Solved: Insta Outperforming TikTok - Content Strategy?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts on this. It's a really common problem, and honestly, it's one of the biggest and most expensive mistakes people make, especially when they start to move from organic posting to paid advertising. You see these massive differences in performance and the immediate conclusion is "TikTok is rubbish" or "the algorithm hates me".

The truth is, the problem isn't the platform. It's the strategy. You've stumbled upon a really fundamental principle of good advertising without even realising it: you cannot treat different audiences in different places the same way and expect the same results. What you're seeing isn't a failure; it's free market research telling you exactly what not to do when you start putting money behind your content. Let's get into why this is happening and what to do about it.

We'll need to look at why your audience is on each platform...

The first thing we need to do is completely reframe how you view these platforms. They are not just two different apps for posting videos. Think of them as two different countries. Instagram is, say, Switzerland – it's often a bit polished, quite beautiful, very curated. People go there to see stunning holiday photos, aspirational lifestyle content, and aesthetically pleasing products. It's a highlight reel. TikTok, on the other hand, is like Berlin – it's raw, it's chaotic, it's trend-driven, it's creative in a very different way. People go there to be entertained, to laugh, to learn a weird dance, to see something authentic and unfiltered.

Now, you've created a video. You've then taken that video and shown it to people in "Switzerland" and it's done brilliantly. 360,000 people loved it. You then took the exact same video, didn't change a thing, and showed it to people in "Berlin", and they completely ignored it. You wouldn't go to Berlin, speak perfect Swiss German, and then get frustrated when no one engages with you. You'd realise you need to speak their language, understand their culture, and talk about things they care about. It's exactly the same with social media platforms.

Your video that got 360k views on Instagram almost certainly spoke the "language" of Instagram perfectly. It was probably visually appealing, maybe a bit aspirational, and fit the curated vibe of the platform. It solved the user's need in that moment, which was likely to be inspired or to see something cool. On TikTok, that same video was probably an unwelcome interruption. A TikTok user's need is completely different. They're scrolling at a mile a minute, and their brain is trained to filter out anything that doesn't immediately scream "entertainment", "funny", or "on-trend". Your polished video was probably seen as an 'ad' or just 'boring' in that context, and they swiped away before the first two seconds were over. This isnt a guess; it's what we see in the ad performance data time and time again.

This is the absolute core of the issue. You can't just create content in a vacuum. You have to start with the platform's culture and the user's mindset on that platform. What are they there for? What kind of 'language' do they expect? What's their mood? Answering these questions before you even think about your video idea is the first step. To help with this, I've put together a little flowchart to guide that thinking process. It forces you to define your content's purpose and match it to the platform where that purpose is most likely to be valued.

I'd say you need to become an expert in the 'nightmare'...

This brings me to a concept we use for high-stakes B2B advertising, but it applies just as much here. Forget demographics. Forget "women aged 25-34". It's useless. You need to define your audience by their pain, their problem, their "nightmare". For a B2B client, the nightmare might be "my best engineers are about to quit because our workflow is a mess." For your audience, the nightmare is much smaller, but just as real in that moment of scrolling.

What is the 'problem state' of a user on Instagram versus on TikTok?

-> The Instagram User's Problem: "My life feels a bit dull, I want to be inspired." or "I'm thinking of redecorating my flat, I need ideas." or "I want to see what cool people are wearing/doing." Your content needs to be the solution to that specific problem. Your highly successful videos likely provided a beautiful, aspirational solution to one of those 'problems'. It gave them a little escape or a dose of inspiration.

-> The TikTok User's Problem: "I have 5 minutes of downtime and I am profoundly bored." or "I feel out of the loop, what's the latest meme/trend?" or "Show me something that will make me laugh, right now." Their need is far more immediate and visceral. It's not about aspiration; it's about stimulation. They want a quick hit of dopamine. Your polished, slower-paced video likely failed because it didn't solve this urjent, in-the-moment need for entertainment.

So when you look at your video ideas, don't just ask "is this a good video?". Ask "What specific user problem on what specific platform does this solve?". If your video is a beautiful, slow-motion shot of a handcrafted product, it's solving the Instagram user's "show me something beautiful" problem. It is actively failing to solve the TikTok user's "entertain me in 3 seconds" problem. That's why it dies. It's not the algorithm; your content is simply irrelevant in that context. You're offering a gourmet meal to someone who just wants a bag of crisps. Both are food, but the context and need are completely different.

This is a difficult mental shift, but it's the one that separates people who get lucky with a viral video from those who can consistently create content that performs. You have to stop thinking like a creator who makes things they like, and start thinking like a problem-solver who makes things their audience needs. It’s the foundational mindset for any succesful advertising campaign.

You probably should think like an advertiser, even with organic content...

Here's the most valuable piece of advice I can give you: every single organic post you make is a free ad test. You're getting real-world data on what works and what doesn't without spending a single pound. The numbers you shared (50k vs 900, 360k vs 20k) are not failures; they are crystal-clear test results. The data is screaming at you: "This creative is a winner on Instagram, but it's a total dud on TikTok."

An amateur looks at those numbers and gets frustrated. A professional advertiser looks at those numbers and says "Brilliant. Now I know not to waste my ad budget running that creative on TikTok."

But we need to go deeper than just views. Views are a vanity metric. They don't tell you the whole story. To truly understand *why* the videos are failing on TikTok, you need to analyse the metrics that matter. This is exactly what we do when we're optimising a multi-thousand-pound ad campaign.

-> Average Watch Time: This is probably the most important metric. On TikTok, if a 30-second video has an average watch time of 4 seconds, you know you have a major problem with your hook. People are seeing the first few frames and immediately swiping. On Instagram, you might find the same video has a watch time of 15 seconds. This data pinpoints exactly where the problem lies. It's not the whole video they hate; it's the beginning.

-> Audience Retention Graph: Both platforms will show you a graph of what percentage of viewers are still watching at each second of the video. Look for the massive drop-offs. Is everyone leaving at the 3-second mark on TikTok? That's your hook failing. Is there a big dip when you start talking about a certain topic? That topic is boring to them. This is gold. It's like having a focus group of thousands of people telling you exactly which parts of your ad creative are failing.

-> Engagement Rate (Likes/Comments/Shares per View): A video with 100k views and 100 likes is a failure. It means people watched passively but weren't moved enough to do anything. A video with 10k views and 1,000 likes is a huge success. It resonated deeply with a smaller audience. Compare these rates between platforms. You might find your Insta videos get views, but your (less-viewed) TikToks get more shares, which could indicate a different kind of value.

To make this tangible, I've built a simple calculator. Plug in the numbers from your own posts. It will translate those raw numbers into rates that are actually comparable and tell a story about how your audience is *really* reacting, moving you from just looking at views to understanding genuine resonance.

You'll need a different creative strategy for each platform...

So, the data is telling you your current approach doesn't work. What's the solution? It's not to stop posting on TikTok. It's to stop being lazy. You can't just cross-post and hope for the best. You need to adapt, re-edit, and create content that is *native* to the platform.

This is precisely what we do with paid advertising campaigns. I remember one app client, we were driving signups across Meta (Instagram/Facebook), TikTok, and Google Ads. It was a huge app growth campaign that ended up getting over 45,000 signups at under £2 a pop, which was a fantastic result. But we couldn't just use the same video creative everywhere. That would have been burning money. The TikTok ads were fast-paced, user-generated-style clips using trending sounds that looked like they belonged in the feed. The Meta ads were a bit more polished and benefit-driven, explaining the app's value proposition more clearly. The Google ads were, of course, completely different again, focused on text and keywords. Different platforms, different ads, even for the exact same conversion goal. Your organic strategy needs to be just as delibrate.

What does this mean for you, practically?

Don't just re-post, RE-EDIT. Take your successful Instagram video as the source material. Now, re-edit it specifically for TikTok.

• The Hook: Your first 1-3 seconds need to be completely different. It has to be visually jarring, ask a controversial question, or immediately show the most dramatic 'after' result. You can't build suspense on TikTok; you have to deliver the payoff upfront and then explain how you got there.
• Pacing: Speed it up. Make the cuts quicker. Add more zooms and camera movements. TikTok's visual language is much faster. What feels normal on Instagram feels painfully slow on TikTok.
• Audio: Strip out whatever audio you used for Instagram. Go onto TikTok and find a currently trending sound or song. Even if it's just quiet in the background, using a trending sound is a massive signal to the algorithm to show your video to more people.
• Text & Captions: Use TikTok's native text overlay feature. Make the captions short, punchy, and part of the story. Your Instagram caption might be a thoughtful paragraph; your TikTok caption should be a short, intriguing sentence, often with a question to drive comments.

This process of adaptation might take an extra 30 minutes per video, but it's the difference between 900 views and a potential 90,000. It's the highest-leverage activity you could be doing. Every video becomes a new test. "Did the faster hook work?", "Did that trending sound get more reach?". This constant cycle of adapting, posting, analysing, and learning is how you build a robust content strategy that actually works and, more importantly, prepares you for a paid ads strategy where every mistake costs real money.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Okay, that was a lot of theory. Let's boil it down to a simple, actionable plan. This is the exact process we would take a new client through to diagnose and fix a failing creative strategy. It moves you from being a frustrated content creator to a methodical advertiser.

This approach transforms your content creation from a guessing game into a system. It's more work, yes. But it's work that leads to predictable results, rather than the random lottery you're playing at the moment. And the skills you learn in this process – analysing data, understanding audiences, testing creative – are the exact skills required to run profitable paid advertising campaigns.

You can absolutely figure this all out on your own. It might take six months, or a year, and a lot of frustrating trial and error. But you'll get there. The alternative is to work with someone who has already made (and learned from) these mistakes across hundreds of campaigns and millions in ad spend. We've seen what works, what doesn't, and why, across dozens of different industries.

If you'd like to get on a quick, completely free 20-minute call, we can have a look at your actual videos together and I can give you some more specific, tailored feedback on your creative and strategy. It might just save you a lot of time and help you turn this current frustration into a real growth engine for your brand.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh