige outlets which did nothing for my sales and list growth.
- I also currently have a gifting strategy which hasn’t shown much at all in terms of results
- I’m honestly leery of subscription models so I haven’t really pursued that
- I do not run ads. Meta banned me from running ads in 2020 and I haven’t managed to talk to anyone to get the account fixed because Meta is a dumpster fire. I’ve run ads on other platforms that have had zero results.
- I’ve tried everything you’ve suggested and more for five years and honestly nothing has moved the needle like virality on TikTok
yea i feel you on the meta stuff, I don't understand why the ad suite is so terrible and there is no customer service to speak off.
I imagine press is tricky, unless you're launching new things with trendy ingredients that feels "news worthy".
Do the bok open studio events help with sales at all?
Bok open studios is great yes but it’s only twice a year
getting press hasn’t actually been the big issue. It’s that press doesn’t actually convert customers in my experience
Truly a wild experiment and thanks for being generous with sharing your findings!! I have conquered fleeting urges to be on TikTok in a personal capacity, but I know if I had a business to grow, the pressure would be so much stronger.