Brands Increase TikTok Ad Spending During Back-to-School Season
An industry report shows that brands increased TikTok budgets during the back-to-school season, while TikTok Shop's role as a sales channel for health and beauty products drew attention.
What are the key facts?
- 12026 back-to-school season
- 2Nielsen think tank
- 384%
What happened?
Industry media outlet Digiday published a report on media spending during the 2026 back-to-school season, focusing on changes in brand advertising expenditure on TikTok. The report cited information from the Nielsen think tank and listed a figure of 84%, while also noting that brands are allocating more marketing budgets to TikTok. It also examined TikTok Shop's sales performance as a channel for health and beauty products in the United States, stating that brands are paying greater attention to the platform's role as a retail channel for these categories. During the back-to-school season, brand media plans, short-form video platform advertising budgets, and TikTok Shop sales channels were the report's main focuses. The article presented these changes in the context of this year's back-to-school consumer marketing campaigns.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers?
Back-to-school and similar seasonal events are becoming important windows for TikTok brand advertising and product conversion. Sellers should align content, advertising, and promotional timing in one plan. A common mistake is waiting for traffic to rise before adding budget, which can lead to insufficient creative assets and gaps in conversion support. Highest-priority action: create a back-to-school creative and budget plan for key categories this week, then use small-scale campaigns to test content performance.