The Results
Real-time SKU-level ROI visibility on TikTok
The brand was able to measure their TikTok campaigns accurately and achieved a 24% higher ROAS compared to their historical digital media average. This improvement was directly linked to their ability to quickly scale promotions on high-margin SKU items while reducing investment in underperforming products.
Faster, sharper decisions on promotions, affiliates, and livestream spend
By eliminating unprofitable spending in real time and focusing investment on winning products, the client reduced their cost per acquisition (CPA) by 27% across promotional campaigns.
Ability to scale profitably by focusing on winners and cutting underperformers
With instant visibility into profitable SKUs, the brand achieved a 4x increase in overall campaign ROAS within the first 60 days by prioritising high-margin products and stopping spend on low-performing items.
Shifted decision-making from gut feel → data-backed clarity
The solution delivered a 441% increase in conversion rate and a 51% increase in click-through rate by helping the brand optimise ad creatives around its most profitable products.
The Challenge
A leading CPG brand sought to scale aggressively on TikTok, but the platform’s layered costs (livestream, affiliate, platform fees, marketing subsidies) made it nearly impossible to understand ROI at the SKU level. We built a cost attribution and ROI engine that delivered real-time SKU-level profitability insights, enabling business leaders to make faster, sharper growth decisions.
For CPG businesses looking to expand, ignoring the power of TikTok is no longer an option. The platform has exploded to over 1 billion monthly active users, and its audience is more diverse than ever. While Gen Z remains a core demographic, over 40% of users are now 30 or older. This shift is particularly important for brands in the APAC region, where a recent case study reveals that 7 out of 10 CPG decision-makers for top categories like skincare, haircare, and makeup are on TikTok.
TikTok offers scale but brings hidden costs that blur true profitability:
- Platform Costs: transaction fees, service charges, commissions
- Livestream Costs: host fees, crew/production, in-show discounts
- Affiliate Costs: creator/partner commissions (variable per SKU)
- Marketing Costs: ads, vouchers, discount subsidies, free shipping subsidies
- Operational Costs: warehousing, picking/packing, logistics, fulfilment
Two issues compounded the problem:
- Not all costs apply to every SKU, e.g., affiliates vs. livestream-driven SKUs.
- Data was fragmented across finance, marketing, and ops teams.
Result: leaders lacked real-time SKU profitability, slowing decisions and increasing risk of unprofitable growth.
Key Outcomes:
- Full transparency of costs across TikTok activities
- Real-time SKU-level ROI dashboards
- Faster, data-driven decisions on promotions, affiliates, and livestreams
- A foundation for cross-platform and predictive ROI expansion
The Solution
We designed a transparent cost attribution & ROI engine that:
- Centralized all cost inputs across TikTok.
- Applied precise attribution rules so costs flowed only to relevant SKUs.
- Delivered a live SKU-level ROI dashboard for instant profitability tracking.
Now, leaders could act on SKU performance in real time, no waiting for reconciliations.
Implementation Journey
- Mapped all cost layers across livestream, affiliate, and promotions.
- Defined attribution rules to separate shared vs. SKU-specific costs.
- Rolled out live dashboards for leadership and ops teams.
- Built cross-team trust by aligning finance, marketing, and commercial.
By building transparent cost attribution and live SKU-level ROI tracking, the brand transformed TikTok’s complexity into a competitive advantage, powering fast, profitable growth.
