The honest answer is that it has very little to do with which platform is bigger. It comes down to what you can actually film.

Most people approach this as a popularity question — where are more people, where is attention moving, what does everyone say is working now. Those are interesting. They are not the thing that decides whether your campaign works.

The real question: what creative can you produce?

These two platforms want completely different material, and neither will carry you on budget alone.

Meta — Facebook and Instagram — is forgiving about creative. A good photo works. A clean graphic works. A short video works. Product shots, before-and-afters, a carousel of your work. If you already have decent photography and a clear offer, you can run Meta ads this week.

TikTok is not forgiving. It wants vertical video that looks like it belongs on the platform, and it wants fresh material constantly. Creative fatigues there faster than anywhere else — what worked for two weeks stops working, and you need the next thing ready.

Where your customers actually are

Second question, not first.

• Local service businesses — clinics, salons, trades, restaurants, consultants — usually find Meta easier. The targeting by location and interest is mature, and the audience skews toward people with budgets and buying decisions.
• Products with visual appeal and a younger buyer do well on TikTok, because discovery there does not depend on already knowing your name.
• High-consideration services — anything people research before buying — tend to need the longer follow-up that Meta handles better.

None of this is a rule. It is a starting assumption you then test with real money.

What it costs to test properly

Two costs, and people routinely forget the second one.

Setup and management is what you pay someone to build and run the campaign. I charge $300 to set up a campaign on either platform, or $700 a month to manage it.

Ad spend is separate, and you pay it directly to Meta or TikTok. It is never included in a management fee, and anyone who bundles it is hiding something.

For TikTok I recommend a minimum of around $600 a month in spend, because the platform needs volume to learn. Below that you are not really testing — you are collecting noise.

I also suggest three months minimum for either. The first month is mostly learning. Judging a campaign at three weeks is how people conclude “ads do not work” when what actually happened is they stopped before the data meant anything.

What nobody can promise you

Ad account approvals, how a platform classifies your business, how much it charges per result, and whether a campaign becomes profitable all depend on decisions Meta and TikTok make, your offer, your pricing, and your competitors.

I cannot guarantee any of them, and neither can anyone else. What I can do is set the campaign up properly, make the creative as good as the material allows, and tell you honestly when something is not working rather than quietly spending your budget.

If you want a straight recommendation

Start with Meta if you have photos but not video, if your customers are over thirty, if you sell locally, or if you have never run ads before. It is the easier place to learn without burning money.

Start with TikTok if you are already filming for social, if your product is visual and demonstrable, if your buyer is young, and if you can commit to fresh creative every month rather than one video reused all quarter.

Start with neither if you do not yet have somewhere good to send the traffic. Ads to a weak page is the fastest way to lose money in digital marketing.