202300356486 · FOI · not held
Scottish Government expenditure on TikTok: FOI release
Information requested
A breakdown of Scottish Government expenditure on TikTok, including a breakdown by subject matter, and whether it was used to promote a specific policy position to young people. Reasoning behind advertising on TikTok and a breakdown of what adverts were shown and how many people they reached. The cost/benefit analysis used before advertising on TikTok. If this was not done, why?
Response
1. The Scottish Government has advertised on TikTok since 2020. The table below sets out the campaign topic, expenditure and reach (as requested in your first and second question) per campaign.
YEAR CAMPAIGN EXPENDITURE REACH* PHASES* 2020 STUDENT INFORMATION £5,240 703,485 1 2020 ANIMAL WELFARE £3,000 386,207 1 2020 TEACHERS RECRUITMENT £7,000 563,402 1 2020 YOUNG DRIVERS - 2020 £4,901 1,602,894 3 2020 MENTAL HEALTH £17,903 3,555,630 2 2020 TEST & PROTECT £4,000 1,773,880 2 2020 COVID - YOUNG PEOPLE £17,819 1,076,096 2 2020 COVID - PHASE 3 CAMPAIGN £2,570 884,155 1 2020 COVID RESTRICTIONS £1,430 482,802 1 2020 RIGHT CARE RIGHT PLACE £4,834 1,030,399 1 2020 COVID - NON-COMPLIANCE £2,482 875,901 2 2021 ADULT SOCIAL CARE RECRUITMENT £6,000 171,354 1 2021 DOMESTIC ABUSE £6,893 432,696 1 2021 RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNERS £2,500 339,001 1 2021 TEACHER RECRUITMENT £7,998 372,066 1 2021 YOUNG DRIVERS £4,542 371,261 2 2021 MENTAL HEALTH £40,173 3,050,069 5 2021 COVID - SAFETY MEASURES £16,512 695,163 2 2021 TEST & PROTECT - STUDENT £6,605 571,896 1 2021 FLU & COVID VACCINES £36,149 4,565,415 11 2022 CENSUS £24,992 989,261 1 2022 COST OF LIVING £3,166 279,134 1 2022 FOOD WASTE £9,946 525,986 1 2022 HES - WARMER HOMES £3,992 229,709 1 2022 TEACHER RECRUITMENT £1,997 183,406 1 2022 YOUNG DRIVERS £4,438 196,226 1 2022 YOUNG PERSON'S GUARANTEE £5,494 195,038 1 2022 MENTAL HEALTH £25,901 798,381 2 2022 ORGAN DONATION £1,436 271,607 2 2022 INFANT MENTAL HEALTH £7,150 368,313 1 2022 FLU & COVID VACCINES £17,993 846,827 2 2022 DRUG & ALCOHOL STIGMA £8,003 602,652 1 2023 DRIVER FATIGUE £3,693 469,978 1 2023 ADULT SOCIAL CARE RECRUITMENT £2,757 512,751 1 2023 MENTAL HEALTH £10,000 972,018 2 2023 PARENT CLUB - CHILD DEVELOPMENT £4,457 243,402 1 2023 PARENT CLUB - FINANCIAL SUPPORT £4,568 298,360 1
* The reach figures are those held by the Scottish Government which have been provided by the appointed media buying agency. It should be noted that there will be cases where the targeting means there is overlap between the advert versions and campaign bursts, where an individual will be counted more than once. It is not possible to isolate this overlap in data.
2. TikTok was recommended by an appointed media agency, and then agreed to by the Scottish Government, in the cases above to enable the targeting of audiences living in Scotland and to access the following benefits:
It’s a ‘sound on’ platform as standard, whereas most other social platforms are not. TikTok delivers stronger Video Completion Quality (VCQ) (the percentage of video completions that were both viewable and audible on completion) than other social media platforms. Data for Tiktok has this metric at 87% compared to 37% for Meta. It’s lower cost than other social platforms (circa 25% of the cost). 50% of TikTok users are under 35 and that age range were key audiences for the above campaigns.
The Scottish Government uses the standard advert formats offered by TikTok through the upload of videos or images to their defined specification.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.
The final advert files for TikTok are held by the appointed media agency who place and manage Scottish Government activity. The Scottish Government therefore does not hold these files and the web links provided by the media agency used to approve the adverts expire. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
3. A cost/benefit analysis is carried out before the Scottish Government place any advertising on any media channel. This is undertaken by the appointed media buying agency to make recommendations to the Scottish Government, using tools such as data from YouGov, MediaPlanner+ from Nielsen, Integral Ad Science and Moat, as well as considering results from other Scottish Government activity. Campaign objectives, messaging, target audience and budget will be analysed in order to identify the best media mix across the various channels such as TV, radio, digital, press and out of home. This will include the assessment of likely effectiveness of social media channels against other options. The analysis of this information held by the media buyer enables assessment of whether a particular advertising channel should be utilised or not to achieve the aims of the campaign and the level of investment that is appropriate for that channel.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Enquiry Unit Email: ceu@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrews House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
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