TikTok vs Meta: which delivers better ROAS for ecommerce in 2026?

The TikTok vs Meta debate is the most common question we get from UK ecommerce founders. Both platforms work — but they work differently, and the 'winner' depends on your product, audience and creative capacity. Here's the data-driven comparison for 2026.

The raw cost comparison

TikTok CPMs in the UK: £3–£8. Meta CPMs: £6–£12. TikTok CPCs: £0.30–£0.80. Meta CPCs: £0.50–£1.50. On surface-level costs, TikTok is roughly half the price of Meta. But cost per click is not cost per acquisition — and that's where the picture gets interesting.

Conversion rate: Meta's quiet advantage

Meta's conversion rate for UK ecommerce typically runs 2–5% for warm traffic and 1–3% for cold. TikTok's conversion rate for cold traffic is often 0.5–2% — lower because TikTok is a discovery platform, not an intent platform. People aren't on TikTok to shop; they're there to be entertained. This means TikTok's cheaper clicks often produce a similar or slightly higher CPA than Meta once you factor in conversion rate.

Where TikTok genuinely wins

TikTok wins on three fronts: new customer acquisition cost (TikTok reaches people Meta has already saturated, often 20–30% cheaper for net-new customers), impulse-buy products under £30 (the format suits low-consideration purchases), and audiences under 30 (if your customer is 18–28, TikTok's engagement is unmatched). For visually demonstrable products — beauty, gadgets, fashion accessories — TikTok's ROAS can exceed Meta's when the creative is native and authentic.

Where Meta still dominates

Meta dominates retargeting (its Pixel and catalogue ads are more mature than TikTok's), high-AOV products (£40+ where the buyer needs more touchpoints), audiences over 30, and dynamic product ads (showing the exact product someone viewed). Meta's Advantage+ Shopping campaigns in 2026 are genuinely strong — many UK brands report 20–40% lower CPA than manual campaign setups.

The creative reality

The biggest factor isn't the platform — it's whether you can produce the right creative. Meta tolerates polished, branded content. TikTok punishes it. If you can only produce one type of creative, Meta is the safer bet because it accepts a wider range of content quality. TikTok requires a consistent pipeline of native, UGC-style vertical videos — if you can't sustain that, your TikTok ROAS will underperform regardless of the platform's potential.

The winning setup: both, measured together

The strongest UK ecommerce campaigns run TikTok for cold prospecting (cheap discovery) and Meta for retargeting and conversion (higher conversion rate on warm audiences). Google captures the branded search that both platforms generate. The problem: without a unified dashboard, you can't see how they feed each other — TikTok will look like it's underperforming because Meta and Google get the last-click credit. AdPulse shows TikTok, Meta and Google side by side with auto-computed ROAS, so you see the full picture. Start free.