Ads that look like traditional Facebook or Instagram ads typically underperform on TikTok. The platform's For You Page algorithm rewards content that feels native: shot vertically, fast-paced, and closer to what a creator would post than what a brand would produce.
An ad that reads as an obvious ad usually gets skipped in the first two seconds, and TikTok's cost-per-result climbs when that happens repeatedly.
The Signal Loss Problem
The other common failure point is tracking. Since Apple's iOS 14.5 App Tracking Transparency changes, a TikTok Pixel installed without proper Events API configuration loses a meaningful share of the conversion signal.
That means the algorithm optimizes toward the wrong audience, and it becomes hard to tell which creative or targeting choice is actually driving results, as opposed to being credited for a sale it didn't influence.
Neither problem is really about "TikTok being hard." Both come down to treating TikTok like a smaller version of Meta Ads instead of its own platform with its own rules.