Scottish Government expenditure on TikTok: FOI release

Information requested

1. A breakdown of Scottish Government expenditure on TikTok, including a breakdown by subject matter, and whether it was used to promote a specific policy position to young people.
2. Reasoning behind advertising on TikTok and a breakdown of what adverts were shown and how many people they reached.
3. The cost/benefit analysis used before advertising on TikTok. If this was not done, why?

Response

1. The Scottish Government has advertised on TikTok since 2020. The table below sets out the campaign topic, expenditure and reach (as requested in your first and second question) per campaign.

YEAR  CAMPAIGN  EXPENDITURE  REACH*  PHASES*  2020  STUDENT INFORMATION  £5,240  703,485  1  2020  ANIMAL WELFARE  £3,000  386,207  1  2020  TEACHERS RECRUITMENT  £7,000  563,402  1  2020  YOUNG DRIVERS - 2020  £4,901  1,602,894  3  2020  MENTAL HEALTH  £17,903  3,555,630  2  2020  TEST & PROTECT  £4,000  1,773,880  2  2020  COVID - YOUNG PEOPLE  £17,819  1,076,096  2  2020  COVID - PHASE 3 CAMPAIGN  £2,570  884,155  1  2020  COVID RESTRICTIONS  £1,430  482,802  1  2020  RIGHT CARE RIGHT PLACE  £4,834  1,030,399  1  2020  COVID - NON-COMPLIANCE  £2,482  875,901  2    2021  ADULT SOCIAL CARE  RECRUITMENT    £6,000    171,354  1  2021  DOMESTIC ABUSE  £6,893  432,696  1  2021  RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNERS  £2,500  339,001  1  2021  TEACHER RECRUITMENT  £7,998  372,066  1  2021  YOUNG DRIVERS  £4,542  371,261  2  2021  MENTAL HEALTH  £40,173  3,050,069  5  2021  COVID - SAFETY MEASURES  £16,512  695,163  2  2021  TEST & PROTECT - STUDENT  £6,605  571,896  1  2021  FLU & COVID VACCINES  £36,149  4,565,415  11  2022  CENSUS  £24,992  989,261  1  2022  COST OF LIVING  £3,166  279,134  1  2022  FOOD WASTE  £9,946  525,986  1  2022  HES - WARMER HOMES  £3,992  229,709  1  2022  TEACHER RECRUITMENT  £1,997  183,406  1  2022  YOUNG DRIVERS  £4,438  196,226  1  2022  YOUNG PERSON'S GUARANTEE  £5,494  195,038  1  2022  MENTAL HEALTH  £25,901  798,381  2  2022  ORGAN DONATION  £1,436  271,607  2  2022  INFANT MENTAL HEALTH  £7,150  368,313  1  2022  FLU & COVID VACCINES  £17,993  846,827  2  2022  DRUG & ALCOHOL STIGMA  £8,003  602,652  1  2023  DRIVER FATIGUE  £3,693  469,978  1    2023  ADULT SOCIAL CARE RECRUITMENT    £2,757    512,751  1  2023  MENTAL HEALTH  £10,000  972,018  2    2023  PARENT CLUB - CHILD DEVELOPMENT    £4,457    243,402  1    2023  PARENT CLUB - FINANCIAL SUPPORT    £4,568    298,360  1

* The reach figures are those held by the Scottish Government which have been provided by the appointed media buying agency. It should be noted that there will be cases where the targeting means there is overlap between the advert versions and campaign bursts, where an individual will be counted more than once. It is not possible to isolate this overlap in data.

2. TikTok was recommended by an appointed media agency, and then agreed to by the Scottish Government, in the cases above to enable the targeting of audiences living in Scotland and to access the following benefits:

• It’s a ‘sound on’ platform as standard, whereas most other social platforms are not.
• TikTok delivers stronger Video Completion Quality (VCQ) (the percentage of video completions that were both viewable and audible on completion) than other social media platforms. Data for Tiktok has this metric at 87% compared to 37% for Meta.
• It’s lower cost than other social platforms (circa 25% of the cost).
• 50% of TikTok users are under 35 and that age range were key audiences for the above campaigns.

The Scottish Government uses the standard advert formats offered by TikTok through the upload of videos or images to their defined specification.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

The final advert files for TikTok are held by the appointed media agency who place and manage Scottish Government activity. The Scottish Government therefore does not hold these files and the web links provided by the media agency used to approve the adverts expire. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

3. A cost/benefit analysis is carried out before the Scottish Government place any advertising on any media channel. This is undertaken by the appointed media buying agency to make recommendations to the Scottish Government, using tools such as data from YouGov, MediaPlanner+ from Nielsen, Integral Ad Science and Moat, as well as considering results from other Scottish Government activity. Campaign objectives, messaging, target audience and budget will be analysed in order to identify the best media mix across the various channels such as TV, radio, digital, press and out of home. This will include the assessment of likely effectiveness of social media channels against other options. The analysis of this information held by the media buyer enables assessment of whether a particular advertising channel should be utilised or not to achieve the aims of the campaign and the level of investment that is appropriate for that channel.

 

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