There’s no “best platform”. There’s the right platform for your audience, your product and your funnel stage. Here’s what concretely works for our clients in 2026.
TikTok: king of awareness
The lowest CPM in the entire market. CPMs of 1.5-4 euros for large audiences in Romania. Very aggressive algorithmic distribution, so real organic reach.
Works excellently for: products with an easy-to-show pain point, brands that have budget to test volume, audiences 16-40.
Works less for: enterprise B2B, premium products with long decision cycles, very niche local services.
Instagram Reels: brand consistency + intent
Organic reach is below TikTok, but the audience is more mature (25-45 is the bulk), with greater purchasing power. CPM 4-8 euros in Romania.
At Muller, 68% of real conversions came from Reels, not from TikTok. Reach was smaller, but the people seeing it were closer to the moment of purchase.
YouTube Shorts: SEO + longevity
The unique advantage: a Shorts video keeps bringing views for months after publishing. On TikTok, a clip lives 7-14 days. On Shorts, 3-6 months.
At Adobe, a Shorts published in May 2024 was still bringing 40-80k views per month in 2025. That doesn’t happen anywhere else.
LinkedIn Video: pure B2B
If your product is B2B, LinkedIn is mandatory. Big CPM (15-40 euros), but extremely high lead quality. The format that works: 30-90 seconds, talking to camera, concrete insight, zero jargon.
At Creative Tim, LinkedIn Video generated 23% of enterprise leads in Q4, even though it was only 8% of the budget. Channel ROI was the best in the entire mix.
YouTube long form: authority and SEO
Videos of 8-20 minutes, searchable, with a lifespan of years. You don’t scale through this, but you build authority and stable organic traffic.
At Opera we published 24 long form videos in 2 years. They consistently generate 200-300k organic monthly views with no extra budget. It’s traffic that compounds.
Meta Facebook Video: in decline, but not dead
Organic reach near zero. Paid still works for 40+ audiences, especially for retail and FMCG. If your audience is under 35, skip it.
How you choose the right mix
Audience 16-30 + mass-market product: 60% TikTok, 25% Reels, 15% Shorts.
Audience 30-50 + mid-premium product: 40% Reels, 30% TikTok, 15% Shorts, 15% Meta Video.
B2B SaaS: 50% LinkedIn Video, 25% YouTube long form, 15% Shorts, 10% TikTok (awareness only).
Cross-platform: same but different
Rule: a clip filmed for TikTok doesn’t go unfiltered to LinkedIn. The pace, the tone, the CTA are different. You re-shoot or re-edit with another rhythm. You don’t copy.
For platform research: TikTok Creative Center for TikTok, Meta Ad Library for Reels, YouTube Trends for Shorts.
Minimum budget per platform
Under 2k euros a month on a platform, you don’t learn anything real. The algorithm needs volume to calibrate you. Better to do 3k on one platform than 1k on three.
You choose the platform by audience and objective, not by trend. Brands that do video marketing well are present on 2-3 platforms, not on 7. Focus beats dispersion.
