# Do sponsored posts actually get fewer views?

A study of 541,500 TikTok videos from 1,699 creators: brand deals, TikTok Shop posts, and how views differ and are changing across 10 niches. Published 2026-11-08 by Yap & Done. Videos posted January 2025 to October 2026.

Canonical page: https://www.yapanddone.com/studies/sponsored-posts/ · Data: https://www.yapanddone.com/studies/sponsored-posts/data.json · https://www.yapanddone.com/studies/sponsored-posts/data.csv · License: CC BY 4.0

## The top lessons

- 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 findings

- **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.

## Views by niche (TikTok, July–October 2026)

| Niche | Typical views | Change since early 2025 (same creators) | Saves per 1,000 views | Shares per 1,000 views |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dating and relationships | 7,410 | −15% | 9.1 | 2.2 |
| Skincare and beauty | 6,003 | −2% | 5.3 | 1.4 |
| Fitness and nutrition | 2,505 | −24% | 4.1 | 1.9 |
| Personal finance | 2,281 | −11% | 6.3 | 2.9 |
| Manifestation and spirituality | 1,597 | −17% | 16.2 | 3.9 |
| Career advice | 1,372 | −1% | 9.9 | 3.2 |
| Real estate | 935 | −20% | 4.3 | 3.4 |
| Nervous system regulation | 913 | −17% | 9.1 | 3.1 |
| Video editing with AI | 840 | −27% | 9.9 | 3.6 |
| Business and marketing | 801 | −11% | 8 | 3.1 |

## Method

- 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.

Cite as: Yap & Done (2026). Do sponsored posts actually get fewer views? https://www.yapanddone.com/studies/sponsored-posts/