Beyond Viral Videos: Why High-Ticket Businesses Can't Ignore TikTok's Full-Funnel Push
When someone mentions TikTok, most people probably roll their eyes and think about dancing teenagers.
But here's the thing: those dancing teenagers are now sharing screen time with something way more interesting for folks like us... serious buyers with serious budgets.
TikTok just dropped their biggest business announcement yet at TikTok World '25. We're talking AI-powered analytics, dedicated search tools, and automation that's designed to go head-to-head with Google and Amazon. While most high-ticket business owners are still dismissing TikTok as "just entertainment," the platform is quietly building infrastructure that could completely change how we find and convert clients.
The numbers don't lie: over 30% of daily users are now over 40, search queries jumped 40% in just one year, and major advertisers increased their spend by 10% in 2025, despite all the regulatory drama. When a platform processes billions of daily searches and major brands keep doubling down, maybe it's time we paid attention.
In This Article...
Our Prospects Are Already There (And Competitors Are Clueless)
"TikTok is the new television," says Vic Catalfamo, Marketing Director at BrainMD, speaking at SubSummit in Dallas. "When it comes to product and service discovery, users went from Google, then to Amazon, and now it's TikTok."
This isn't some marketing guy trying to justify his budget (though let's be honest, we've all been there). BrainMD decided six months ago to shift their focus to TikTok, and Catalfamo says the results have been "incredible."
Think about that for a second. This is a company selling brain-enhancing supplements... not exactly impulse buys. These are sophisticated buyers doing research, and they're starting that research on TikTok.
Here's what caught our attention: 1 in 4 users hit search within their first 30 seconds of opening the app. That's not mindless scrolling behavior. That's intent-driven activity, exactly what we need for complex sales cycles.
And while competitors are still debating whether TikTok is "professional enough," early movers are building audiences in an environment with way less noise than LinkedIn or Google Ads. Less competition means lower customer acquisition costs and higher engagement rates. Pretty simple math.
The Demographics Myth That's Costing Money
Let's kill this myth once and for all: TikTok users aren't all young and broke.
Reality check: over 30% of TikTok's daily users are now over 40. That's millions of people in prime high-ticket buying demographics that competitors are completely ignoring because they're stuck with outdated assumptions.
Doug Jensen, former SVP of Global Data and Analytics at Estée Lauder, has watched this demographic shift play out across the beauty industry. He's seeing live-selling success that creates customer behaviors that look a lot like subscription patterns.
"We've noticed the same customers coming in for every different live event," Jensen explains. "While it's not a subscription, we're getting subscriber-like behavior happening over time, and it's driving a huge amount of business there."
Here's why this matters for high-ticket businesses: TikTok users aren't just browsing anymore. They're developing loyalty and repeat engagement patterns that look exactly like the subscription-based relationships high-ticket services need.
Plus, when targeting 40+ professionals with disposable income instead of college students with maxed-out credit cards, suddenly TikTok becomes a completely legitimate channel for consulting, luxury products, and high-value B2B offerings.
TikTok's New Business Tools Actually Look Serious
Okay, so TikTok's latest announcements aren't just incremental improvements. These are fundamental infrastructure changes that suggest they're actually serious about competing for high-ticket business budgets.
TikTok Market Scope: Finally, Real Analytics
This is the big one. TikTok Market Scope is what they're calling a "first-of-its-kind analytics platform" that helps identify and activate audiences at every stage of the funnel.
When logged in, users see real-time data about where prospects are in their decision-making journey. Strategies can be adjusted on the fly. Moritz Bartsch, TikTok's global head of creative operations, explains: "Each brand will be able to see exactly how many users they have in the awareness, consideration and conversion stage."
For businesses with sales cycles that span weeks or months, this is game-changing. Instead of guessing where prospects are in the process, there's actual data showing which content moves them from awareness to consideration to purchase intent.
It's currently live in Asia and testing in the US, EU, and LATAM. This is TikTok's most serious attempt at competing with established business platforms... and it shows they finally understand that high-ticket businesses need sophisticated analytics, not just vanity metrics.
TikTok One: Content Creation That Doesn't Suck
TikTok One brings creators, tools, and agencies into one platform. It's designed to solve one of the biggest headaches for high-ticket brands: finding and managing quality content without sacrificing brand standards.
The platform includes Insight Spotlight, which uses first-party data to help spot emerging trends audiences actually care about. For high-ticket businesses, this means identifying conversation topics that resonate with high-value buyers before competitors even know these conversations exist.
Content Suite creates a searchable library of user-generated content about brands, pre-vetted and ranked by advertising potential. TikTok says it surfaces over 40 times more relevant results than manually searching the app.
Why does this matter? Because authentic customer testimonials and case studies often perform better than polished corporate content. But finding and licensing that content has always been a time-intensive nightmare. This actually solves that problem.
The Search Revolution Most Are Missing
Here's the stat that should make high-ticket business owners reconsider their entire acquisition strategy: TikTok processes billions of searches daily, with growth over 40% year-over-year.
This isn't casual browsing. When someone opens TikTok and immediately searches for "business consultant Chicago" or "luxury wedding photographer," they're showing the same purchase intent as Google searchers... but with one huge difference: way less commercial competition.
TikTok's building Search Center, an AI-powered platform within their ads manager that launches globally later this year. Brian Torpy, their global director of product strategy, says: "It's got everything a brand would need, including keyword planning tools, keyword suggestions, creative previews and negative keyword lists."
The early results are pretty compelling. Eventbrite started using Search Ads to reach people actively searching for events. They saw click-through rates increase 66% and cost-per-acquisition drop 33%. Those aren't marginal improvements... those are the kind of numbers that justify immediate attention.
Here's what this means for high-ticket businesses:
Competing against way fewer people. Most high-ticket service providers haven't figured out TikTok's search potential yet. That creates opportunities for early movers to capture market share at lower costs than established platforms.
The traffic actually has purchase intent. Users searching on TikTok show similar intent to Google searchers, but they're not already overwhelmed by competitive messaging.
Content and ads can work together. Unlike traditional search ads, TikTok search results can blend educational content with promotional messaging. Perfect for complex sales processes where trust needs to be built before asking for the sale.
The audience quality is improving. The demographic shift toward older, more affluent users means search traffic increasingly includes actual decision-makers with budget authority, not just researchers gathering info for someone else.
AI That Could Handle Complex Sales Processes
TikTok's automation tools (Smart+, GMV Max, and TikTok Symphony) are their answer to Google's Performance Max and Meta's Advantage+. But here's what we like about their approach: they're positioning AI as a "force multiplier, not a replacement."
That philosophy matters for high-ticket businesses where human relationships and expertise are still central to closing deals.
The latest updates include some interesting features for complex sales cycles:
Smart+ Integration: TikTok Symphony's AI creative tools now work directly with Smart+ performance campaigns. So automated content optimization happens based on how audiences actually respond.
Catalog Integration: Service catalogs can be added to Smart+ campaigns for personalized recommendations. Especially valuable for businesses with multiple service tiers or product configurations.
Brand Safety Controls: New tools give more control over ad placement. This addresses one of the main concerns high-ticket businesses have about automated campaigns (nobody wants high-ticket brands appearing next to questionable content).
Affiliate Creative Automation: TikTok Shop merchants can automatically use authorized creator content in GMV Max campaigns. This solves the scale versus authenticity challenge that many businesses face.
Here's the practical reality: AI handles the repetitive targeting and optimization work while preserving the human expertise and relationship-building that high-ticket clients expect.
Imagine systems that identify prospects showing consideration-stage behavior, automatically serve relevant educational content based on their specific interests and objections, and seamlessly hand off qualified leads to human sales processes when they're ready for deeper conversations.
While competitors focus on traditional platforms with increasingly expensive and saturated audiences, TikTok's automation could provide cost-effective scaling without sacrificing the personalized experience high-ticket clients demand.
Why Market Chaos Creates The Biggest Opportunity
The regulatory uncertainty around TikTok creates both risk and opportunity. But instead of viewing uncertainty as a reason to avoid TikTok, smart business owners should see it as a competitive moat keeping cautious competitors away while early movers build position.
Despite all the legal drama, business momentum keeps building. Top advertisers increased spending 10% in 2025, and the platform expects to reach $32 billion in global ad spend... a 24.5% year-over-year increase. This isn't speculation. It's happening right now, driven by measurable results.
There are two choices:
Play it safe: Wait for regulatory clarity before investing time and resources. Guarantee entry into a more crowded, competitive landscape with higher acquisition costs.
Take the opportunity: Start testing and learning while competition stays limited. Position for significant market share capture regardless of how regulatory issues resolve.
The opportunistic approach offers some serious advantages:
First-mover benefits. Early adoption lets businesses build audiences and refine content before competitors recognize the opportunity. These advantages persist even after regulatory clarity.
Lower acquisition costs. Limited competition for high-ticket audiences means more cost-effective customer acquisition during the testing phase.
Platform relationships. Establishing relationships with TikTok's business team positions brands favorably as new features emerge. Often includes early access to beta features and priority support.
Learning curve advantage. Understanding TikTok's unique formats and engagement patterns gives competitive advantages when the platform fully matures. Think early LinkedIn adopters who built massive networks before everyone else showed up.
Jack Johnston at Tinuiti expects TikTok will "increase its competitive focus to stand out from its platform peers, to not only win more ad dollars, but also win and retain a growing and loyal user base."
For high-ticket businesses, this competitive push likely means improved targeting, enhanced measurement partnerships, and increased automation, exactly the infrastructure we need for complex, high-value sales processes.
The real question isn't whether TikTok will become viable for high-ticket businesses (current results suggest it already is). It's whether smart business owners will position themselves advantageously before competitors wake up.
Think about it: while competitors debate whether TikTok is "professional enough," billions of searches are happening daily on a platform where 30% of users are over 40. Major advertisers are increasing spend by 10% year-over-year despite regulatory uncertainty. AI-powered tools designed for complex sales cycles are rolling out globally.
The businesses that thrive in the next phase of digital marketing won't be those that played it safe... they'll be the ones that recognized platform evolution before it became obvious to everyone else.
What assumptions about TikTok might be costing high-ticket businesses qualified leads?
If search behavior is migrating to TikTok, where does that leave current customer acquisition strategies?
When competitors finally wake up to TikTok's business potential, will smart business owners already have an established presence, or will they be starting from scratch?
Ready to Build the Marketing Assets That Turn Uncertainty Into Your Greatest Profit Opportunity?
TikTok's evolution represents just one piece of the larger strategic puzzle high-ticket business owners must solve in 2025. While others react to market changes, the prepared build comprehensive asset systems that thrive regardless of economic conditions.
Join Dan Lok at the SMART Challenge™ (June 18-20th) for a live 3-day intensive designed specifically for high-ticket business owners ready to build the 5 critical asset groups that turn market chaos into wealth:
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Sales Assets that convert even when prospects say "we're waiting for things to stabilize"
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Marketing Assets including emerging platforms like TikTok that generate leads while competitors watch conversion rates crash
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Automation Assets that optimize your entire business infrastructure
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Relationship Assets that create referral networks and strategic partnerships
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Team Assets that scale your expertise without sacrificing quality
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