Meta Ads vs TikTok Ads: Which Delivers Better ROI for SMEs in 2025?

Running ads across multiple platforms is nothing new, but the balance has shifted. In 2025, Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok Ads dominate digital budgets in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Both promise smarter automation, lower costs, and stronger returns.

So which delivers better ROI for small and medium-sized businesses? The answer depends on your goals, content style, and where your audience is most active. Here is how each platform performs for e-commerce, lead generation, and brand growth.

Meta Ads: the performance and conversion engine

Meta remains one of the most powerful ecosystems for advertisers focused on measurable conversions. Its strength lies in its data depth, retargeting tools, and ability to turn interest into sales or inquiries. For brands already running campaigns through our social media management services, Meta often acts as the bridge between organic engagement and paid conversion, helping extend the lifespan and reach of existing content.

What works best on Meta

• Precise targeting. Years of behavioural data make Meta excellent for remarketing, lookalike audiences, and retargeting shoppers who visited your website or added to cart.

• Flexible objectives. Campaigns can focus on conversions, lead forms, website traffic, messages, or catalogue sales, ideal for both service and product-based businesses.

• Multi-format reach. Reels, Stories, carousels, and collection ads can all work together under one campaign for testing and optimisation.

What is new in 2025

• AI Advantage Plus campaigns now manage much of the targeting automatically, freeing time for stronger creative testing. Still, automation can sometimes produce odd results if left unchecked. Campaigns may pair the wrong visuals and captions, overspend on certain ad sets, or place ads in less relevant spots during early learning. Regular reviews of creative mixes, placements, and conversion events are essential before scaling.

• Lead forms have been upgraded with prefilled user data, improving lead quality for service businesses, but it is still worth checking submission filters and data privacy settings.

• Advantage Plus Shopping Campaigns (ASC) simplify e-commerce setup by testing creative combinations to find the best return on ad spend. They can quickly identify strong ads but may also favour short-term conversions or duplicate audiences. Monitor audience overlap and cost per valid purchase to keep results efficient.

For most SMEs, Meta Ads remain the conversion backbone, especially for e-commerce stores and service brands that want consistent, trackable results. The platform excels at nurturing warm audiences and driving purchases through remarketing.

You can learn more about our approach on the online advertising campaigns page, where we detail how Adfinity structures paid performance across platforms.

TikTok Ads: discovery, culture, and instant shopping

TikTok has evolved from a trend-driven app into one of the most dynamic discovery and commerce platforms. In 2025, it continues to merge creativity with conversion, helped by the growth of TikTok Shop, allowing users to browse, buy, and pay directly in-app.

What works best on TikTok

• Native and authentic creative. Ads that feel like organic content outperform polished ones. The key is to show real people, movement, and story within seconds.

• Creator partnerships. Boosted creator videos (Spark Ads) add trust and reach while helping brands appear more relatable to their target audience.

• Product tagging and TikTok Shop. Direct product links allow seamless checkout without leaving the app, making it ideal for impulse-friendly categories like beauty, fashion, and lifestyle.

What is new in 2025

• Search intent signals. TikTok now analyses captions, on-screen text, and spoken words to help users find relevant content and products.

• Simplified tracking. The improved Ads Manager and clearer attribution windows make it easier to see what drives sales.

• Topic control. Users can now tell the app what types of videos they prefer, so relevance and keyword choice are more important than ever.

TikTok performs best in the awareness and early consideration stages of the customer journey. It helps new audiences discover your brand and builds familiarity fast. For lifestyle, beauty, F&B, and travel, TikTok often generates top-of-funnel attention that can later be converted through Meta retargeting.

When creators are part of your strategy, our influencer marketing services team can help identify suitable partners, plan briefs, and manage usage rights so high-performing clips can also be reused in ads.

Choosing the right platform

Both platforms deliver strong results, but they play different roles in your funnel.

If your goal is e-commerce growth, Meta remains the strongest option for structured conversion campaigns, catalogue sales, and retargeting. Its tracking tools and conversion API still set the standard for performance marketing.

If your goal is discovery and social commerce, TikTok Ads shine with their organic-feel videos and TikTok Shop integration. They are best for generating fast awareness and spontaneous purchases.

For lead generation and B2B, Meta continues to lead thanks to its advanced lead forms and precise audience filtering.

The best results often come from combining both platforms. Use TikTok to build attention and drive early engagement, then use Meta to remarket to those viewers, nurture intent, and close the sale. With consistent tracking and creative alignment, even smaller budgets can run a coordinated dual-platform plan effectively.

Looking ahead

Both Meta and TikTok are moving in the same direction: more automation, stronger creative signals, and simplified campaign structures.

Meta will continue expanding its AI Advantage Plus systems, linking deeper with conversion data and shopping feeds. Expect even more automation across bidding, placements, and creative testing, which means creative quality will matter more than ever.

TikTok is expected to keep growing its commerce tools, making TikTok Shop more seamless and accessible to brands of all sizes. More integrations with payment providers, fulfilment partners, and affiliate creators are on the way.

For e-commerce, the future lies in direct in-app checkout and unified reporting across platforms. For lead generation, expect faster form experiences, verified contact data, and stronger privacy controls.

In 2026 and beyond, the brands that win will be those that connect creative storytelling with performance data and only using AI as an assistant, not a replacement for strategy.

How Adfinity supports ROI across both

At Adfinity, we manage paid campaigns across Meta, TikTok, and other digital platforms with a focus on creative testing, conversion tracking, and continuous optimisation. Our team helps brands align creative ideas with real performance data, ensuring that every campaign not only looks good but delivers measurable results.

If you would like to explore how a combined Meta and TikTok strategy could work for your business, visit our online advertising services page or contact our team for a quick performance review.

Sources

• Meta Business Help Center: Advantage Plus and Reels ad updates (June to September 2025)

• TikTok Newsroom: Spark Ads, keyword targeting, and TikTok Shop updates (July 2025)