- Is it really worth investing in TikTok's premium formats for my business?
- What exactly are TikTok's Top View and Pulse Premiere?
- What real results do these formats deliver?
- What actually changes compared to regular TikTok ads?
- Three real-world scenarios: what changes for an e-commerce store, a fashion company and a manufacturer?
- What is TopReach and why could it change how you calculate your budget?
- Why talk about it now: is TikTok really a relevant channel for Italian businesses?
- What rules and risks should I consider before investing?
- How do you get started with Top View or Pulse Premiere?
- What are the most common mistakes with TikTok's premium formats?
- How do I know if my premium TikTok campaign is really working?
- So, is investing in TikTok's premium formats worth it for your business?
- How we see it at SHM
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Top View takes over the first screen when the app opens: one advertiser per slot, an average VCR (video completion rate) of 92% and an indicative minimum budget of USD 50,000 per day.
- Pulse Premiere places your ads right after content from selected publishers (Condé Nast, Formula 1, Warner Bros.): ideal for brands that want to be associated with quality editorial environments.
- Both formats are bought at a fixed rate through TikTok's sales reps, not at auction: they require a substantial budget and advance planning.
- Reaching at least 40% of your target audience on TikTok delivers an average of +23% ad recall and +28% purchase intent, according to TikTok for Business data.
80% of TikTok users say the platform has inspired them to try or buy something new. If you're planning a brand awareness campaign for the next seasonal peak, TikTok's premium formats could change your numbers, but only if you choose the right one.
Is it really worth investing in TikTok's premium formats for my business?
It depends on your available budget and your goal. If you want maximum visibility during an event or a launch, Top View and Pulse Premiere deliver metrics that are hard to reach with standard formats. If your monthly budget is under €20,000, there are more efficient alternatives.
| Your situation | Is it worth it? | why |
|---|---|---|
| Nationwide brand awareness, product launch or seasonal event | Yes | Top View guarantees the first screen to every user who opens the app in that slot |
| You want to associate your brand with premium editorial content (sports, fashion, entertainment) | Yes | Pulse Premiere places your ad right after selected publishers such as Formula 1 or Condé Nast |
| Budget under USD 50,000 per campaign | No, for now | Premium formats have high minimum spend thresholds; consider In-Feed Ads or Spark Ads instead |
| Your main goal is direct conversion (sales, leads) | No, for now | Top View and Pulse are built for awareness, not for the bottom of the funnel (the purchase stage) |
| SMEs with a young audience and a well-defined seasonal campaign | Partly | Pulse Core (lower threshold) is worth considering as a middle option |
What exactly are TikTok's Top View and Pulse Premiere?
Top View is the format that takes over the first screen of the app the moment a user opens it: no other ad competes for that slot. Pulse Premiere, on the other hand, places your video right after content from major publishers, using the editorial context to strengthen brand perception.
Let's start with a practical distinction. TikTok has two main families of ads: those bought through auction (like In-Feed Ads, the videos that appear in the regular feed) and those with a fixed rate, known as reservation-based. Top View and Pulse Premiere belong to the second category: you book a specific slot, pay a fixed price and get a guaranteed placement.
This changes everything about planning. There's no algorithm deciding whether your ad wins or loses against a competitor: if you've booked the slot, it's yours.
| Format | Position | Buying method | Indicative minimum budget | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top View | First screen when the app opens | Reservation (fixed rate) | ~USD 50,000/day | Launches, events, nationwide campaigns |
| Pulse Premiere | Right after premium publisher content | Reservation | ~USD 100,000 per campaign | Brand positioning, editorial association |
| Pulse Core | Alongside the top 4% of content by views | Reservation | ~USD 50,000 per campaign | Brand awareness in a quality context |
| In-Feed Ads | In the regular feed among organic videos | Auction | No fixed minimum | Performance, conversions, creative testing |
| Spark Ads | Boost existing organic posts | Auction | No fixed minimum | Engagement, community building |
Pulse Premiere launched in 2023, and in May 2025 TikTok announced new partners at the NewFronts, including BuzzFeed, NHL and UFC, joining existing partners Condé Nast, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. If you want your brand to appear in a recognizable editorial context, it's a solid option.
What real results do these formats deliver?
Top View achieves an average video completion rate of 92% and a brand recall increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Data from European campaigns shows that reaching more than 40% of the target audience drives significant results in awareness and purchase intent.
The VCR (Video Completion Rate, the percentage of users who watch the video to the end) of 92% on Top View is a figure rarely reached with standard formats. The reason is simple: the user opens the app and the video starts automatically in full screen, with no distractions. There's no visual competition from other content.
The average CPM (Cost Per Mille, the cost per thousand views) for Top View sits around $32, according to the 2026 benchmarks from Benchmarketing. That's high compared with In-Feed Ads, but it should be read alongside the completion rate: you pay more, but almost everyone watches to the end.
What actually changes compared to regular TikTok ads?
The main difference is the buying process and the placement guarantee. With premium formats there's no auction: you book, pay and get the slot. This requires early planning and a direct contact on TikTok's sales team.
- 1 · Marketing manager / Ads managerDefine your goal and time windowPremium formats make sense for specific events: a launch, Black Friday, a seasonal campaign. Pin down the date and target audience before contacting TikTok.
- 2 · Ads manager / Media agencyContact TikTok's sales repsTop View and Pulse can't be activated from the self-serve dashboard. You need to get in touch directly with the TikTok for Business sales team to get availability and a quote.
- 3 · Marketing manager / CFOAssess the minimum budget and expected ROIThe indicative budget floor is USD 50,000 for Pulse and USD 100,000 for Pulse Premiere. Weigh this investment against the awareness KPIs you want to hit.
- 4 · Creative team / AgencyPrepare the right video formatTop View requires high-quality vertical videos (9:16), optimized for the first 3 seconds. The format rewards creativity: a weak video wastes a premium placement.
- 5 · Ads managerBook your slot earlyPremium slots sell out weeks ahead, especially during high-traffic events like Black Friday or the sales season. Book late and you may find the dates already taken.
- 6 · Marketing managerMeasure with Brand Lift StudyTikTok offers tools to measure the impact on your brand (Brand Lift Study). Set them up before the campaign so you have comparable data at the end.
Three real-world scenarios: what changes for an e-commerce store, a fashion company and a manufacturer?
TikTok's premium formats make sense in very different contexts, but only if your budget and goal are aligned. Here are three illustrative scenarios to show when they really pay off.
| Company type | Scenario | Recommended format | Goal | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fashion e-commerce (revenue >€5M) | Fall collection launch, 7-day campaign | Top View + Pulse Premiere (fashion publisher) | Brand awareness + editorial association | Big budget without prior creative testing |
| Food producer with supermarket distribution | Christmas campaign targeting ages 25-45 | Top View (holiday slot) | Maximum reach among families | Slots already booked if you start late |
| Retail store chain (20+ locations) | Summer sales promotion, 3 peak days | Pulse Core (more accessible threshold) | Local awareness + in-store traffic | Difficulty measuring offline impact |
What all three scenarios have in common is early planning. An e-commerce brand that decides to activate Top View two weeks before Black Friday risks finding the slots already taken. As we saw in our article on TikTok Ads campaigns for the 2026 holidays, the window for booking premium formats closes much earlier than you'd think.
If you want to optimize your creatives before investing in a premium slot, the weekly Black Friday creatives approach, with frequent video rotation, is a good way to find out which format and message work best before committing a fixed budget.
What is TopReach, and why could it change how you calculate your budget?
TopReach is a recent format that combines Top View with other premium slots in a single booking. In an official pilot, it cut the cost per person reached by 57% compared with Top View alone, while increasing reach by 30%.
TopReach is TikTok's answer for those who want the visibility of Top View but with a more efficient cost per reach. It works by combining multiple premium slots in a single booking, spreading the budget across several touchpoints instead of concentrating it all on the first app open.
The pilot data, verified by iSpot as an independent third party, shows a 57% lower cost per reach than Top View alone and a 30% increase in reach. This is TikTok's internal data from 2025, published on the official TikTok for Business blog, and should be read as a reference benchmark, not a guarantee.
Why talk about it now: is TikTok really a relevant channel for Italian businesses?
With nearly 24 million monthly active users in Italy and over 200 million in Europe, TikTok is no longer just a platform for teenagers. 80% of users say they've been inspired to make a purchase, a figure that moves the conversation from pure entertainment to real marketing.
According to the TikTok Newsroom Italia, in the first half of 2025 the platform reached 23.9 million monthly active users in Italy. That makes TikTok one of the country's leading social channels, not a niche experiment anymore.
For companies targeting people aged 18 to 45, a segment that has grown significantly on TikTok over the past two years, ignoring the platform means handing visibility to competitors who are already there. The question isn't whether to be there, but how to be there efficiently.
The market context is tied to your format choices. As we discussed in our article on AI video for TikTok and Reels, producing quality video content has become more accessible, even for small and mid-sized businesses. This lowers the creative barrier if you want to test premium formats without starting from scratch.
What rules and risks should I consider before investing?
TikTok's premium formats come with fixed, non-refundable budget commitments. Before booking a slot, it's essential to check the quality of your creative, the consistency of your target audience and the platform's advertising policies.
| Risk | Description | How to manage it |
|---|---|---|
| Non-refundable budget | Booking is binding: if the campaign underperforms, the cost is already spent | Test your creative with In-Feed Ads before booking the premium slot |
| Weak creative | A low-quality video wastes the premium placement: VCR plummets in the first 3 seconds | Invest in video production and fine-tune the opening hook |
| Misaligned audience | Top View reaches every user who opens the app, not just your target | Use the available demographic filters and pair with a Brand Lift Study to measure real impact |
| Slot unavailable | During peak periods (Black Friday, Christmas), slots sell out weeks in advance | Plan at least 6-8 weeks ahead |
| Advertising policies | TikTok has strict rules on product categories (alcohol, pharmaceuticals, financial services) | Check the policies specific to your industry before you start booking |
How do you get started with Top View or Pulse Premiere?
The process starts by defining your goal and budget, then moves on to direct contact with TikTok's sales reps. It's not a self-serve process: it takes time and early planning.
- Define your goal and time window. Premium formats make sense for specific events. Without a clear date and KPI, your budget is at risk of being wasted.
- Estimate your available budget. The indicative minimum threshold is 50,000 USD for Pulse Core and 100,000 USD for Pulse Premiere. If you're below that, look at standard formats first.
- Contact TikTok for Business. Go to the official portal or ask your media agency to put you in touch with the sales reps. Slot availability has to be checked directly.
- Prepare your creative early. The video must be vertical (9:16), optimized for the first 3 seconds and compliant with TikTok policies. Plan production with at least 2-3 weeks of buffer.
- Activate the Brand Lift Study. This tool measures the campaign's real impact on awareness and recall. It has to be set up before launch, not after.
- Monitor and document. Collect VCR, reach and brand lift data to compare against standard campaigns: you'll need it to decide whether to repeat the investment.
What are the most common mistakes with TikTok's premium formats?
The most common mistake is treating Top View like a more expensive In-Feed Ad: same creative, same logic, disappointing results. Premium formats call for a different approach, starting from the creative phase.
- Using videos made for other channels. An Instagram or YouTube video doesn't work on TikTok: the vertical format, pacing and language are different. Adapting isn't enough: often it's better to produce from scratch.
- Ignoring the first 3 seconds. On Top View the video autoplays, but users can swipe away right away. If the opening hook doesn't grab them, VCR plummets and the premium placement is worth nothing.
- Not measuring brand impact. Many advertisers only look at views. Without a Brand Lift Study, you don't know whether the campaign really shifted how people perceive your brand.
- Booking too late. Premium slots sell out during seasonal peaks. Latecomers find dates already taken or have to settle for less effective windows.
- Confusing awareness with conversion. Top View and Pulse Premiere aren't direct performance tools. Expecting instant sales is a strategic setup mistake.
How do I know if my premium TikTok campaign is really working?
The KPIs to track are different from those of performance campaigns: you look at brand recall, ad recall lift and changes in awareness, not just views or clicks.
| Indicator | What it measures | Reference benchmark | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video Completion Rate (VCR) | Percentage of users who watch the video to the end | ~92% for Top View | Benchmarketing 2026 |
| Brand Recall Lift | Increase in brand recall after the campaign | +9.4% average for Top View | Benchmarketing 2026 |
| Ad Recall Lift | Increase in recall of the specific ad | +23% with ≥40% target coverage | TikTok for Business 2025 |
| Brand Awareness Lift | Increase in brand awareness | +21% with ≥40% coverage | TikTok for Business 2025 |
| Purchase Intent Lift | Increase in stated purchase intent | +28% with ≥40% coverage | TikTok for Business 2025 |
| Cost per reach | Cost for each person reached | Compare with TopReach: -57% vs. standard Top View | TikTok for Business 2025 |
So, is investing in TikTok's premium formats worth it for your business?
It's worth it if you have an awareness budget above 50,000 USD per campaign, a specific event or launch to cover, a target audience that's on TikTok and a high-quality video creative that's ready or planned.
Somewhere in between: you're an SME with a smaller budget. First try Pulse Core or the standard formats to test the platform, then scale up to premium formats once you've validated your audience and creative.
Not yet if your main goal is direct conversion (sales, leads, contact requests), your budget is below the minimum threshold or your target audience isn't significantly present on TikTok.
How we see it at SHM
For us, TikTok's premium formats are a powerful tool, but only when they're part of a broader strategy, not an isolated purchase. We believe every media investment should serve a clear, measurable goal: buying a Top View slot without a tested creative and without a brand lift measurement system is like renting a billboard downtown without knowing who walks past it.
In our experience with paid campaigns on social platforms, the most critical moment isn't booking the slot: it's aligning business goal, format and creative. A manufacturing company that wants to enter TikTok with a premium format, for example, first needs to understand whether its B2B audience is really on the platform, and at what time of day. Only then does it make sense to think about Top View or Pulse.
If you're considering how to fit TikTok into your media plan or how to structure multichannel paid campaigns, explore our services for Meta campaigns, Google Ads campaigns and strategic AI integration to see how to build a coherent ecosystem. You'll find more practical insights in the Marketing and performance ADV section.
When it comes to planning holiday campaigns, the article on Meta guides for 2026 Christmas campaigns offers a useful comparison of how the big players structure their seasonal playbooks, a valuable reference for anyone planning on TikTok too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Top View takes over the first screen of the app as soon as the user opens it: it's the format with the highest immediate visibility, with one advertiser per slot. Pulse Premiere, on the other hand, places your ad right after content from selected editorial publishers (such as Condé Nast or Formula 1), focusing on contextual association rather than opening position. The choice depends on your goal: immediate impact for Top View, editorial brand positioning for Pulse Premiere.
Indicative minimum budgets are about 50,000 USD per day for Top View and 100,000 USD per campaign for Pulse Premiere, according to data published by MB Adv Agency and Benly AI. These are reservation-based formats that can't be bought independently from the self-serve dashboard: you need to contact TikTok for Business sales reps directly. For smaller budgets, Pulse Core has an indicative threshold of 50,000 USD per campaign.
It depends on your budget and your goal. With almost 24 million monthly active users in Italy, TikTok is a relevant channel for many audience segments. However, the spend thresholds for premium formats are designed for brands with significant budgets. An SME can consider Pulse Core as an entry point, or first test the platform with In-Feed Ads or Spark Ads before committing to fixed formats.
The main KPIs aren't direct conversions but brand metrics: Video Completion Rate, Brand Recall Lift and Ad Recall Lift. TikTok offers the Brand Lift Study as a measurement tool, to be activated before the campaign launches. Reference benchmarks for Top View show an average VCR of 92% and a brand recall lift of +9.4%, according to Benchmarketing 2026.
TopReach is a recent format that combines Top View and other premium slots in a single booking, spreading the budget across multiple touchpoints. In an official pilot case verified by iSpot, it delivered a 57% lower cost per reach than Top View alone and a 30% increase in reach. It's an interesting option if you want the visibility of Top View with better budget efficiency.
During peak periods (Black Friday, Christmas, seasonal sales), premium slots sell out weeks in advance. Our practical recommendation: contact TikTok's sales reps at least 6-8 weeks before your desired date. Waiting until the last minute means finding the best dates already taken or having to settle for less effective time windows.
The most expensive format isn't the one you spend the most on: it's the one you buy without knowing what you want to measure.
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