Meta shut down Spark AR in 2024. Brands that built their strategy on Instagram filters were left with their resources turned off. The relevant question isn’t “what replaces Spark AR”, but “where does AR work as a marketing tool in 2026”.
What works now
First, TikTok Effect House. It’s free, has good documentation and effects show up in the main feed, not in a separate section. At Motorola we used a simple branded effect, integrated into a challenge, and got 14 million interactions in 6 weeks.
Second, Snap AR. Snapchat has the most mature consumer AR platform, with real adoption at 18-24. Lens Studio lets you build product try-ons (glasses, makeup, accessories) with good accuracy and a real conversion API.
When AR is worth the investment
AR isn’t for every brand. Clearly worth it for: beauty (lipstick, hair, makeup try-on), accessory fashion (glasses, hats, jewelry), FMCG with distinctive packaging (Lenor, Old Spice, Gillette), events and product launches where you create a “share-able” moment.
Not worth it for: B2B, services, big-ticket products (appliances over 200 EUR), products without a strong visual component. There AR is an expensive gadget that doesn’t move CAC.
Real cost and timeline
A simple branded effect in Effect House costs 3,000-8,000 EUR in development and 2-4 weeks. A serious try-on in Snap Lens Studio, with face tracking and catalog integration, starts at 12,000 EUR and 6-8 weeks.
Add a minimum 10,000-20,000 EUR media budget to push it. Without promotion, a branded effect sits at 5,000 impressions and it’s money thrown away.
The integration that makes the difference
Classic mistake: you launch the effect, post an announcement, wait for adoption. The reality: you need 5-10 creators using the effect in their own content in the first 72 hours, otherwise the algorithm stops distributing it.
For an FMCG launch we built an effect, briefed 8 micro creators, and tracked concrete metrics: usage count (target 100,000), share rate (target above 1%), and CTR on the CTA pointing to the site.
Which metrics you track
Effect impressions (how often it shows up in feeds), shares (real virality signal), unique uses (how many distinct users apply the effect), and - most importantly - funnel attribution. TikTok Pixel tells you how many of the people who interacted with the effect ended up on the site within 7 days.
Realistic benchmark on a well-executed campaign: 1 EUR per unique use, 15-25% share rate on videos using the effect, 0.3-0.8% CTR to site.
The practical conclusion
AR isn’t “the future of the metaverse”, it’s a tactical tool. Use it when you have a product with a strong visual component and budget to push the effect in the first 2 weeks. For everything else, the money is better spent on normal creative and scaling on TikTok Creative Center.