Two Thirds of TikTok Users Like Ads That Fit Their Community

Key findings

• 66.6% of TikTok users said they feel positively toward a brand when the ad fits the community they belong to.
• 44.4% said they end up watching such an ad through, against 27.7% who said it puts them off.
• Asked which platform leaves the best impression of its advertising, respondents ranked TikTok first, ahead of Instagram and YouTube.

Short-form advertising is usually discussed as something to be endured: skippable, unwelcome, tolerated at best. A survey of 874 TikTok users by FreakOut tested whether that is actually true, or whether users object to something narrower — ads that have nothing to do with what they are there for.

What is a kaiwai?

Kaiwai (界預) is a Japanese term that translates loosely as “the neighbourhood” and is used to describe a community of interest that forms around a subject on social platforms. It is not a demographic and not a formal group. It is the set of people who share a vocabulary, a set of references and a rhythm of posting around one thing.

The distinction from an interest category matters. “Beauty” is a category; the community around a specific technique, product culture or creator is a kaiwai. Members recognise each other by language and reference rather than by shared demographics, and a person belongs to several at once.

Do TikTok users actually dislike advertising?

Not when it fits. 66.6% of respondents said they feel positively toward a brand when the advertising matches their own area of interest — combining “feel very positive” and “feel somewhat positive”. That is a clear majority expressing brand favourability toward an advertisement, from an audience usually described as ad-averse.

The reading the survey supports is that users are not rejecting advertising as a category. They are rejecting content that has no relationship to why they are on the platform.

Does relevance change viewing behaviour, or only attitude?

Both. Asked how they behave when an ad is close to their interests, 44.4% said they end up watching it, against 27.7% who said it puts them off. On a platform built around fast dismissal, a plurality reporting that they watch through is a behavioural result rather than a stated preference.

What makes an ad read as belonging is the same thing that makes any post read as belonging: the language, the references and the tone the community uses. Creative that describes a product accurately but in the wrong register is still out of context.

Which platform’s advertising leaves the best impression?

TikTok, ahead of Instagram and YouTube, among the platforms tested. The likely mechanism is the recommendation feed: users who trust that the feed selects well extend some of that trust to what appears in it. Where the feed has a reputation for relevance, advertising inside it starts from a higher expectation.

That works in both directions. An irrelevant ad is more conspicuous on a feed the user believes understands them.

Why is demographic targeting insufficient here?

Because a kaiwai does not map to an age and gender box. Two people in the same demographic can belong to entirely different communities, and one person belongs to several. Targeting the demographic reaches the person but not the context, which is the variable this survey found to matter.

The same pattern appears in our YouTube research: contextual relevance raised favourable impression of advertising roughly 2.7 times among viewers who were previously negative or neutral. See contextual ads are received 2.7x better. Two platforms, two surveys, the same direction.

How do you find and target a kaiwai?

Through the signals the community leaves rather than through profiles. Hashtags, recent engagement and the vocabulary of posts identify who is currently active around a subject. That is a behavioural signal with a short shelf life, which is why it is closer to context than to an audience segment.

• Start from the subject, not the buyer profile. Identify the communities where your category is actually discussed.
• Use recent engagement, not stated interest. Membership shifts; a profile attribute does not.
• Match the creative to the register. Correct placement with generic creative gives up most of the effect.
• Expect several small communities, not one large segment. Coverage comes from the set, not from any one of them.

Frequently asked questions

What does kaiwai mean in marketing?

A kaiwai is a community of interest that forms around a subject on social platforms, recognised by shared vocabulary and references rather than by demographics. In marketing it is used to describe a targetable context: the people currently active around a topic, rather than people who fit a profile.

Do TikTok users dislike advertising?

Less than commonly assumed. In this survey 66.6% said they feel positively toward a brand when the ad fits their area of interest, and 44.4% said they watch such ads through. The objection appears to be to irrelevance rather than to advertising itself.

How is a kaiwai different from an interest category?

An interest category is a fixed label applied to a person. A kaiwai is a live community with its own language and references, which people move in and out of. One interest category typically contains many kaiwai, and they behave differently from each other.

Which platform has the most accepted advertising?

Among the platforms tested in this survey, respondents ranked TikTok first for the impression its advertising leaves, ahead of Instagram and YouTube. Trust in the recommendation feed is the most likely reason.

Method

• Researcher: FreakOut, Inc. Fieldwork by JustSystems Corporation.
• Respondents: TikTok users, men and women aged 15 to 59, nationwide.
• Method: online survey.
• Period: 28 October – 4 November 2025.
• Valid responses: 874.
• Weighting: weighted back to the age and gender composition of TikTok users, based on Business of Apps data for 2024.
• Platform comparison is a ranking of respondent impressions, not a measure of advertising performance.

Source: FreakOut, Inc., survey on advertising receptivity and behavioural change on TikTok, October–November 2025, n = 874. Fieldwork conducted in Japan.

Targeting the community, not the profile. alpaka analyses hashtag signals and recent engagement to identify the communities active around a subject on TikTok. Talk to your local team.