Do sponsored posts actually get fewer views?
November 2026
−25%fewer views for brand deals than the same creator's normal posts that month.
Do brand deals and TikTok Shop posts cost you reach? And which niches get the most views? We compared 541,500 TikTok videos from 1,699 creators, each sponsored post against the same creator's normal posts.
The top lessons you can use
- Expect brand deals to get about 25% fewer views than your normal videos. Quote prices on your typical views, not your best video.
- Make sponsored posts useful. Saves fell the most on brand deals (36% fewer saves), so give viewers something worth keeping, not just a product mention.
- TikTok Shop and affiliate posts cost less reach (9% fewer views), but still get fewer saves and shares.
- Compare yourself with your own niche. A typical video gets about 7,400 views in dating and relationships but about 800 in business and marketing.
- If your views dropped since 2025, you're not alone: the same creators got about 15% fewer views per video across our 10 niches.
Key points
Posts tagged #ad, paid partnership or #gifted got 25% fewer views and 36% fewer saves per view than the same creator's normal posts that month.
TikTok Shop and affiliate posts got 9% fewer views and 25% fewer saves per view.
About 18% of creators posted a brand deal and 17% a TikTok Shop post since 2025, but each is under 1% of all videos.
A typical late-2026 video got about 7,400 views in dating and relationships and 6,000 in skincare and beauty, against 800 in business and marketing.
Comparing the same creators, views per video fell about 15% from early 2025 to late 2026 across our niches. Career advice held up best; video editing with AI fell most.
Manifestation and spirituality videos got the most saves: about 16 per 1,000 views.
The specifics
Brand deals get 25% fewer views
We compared each creator's sponsored posts with their own normal posts from the same month. Posts tagged #ad, paid partnership or #gifted got 25% fewer views, and viewers engaged less with them too: 36% fewer saves, 19% fewer shares and 14% fewer comments per view.
TikTok Shop posts cost less reach
Posts tagged #tiktokshop or with affiliate tags got 9% fewer views than the same creator's normal posts, a smaller drop than brand deals, but still 25% fewer saves and 18% fewer shares per view.
Views per video fell in almost every niche
Comparing the same creators' videos from January–June 2025 with July–October 2026, views per video fell about 15% across our niches. Career advice and skincare and beauty held roughly steady; video editing with AI fell most (−27%). The drop is clearest in nervous system regulation and fitness and nutrition.
Dating and relationships gets the most views per video
In July–October 2026, a typical video got about 7,400 views in dating and relationships and 6,000 in skincare and beauty, against about 800 in business and marketing. Bigger isn't always better: video editing with AI creators reached the most people relative to their followers.
Manifestation and spirituality videos get saved the most
Manifestation and spirituality videos got about 16 saves per 1,000 views, the most of any niche. People save what they want to come back to.
Brand deals get about a quarter fewer views
Each creator's sponsored posts against their own normal posts from the same month. Red means fewer than their normal posts.
Brand deal (#ad, paid partnership, #gifted)
305 creators, 1,734 posts.
TikTok Shop or affiliate post
294 creators, 1,775 posts.
TikTok only. Sponsored posts were found from tags in the description (#ad, paid partnership, #gifted, #tiktokshop and similar).
Views per video fell in almost every niche
The same creators' typical video in July–October 2026 against January–June 2025, by niche.
All niches together: −15%. Ranges for single niches are wide; the data has the exact ranges.
What a typical video gets in each niche
Each creator's typical video from July–October 2026, then the typical creator in each niche.
| Niche | Typical views | Typical followers | Saves per 1,000 views | Shares per 1,000 views | Comments per 1,000 views |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dating and relationships | 7,410 | 50,039 | 9.1 | 2.2 | 1.4 |
| Skincare and beauty | 6,003 | 17,466 | 5.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 |
| Fitness and nutrition | 2,505 | 30,101 | 4.1 | 1.9 | 1.6 |
| Personal finance | 2,281 | 16,844 | 6.3 | 2.9 | 2.1 |
| Manifestation and spirituality | 1,597 | 34,095 | 16.2 | 3.9 | 2.5 |
| Career advice | 1,372 | 10,438 | 9.9 | 3.2 | 2 |
| Real estate | 935 | 3,214 | 4.3 | 3.4 | 2.8 |
| Nervous system regulation | 913 | 15,976 | 9.1 | 3.1 | 2.9 |
| Video editing with AI | 840 | 3,187 | 9.9 | 3.6 | 2.6 |
| Business and marketing | 801 | 7,375 | 8 | 3.1 | 2.9 |
TikTok. Niches with bigger accounts naturally get more views per video.
Questions people ask
Do sponsored posts get fewer views on TikTok?
Yes. Posts tagged #ad, paid partnership or #gifted got about 25% fewer views than the same creator's normal posts that month, and 36% fewer saves per view.
Do TikTok Shop posts hurt reach?
Less than brand deals. TikTok Shop and affiliate posts got about 9% fewer views than the same creator's normal posts.
Which TikTok niche gets the most views?
Of the 10 niches we track, dating and relationships and skincare and beauty got the most views per video in late 2026 (about 7,400 and 6,000 for a typical video).
Are views going down on TikTok?
For the creators we tracked, yes: views per video fell about 15% from early 2025 to late 2026, comparing the same creators. Our follower study found big accounts lost the most.
Images to post, repost and embed
Free to use under CC BY 4.0. Keep the credit on the image, and link to yapanddone.com/studies/sponsored-posts when you can. Feed cards are 4:5 for Instagram and LinkedIn; story cards are 9:16 for TikTok, Reels and Stories.
Charts for articles
Views are falling for big accounts too
Our other studies look at followers, posting habits and what makes each video work.
Does having followers actually get you more views? How often should you actually post?How we did it
- Creators and videos: the same 1,699 TikTok creators as our follower and posting studies, at any size, in 10 niches, with their posts back to January 2025. We left out videos under 14 days old, pinned videos, ads and the video we first found each creator through.
- Sponsored posts: found from the description. Brand deals: #ad, #sponsored, paid partnership, #partner, #brandpartner, #gifted or #ambassador. TikTok Shop and affiliate: #tiktokshop, "TikTok Shop", #affiliate, #commissionsearned and similar. Each sponsored post is compared with the median of the same creator's normal posts within ±30 days (at least 5), then averaged per creator and across creators.
- Sponsored results: brand deals −25% views (95% range −34% to −16%, 305 creators); TikTok Shop −9% (−18% to +0%, 294 creators).
- Niches: each creator is assigned to the niche our niche miner screened them for. The change is each creator's median video in July–October 2026 against January–June 2025 (at least 3 videos in each), the median across the niche, with 95% ranges from resampling creators. Typical views, saves, shares and comments are each creator's median video from July–October 2026, then the median across creators.
Limitations
- Only sponsored posts that say so in the description are counted. Undisclosed deals, and TikTok's own "Paid partnership" label when it isn't in the text, are missed.
- Sponsored posts may differ in other ways (product demos, a brand's script), so this measures what sponsored posts get, not exactly why.
- Niche views depend on who is in each niche: niches with bigger accounts have higher typical views. The change over time compares the same creators, which removes that.
- Creators had to still be posting in late 2026 to be found; accounts that quit are missing.
- English-language talking-head creators in 10 niches.
Use it, cite it
The aggregated results are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Journalists, researchers and AI agents can pull the full numbers below; the plain-text summary contains the whole study.
Cite as
Press questions or a custom cut of the data (a niche, a platform, an account size): contact us. We refresh this study each quarter; this page always shows the latest snapshot.