The sample
Across 18 months we tracked performance across 12 Australian brand accounts - a mix of fashion, food & beverage, hospitality, and consumer tech - posting consistently on both Instagram Reels and TikTok. Account sizes ranged from 8K to 340K followers. All data is internal; we've anonymised clients but the patterns are consistent enough to publish.
Reach: TikTok wins, but it's complicated
TikTok consistently drove higher organic reach on new content - in our sample, roughly 3.4× more unique views per post compared to equivalent Instagram Reels. But TikTok's reach is more volatile. A video that performed well one month gave no signal about the next. Instagram's algorithm was slower and smaller, but significantly more predictable. For brands that need consistent awareness, not viral spikes, Instagram was the more reliable channel.
Engagement: Instagram leads on intent
TikTok drives comments and shares. Instagram drives saves, profile visits, and link taps. For Australian brands with a commercial goal - selling a product, driving bookings, building an email list - Instagram's engagement was more valuable because it reflected intent rather than entertainment. Our food and hospitality clients saw the starkest difference: a popular TikTok generated five times the comments but a fraction of the reservation enquiries.
The Australian audience difference
One pattern we didn't expect: Australian audiences over 35 are on TikTok in larger numbers than most brand marketers assume - but they're passive viewers, not commenters or sharers. If your Australian customer is 35+, TikTok can still work for awareness, but you'll need to track it differently. Lean on view-through rate and site traffic from TikTok as your success metrics, not engagement rate.
Our recommendation for 2025
Run both, but don't treat them the same. Use TikTok for native, low-production content that builds cultural familiarity - genuine product moments, behind the scenes, responses to comments. Use Instagram for higher-production brand content and for converting warm audiences. Repost strategically but don't just cross-post - content optimised for one platform performs poorly on the other because the aspect ratios, caption conventions, and pacing are different.