There are cracks in the armour of the advertising duopoly.

For years we’ve all been hostage to the whims of Google and Meta. They controlled the vast majority of online attention and offered the best ad platforms, so whether we liked it or not, the majority of our digital time and dollars went to those two companies.

Today, however, the case for alternative channels is growing. You may have noticed over the past few weeks that we’ve been talking about several non-standard channels where advertisers are finding bargains, including Podcasts, Pinterest, and Connected TV.

This week, eMarketer released data that goes to the heart of the platforms’ competitive advantage, and makes a pretty compelling case that brands should be considering TikTok not just as an experiment, but as the primary place to be sharing content.

The study looked at the average number of views that video content received in Q4 of 2023 across TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube, and YouTube Shorts.

TikTok’s average viewcount crushed the competition at 143,912, which is 20% more than Reels and nearly 300% more than YouTube Shorts.

Of course, there’s nothing saying that a single video can’t be published to all of those channels, but it certainly suggests that TikTok should be at the top of the list.

Meanwhile, when it comes to paid social, Snap is making some pretty bold claims.

When looking at return on ad spend (ROAS) by media channels across all categories, Snapchat had the highest for 3 out of the 5 verticals they measured, and scored first overall if you combine all of the data.

What does that mean? If you believe Snap, then a dollar spent with them is going to get more clicks, more engagement, and more conversions than a dollar spent with either Meta or Google.

You can see the specific results in the diagram below. Of course, we should always take platform-supplied data with a grain of salt, but it’s hard to look at these numbers and not seriously consider Snap as a real option for your next ad campaign.