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Dec 03, 2025

Marketing On TikTok After The U.S. Split: What You Need To Know

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Posted by Tiffany Lewis

5 minutes read

December 3, 2025

Digital Advertising | Social Media

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Tiffany Lewis

Senior Creative Director

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How marketers should think about TikTok when choosing where to invest their time, budget, and creativity

Though the landscape of social media is ever evolving, the implications of Oracle’s acquisition of Tiktok is a new beast entirely. Because of U.S. scrutiny over its Chinese parent company, a U.S.-only version (internally called “M2”) has launched in September 2025. The goal being to migrate all U.S. users no later than March 2026, potentially severing or altering algorithmic and data ties to the global version.

For marketers with a strong U.S. presence and international stakeholders, TikTok’s split underscores that one size no longer fits all in platform strategy. With the need to treat the U.S. as its own market in terms of creative, budget, measurement, and risk-management, what do marketers need to factor into their distribution strategy?

If you need an expert partner to navigate these strategy elements below, our team is ready to help.

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1. Platform Fragmentation → Simultaneous Strategies

If U.S. users are isolated, a campaign that targets “global TikTok” may no longer give you meaningful reach in the U.S. market, meaning you may need a separate U.S. strategy (creative, budget, metrics) and separate international strategy.

For multinational brands or those with global reach: you may lose the cross-pollination effect (U.S. virality influencing other markets, or vice versa) if the U.S. version uses a different algorithm or feed-pool.

Internal operations will need to address this: two creative pipelines, separate targeting/analytics, possibly different budgets.

2. Data and Measurement Divergence

The U.S. version may be subject to different data-handling, algorithmic rules, targeting options, and metrics than the international version.

Marketing teams should anticipate: Will your U.S. analytics align with your global analytics? Will your global dashboards include U.S. TikTok data in the same way? If not, you may face inconsistent measurement, attribution confusion, and benchmarking difficulty.

For marketers currently running campaigns that span U.S. + international markets via TikTok, you will need to audit:

Which version of the app your budget hits
Whether targeting is partitioned
Whether creatives that work globally still perform in U.S. and vice-versa

If you’re new to Tiktok and wondering whether it’s worth it to start, treat it as a “beta” environment. Test, learn, and expect evolution rather than stability. Early entrants to the U.S. only version may face less competition and lower ad costs as big brands pause or recalibrate, handing you a win.

3. Budget & Bidding Strategy Rethink

If the U.S. version becomes a separate marketplace, you may face new CPC/CPM dynamics in the U.S. (due to fewer cross-market synergies, changed algorithm, changed competition). That could change the relative cost-effectiveness of U.S. vs international campaigns on TikTok.

Your allocation decisions will need to consider whether the U.S. cost/benefit on TikTok still aligns with your ROI goals, especially if other platforms (Instagram, YouTube Shorts, etc.) become comparatively more efficient in U.S. markets.

For smaller companies, focus on organic content (short, authentic videos) that tests tone, style, and resonance. Back these up with low-budget paid tests to see how the message performs, using these mini-tests to inform whether a larger distribution plan will benefit you at this time.

4. Future-Proof Your Data and Creative

Use clear tracking and tagging for every campaign so that if the U.S. platform diverges, you can attribute results correctly.
Keep your creative library and data in your own systems (not just in TikTok Ads Manager) to avoid disruption.
Focus on adaptable creative that is:
- Short
- Emotionally resonant
- Flexible enough to tweak for multiple platforms (TikTok, Reels, Shorts).

It’s a reminder to diversify your distribution strategy across platforms and own your audience (via first-party data, email lists, communities) rather than rely fully on TikTok’s algorithmic access.

Takeaway: Build for flexibility, not dependency.

5. Opportunities for Early Advantage

If you’re on the fence, the next 6–12 months could be a window of opportunity:

If the U.S.-only rollout temporarily confuses the market, ad prices and competition may drop.
If the rollout stabilizes, you’ll have learned the platform while others hesitated, giving you a head start.
Either way, waiting until “everything is clear” might mean missing the early-mover advantage.
For global operations: you can test whether U.S. content performs differently than international content, compare results and refine your segmentation and localization model accordingly.

Takeaway: Sometimes, the best time to enter a platform is during the uncertainty, when attention is high and competition is low.

6. Stakeholder Communication and Internal Readiness

If you have international stakeholders (regional teams, country-managers, global marketing), you’ll need to brief them: “The platform landscape may diverge; our U.S. strategy may differ from our global one.”

Reporting: be clear to stakeholders about which “version” of TikTok the results come from (U.S. vs international) — so you avoid misleading comparisons.
Ops/coordination: Will you have separate agency or media-buying teams for U.S. vs global? Will you include TikTok in global media planning or treat U.S. as a special case?

Strategic Recommendations For Your Global Brand

Segment your TikTok approach: Treat the U.S. market as a distinct opportunity/risk pool. Run U.S.-specific creative, budget and metrics, and run international (non-U.S.) strategy in parallel.
Test and monitor early: Launch pilot campaigns now across U.S. and non-U.S., track any performance divergence, creative resonance differences, cost dynamics.
Ensure measurement consistency but with clarity: Build dashboards that can break out “TikTok U.S.” vs “TikTok non-U.S.” to spot anomalies and ensure apples-to-apples comparisons.
Keep owned assets strong: Even as you lean into TikTok, maintain your email lists, CRM, community channels, website and other direct relationships, especially important if algorithmic access shifts.
Localize wisely: For U.S., consider language, culture, trends, local creators. For international, maintain global brand consistency but customize where beneficial.
Alert your stakeholders: Make sure global/regional teams understand the “platform risk” (U.S. version change) and have contingency plans.
Budget flexibly: Plan for scenario A (TikTok U.S. continues as usual) and scenario B (performance weakens, competition increases, cost rises). Allocate budget accordingly and stay nimble.

Summary

For marketers with a strong U.S. presence and international stakeholders, TikTok’s potential U.S.-only split underscores that one size no longer fits all in platform strategy. You’ll need to treat the U.S. as its own market in terms of creative, budget, measurement and risk-management, while maintaining a cohesive global presence under your brand’s umbrella.

This is less about abandoning TikTok and more about adding segmentation, agility and localization to your strategy.

We Can Help Turn These Insights Into Action

If that sounds like way too much to do, don’t worry, we can help! At LAI Video, our team of strategists, creatives, and distribution experts specialize in building platform-aware campaigns that connect, whether your audience is on TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, or beyond.

From concept to content to delivery, we combine insight, storytelling, and strategic planning to help you stay agile, authentic, and ahead of what’s next.

If your marketing team is navigating new platforms, shifting algorithms, or evolving audiences, LAI Video can help you turn change into opportunity with creative that’s built to perform anywhere your audience scrolls.

Contact Us

FAQs

Yes. But how you use it might need to shift. If your audience is U.S.-based, you’ll likely need a TikTok marketing strategy that treats the platform as a separate market. That means different creative choices, budget planning, and content performance tracking. One size no longer fits all.

Segmentation. With the new U.S. version, your TikTok marketing efforts may need to split by region. You might end up running parallel campaigns with different goals, timelines, and assets. That also means separate content calendars and region-specific content strategy.

The U.S. version may come with new targeting rules and data policies. You may need to break out TikTok analytics by region to get accurate reads on engagement and attribution. If your campaigns span multiple markets, this split can complicate benchmarking.

Yes, but test before you scale. What works internationally might not work for the U.S. version. If you manage a TikTok business account, monitor content performance in both environments. One creative won’t automatically translate across feeds.

It can be. TikTok Live continues to offer real-time engagement, especially for campaigns focused on urgency or community. If you’re marketing on the U.S. version, give it a test run. Just keep an eye on platform changes that might affect reach or functionality.

Not necessarily. It could actually be a window of opportunity. The U.S. rollout has created uncertainty, which might mean less competition and lower ad prices. If you’re exploring TikTok for business now, treat it like a test lab. Move quickly and learn while others wait.

Build a creative library that lives outside TikTok. Keep your source files, version everything, and plan for edits that work across formats like Reels, Shorts, and YouTube. Short videos that are emotionally resonant and easy to adapt will serve you well wherever the scroll takes your audience.

Yes, but stay localized. A trend that takes off globally might never surface in the U.S. version. Use your TikTok business account to track regional trends and tailor content accordingly. What’s viral in one version of the app may barely register in the other.

Be direct. Let them know TikTok is no longer one unified platform. Clarify which version your campaigns are targeting and how that impacts results. Help teams understand that your TikTok marketing strategy may now involve separate budgets, creative strategies, and reporting for the U.S. and international markets.