- The question I get asked at every single workshop
- What we tested and how
- Why the gap in sales was so wide
- How the algorithms behave differently
- The uncomfortable bit about posting the same video everywhere
- The time cost nobody puts in the comparison charts
- What about Facebook Reels, since it exists too
- Repurposing without losing a day to it
- A simple decision framework
- What I would tell you if you only remember one thing
- Frequently asked questions
- Where to check the details
The short version: TikTok still wins on raw discovery and cheap reach, Instagram Reels wins on turning views into paying customers because people there are already primed to buy. If you can only manage one platform well, pick Instagram Reels for most small businesses and pick TikTok if your product is visual, cheap, and aimed at under-30s. Doing both badly is worse than doing one well, and I have the numbers from a client test to prove it.
The question I get asked at every single workshop
Someone always puts their hand up around the 40 minute mark and asks some version of "should we be on TikTok or Reels." My honest answer used to annoy people because it was "it depends," which is true but useless. So a while back I stopped saying that and started testing it with a client, side by side, for 90 days. What I found changed how I advise every small business I work with now.
The client was a candle and home fragrance brand based in Brighton, run by two sisters, turnover around £280,000 a year, mostly selling through their own Shopify site plus a stall at weekend markets. They had capacity for one short-form video a day, filmed on an iPhone, no budget for editing software beyond CapCut. Perfect test case because most small businesses I meet look exactly like this.
What we tested and how
We ran the same product themes, pouring shots, scent stories, packing orders, on both TikTok and Instagram Reels for 90 days. Not the identical video reposted, different edits, different hooks, same underlying content idea. This matters and I will come back to it.
- TikTok: 91 videos posted, average 4,200 views, best video hit 340,000 views, 612 new followers gained
- Instagram Reels: 88 videos posted, average 6,800 views, best video hit 190,000 views, 1,340 new followers gained
- Sales tracked via a unique discount code shown only in the video captions: TikTok drove 23 sales, Reels drove 71 sales
TikTok had the bigger single viral hit and, on paper, better average reach for a lot of the run. Reels had roughly a third fewer views on average but converted into sales at more than three times the rate. Same product, same person on camera, same 90 days.
Why the gap in sales was so wide
This is the bit most comparison posts skip because it is not a flattering thing to say about TikTok, but it needs saying plainly: TikTok users are largely there to be entertained, not to shop. Instagram users, especially anyone who follows brands, arrives with more buying intent baked in because the platform has spent a decade training people to tap, save, and check out from a post. The behaviour is different before either app opens a single video.
I have watched this pattern repeat across at least a dozen clients now, from a jewellery maker in Manchester to a B2B software company selling to accountants. TikTok is brilliant for building an audience fast and cheap. Instagram is better at turning an existing audience into revenue. If your goal this quarter is "get known," lean TikTok. If your goal is "get paid," lean Reels.
How the algorithms behave differently
TikTok's For You Page will happily push a brand new account's video to strangers with zero followers, which is exactly why a small candle brand can hit 340,000 views on video number 41. It rewards watch time and completion rate above almost everything else, and it does not care who you are.
Instagram Reels works on a related but different logic. I wrote a longer breakdown of how the Instagram Reels algorithm decides what to show and the short version is this: Instagram increasingly favours saves and shares over pure watch time, and it is more willing to show your Reel to people who already follow you or follow similar accounts. That means Reels rewards an existing community more than TikTok does, which is exactly why the Brighton candle brand, who already had 4,000 Instagram followers from three years of posting photos, converted better there than on their brand new TikTok account.
If you are starting completely from zero with no existing audience anywhere, that tilts the argument back towards TikTok, at least for the first three to six months.
The uncomfortable bit about posting the same video everywhere
Here is the thing nobody selling you a "post once, publish everywhere" course wants you to hear: reposting the exact same TikTok video onto Reels, watermark and all, performs worse on both platforms than a video made for each one. Instagram's system can detect TikTok watermarks and will quietly suppress reach on that content, and TikTok viewers can spot an Instagram-native aspect ratio or caption style from a mile off and scroll past. I have watched engagement drop by 40 to 60 percent on identically repurposed content compared to a native edit, across three separate client accounts.
The fix is not complicated, it is just more work than the shortcut promises. Film once, edit twice. Different hook in the first two seconds, different caption length, different call to action. It takes maybe an extra 15 minutes per video, not an extra day.
The time cost nobody puts in the comparison charts
Running both platforms for the candle brand took roughly 11 hours a week between filming, two separate edits, captions, and replying to comments. That is not a side task, that is close to a day and a half of someone's working week. If you are a solo founder already doing your own bookkeeping, fulfilment, and customer service, be honest with yourself about whether you have 11 spare hours, because half-hearted effort on both platforms usually underperforms full effort on one.
This is where a few decent tools earn their keep rather than waste your afternoon. I put together a rundown of which AI tools help you manage social media and which ones are a waste of money, because scheduling and caption drafting are the two jobs worth automating first, before you touch anything fancier.
What about Facebook Reels, since it exists too
A fair number of small businesses I advise get pulled into a three way debate because Facebook now pushes Reels heavily too, and there is genuine money on the table through Facebook's Reels bonus programmes for creators. For an older customer base, particularly anyone selling to people over 45, Facebook Reels can quietly outperform both TikTok and Instagram, simply because that is where that audience still spends time. Do not dismiss it just because it is less talked about at marketing conferences.
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Repurposing without losing a day to it
Once you have a Reel or TikTok that is working, saving and reusing that footage for other formats, adverts, website clips, email content, is worth doing rather than filming from scratch every time. If you need to pull a clip back down to re-edit it, there are ways to do this without getting burned by shady sites, which I covered in how to download an Instagram Reel using Igram style tools without getting burned. Worth a read before you paste your video into the first free site Google shows you.
A simple decision framework
Skip the endless debate and use this instead:
- Product is under £50, visual, appeals to under-30s: start on TikTok
- You already have an Instagram following, even a small one under 5,000: prioritise Reels
- You sell B2B or anything over £200: prioritise Reels, TikTok's buying intent is weak at that price point
- You have under five hours a week for content: pick one platform only, do not split thin
- Your audience skews 45 plus: check Facebook Reels before assuming TikTok is the answer
The Brighton sisters made their decision after seeing the 90 day numbers: they kept TikTok running at a lower volume, two videos a week, purely for reach and brand awareness, and moved their main daily effort to Reels. Six months on, Reels is still their biggest single sales channel outside their email list.
What I would tell you if you only remember one thing
Stop asking which platform is objectively better, because that question has no fixed answer and changes by industry, price point, and audience age. Ask instead which behaviour you need right now, discovery or conversion, and pick the platform built for that job this quarter. Revisit the decision every six months, because these platforms shift fast and what was true for TikTok in 2023 is not automatically true in 2026.
Related guides live in the Instagram Help: 81 Guides to Followers, Hashtags, Money, Accounts and Fixes.
Related: the shopify page.
For the adjacent case, read Why Your Instagram Reels Look Too Bright (And How to Fix It).
Frequently asked questions
Is TikTok or Instagram Reels better for a small local business?
Instagram Reels usually wins for local businesses because Instagram's location tags, Stories, and shopping features are stronger, and local customers are more likely to already follow you there. TikTok can still help with pure brand awareness among younger local audiences.
Should I post the same video on both TikTok and Instagram Reels?
Not the identical file. Both platforms tend to suppress reach on content that clearly originated elsewhere, watermarks and mismatched formatting are easy for the algorithm to spot, so a quick native re-edit, different hook and caption, performs noticeably better on each.
How long should I test both platforms before deciding?
Give each platform at least 60 to 90 days and roughly 60 to 90 videos before judging results, since both algorithms take time to understand what your account is about and the first few weeks are usually the slowest.
Which platform is better for converting views into sales?
In most of the small business accounts I have tracked, Instagram Reels converts views into sales at a noticeably higher rate than TikTok, because Instagram users tend to arrive with more purchase intent and the platform's checkout and save features make buying easier.
