Apparently, the only type of content that makes sense on TikTok Shop is bottom-of-funnel content.
I've heard variations of this argument quite a few times now.
Make something quick. Show the product. Mention the offer. Get the orange basket on screen. Catch somebody who is already close to buying.
Don't waste your time making a proper video because TikTok Shop viewers apparently don't care about benefits, don't care what a product can do for them and only want to know whether something is cheap.
I don't buy that.
Not because bottom-of-funnel content doesn't work.
It absolutely does.
I've deliberately started making more of it myself.
But there is a huge difference between saying bottom-of-funnel content works and saying bottom-of-funnel content is the only thing worth making.
And something I bought recently is a perfect example of why.
I wasn't looking for the product
Last month I was scrolling through TikTok when a woman appeared on my feed showing something that looked like a dado rail on a reel.
I still don't actually know what the stuff is made from. Some sort of flexible rubber or plastic moulding, I assume.
The important point is that I had never heard of it.
I hadn't searched for it.
I didn't know I needed it.
I hadn't opened TikTok thinking, "I really need some flexible dado rail today."
I was just scrolling.
Then she showed what she'd done with it.
She showed different rooms in her house where she'd used it and showed the transformation it could create.
And suddenly I wasn't thinking about a reel of moulding.
I was thinking about my bathroom.
I could see what I could do with it.
I could imagine what the room might look like.
And I bought it.
There and then.
From that video.
Where exactly was I in the funnel?
This is where trying to force every TikTok Shop video into a neat marketing funnel starts becoming a bit silly.
Before the video appeared, I had no awareness of the product.
That sounds very top of funnel.
Then she demonstrated what the product did and showed the results it could achieve.
Now we're somewhere around consideration.
Then I decided I wanted it and bought it immediately.
That's conversion.
One video took me from having absolutely no idea the product existed to owning it.
So was it top of funnel?
Middle of funnel?
Bottom of funnel?
I'd argue it was all of them.
A good TikTok can create the demand
This is the part I think gets lost when people become obsessed with bottom-of-funnel content.
Not every TikTok Shop purchase starts with somebody who already wants the product.
TikTok is a discovery platform.
People are scrolling through videos they didn't search for, from creators they may never have seen before, featuring products they might not even know exist.
That is an enormous opportunity.
A good video can introduce the problem.
It can introduce the product.
It can demonstrate the solution.
It can show the outcome.
It can make somebody picture that outcome in their own life.
And it can give them enough reason to buy without requiring another video at all.
That is exactly what happened to me.
I didn't need a five-second video afterwards
This is why I struggle with the argument that top-of-funnel content is somehow wasted on TikTok Shop because the viewer will eventually buy from somebody else's bottom-of-funnel video.
I didn't.
I didn't discover the product and then wander around TikTok waiting for somebody to show me the box with some music playing.
I didn't need another creator shouting that it was on sale.
I didn't need a five-second reminder.
The first creator had already done the job.
She showed me what the product could achieve.
She allowed me to visualise the result.
She created the desire.
And she got the sale.
The benefit wasn't irrelevant.
The benefit was the entire reason I bought it.
People don't have to be stupid to make impulse purchases
Another part of this argument I really dislike is the idea that TikTok Shop works because the people buying things are somehow stupid.
You don't need that explanation.
People make emotional and impulsive buying decisions all the time.
Intelligent people do it.
People with money do it.
People without much money do it.
We respond to demonstrations, social proof, scarcity, curiosity, aspiration, convenience and the ability to imagine a better outcome.
That isn't stupidity.
It's consumer psychology.
And if you understand that psychology, you can create something considerably more powerful than simply catching somebody at the final few seconds before a purchase.
Bottom of funnel still has a job
None of this means I think bottom-of-funnel videos are bad.
Quite the opposite.
If somebody already knows the product, already understands the benefits and is close to purchasing, a short video showing the product and a compelling offer may be exactly what they need.
And if that video takes five minutes to make and generates sales, fantastic.
That's efficient content.
What I don't understand is the leap from "this works" to "everything else is pointless."
Different viewers are at different stages.
Different products require different amounts of explanation.
Some products already have enormous awareness.
Others need demonstrating before anybody understands why they would want one.
If I'd seen a five-second clip of my flexible dado rail sitting in its packaging before seeing that transformation video, I would have scrolled straight past it.
I didn't know what it was.
There was no bottom of the funnel for me to be at.
The best videos can do everything
I think some of the strongest TikTok Shop content is better described as full-funnel creative.
It doesn't necessarily ask the viewer to move through a nice orderly marketing funnel over several days and several different videos.
It compresses the whole thing.
What is that?
Oh, that's clever.
Look what they've done with it.
That would work in my house.
I want one.
Buy.
That entire journey can happen in seconds.
And isn't that one of the things that makes TikTok Shop so interesting in the first place?
I don't want to choose between good content and content that sells
This is probably what irritates me most about the whole debate.
There seems to be an assumption that you have two choices.
You can make considered content that explains products, demonstrates benefits and makes people want things.
Or you can make videos that sell.
Why are those different things?
A good product video should be able to do both.
I want to understand why somebody stopped scrolling.
I want to understand what made them interested.
I want to understand which benefit mattered.
I want to know what objection needed removing.
I want to understand what made somebody picture the product in their own life.
And yes, ultimately I want them to buy it.
Bottom-of-funnel content is one tool for doing that.
It isn't TikTok Shop.
And sometimes the most valuable viewer isn't the person who was already looking for the product.
It's the person who had absolutely no idea they wanted it until your video appeared.
