Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2021
  • Working Paper

First Law of Motion: Influencer Video Advertising on TikTok

By: Jeremy Yang, Juanjuan Zhang and Yuhan Zhang
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
ShareBar

Abstract

This paper engineers an intuitive feature that is predictive of the causal effect of influencer video advertising on product sales. We propose the concept of m-score, a summary statistic that captures the extent to which a product is advertised in the most engaging parts of a video. We locate pixel-level product placement with an object detection algorithm and estimate pixel-level engagement as a saliency map by fine-tuning a deep 3D convolutional neural network on video-level engagement data. M-score is then defined as pixel-level engagement-weighted advertising intensity of a video. We construct and evaluate the algorithm with around 40,000 influencer video ads on TikTok, the largest short video platform of the world. We leverage variation in video posting time to identify the causal effect of video ads on product sales. Videos of higher m-score indeed lift more sales. This effect is sizable, robust, and more pronounced among impulsive, hedonic, or inexpensive products. We trace the mechanism to influencers’ incentives to promote themselves rather than the product. We discuss how various stakeholders in social commerce can use m-score in a scalable way to optimize content, align incentives, and improve efficiency.

Keywords

Influencer Advertising; Video Advertising; Computer Vision; Machine Learning; Advertising; Online Technology

Citation

Yang, Jeremy, Juanjuan Zhang, and Yuhan Zhang. "First Law of Motion: Influencer Video Advertising on TikTok." Working Paper, March 2021.
  • SSRN

About The Author

Jeremy Yang

Marketing
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • June 2023 (Revised December 2023)
    • Faculty Research

    Hometown Foods Pricing Calculator

    By: Julian De Freitas and Jeremy Yang
    • November 2022
    • Faculty Research

    The Future of E-Commerce: Lessons from the Livestream Wars in China

    By: Ayelet Israeli, Jeremy Yang and Billy Chan
    • July 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Hometown Foods

    By: Julian De Freitas, Jeremy Yang and Das Narayandas
More from the Authors
  • Hometown Foods Pricing Calculator By: Julian De Freitas and Jeremy Yang
  • The Future of E-Commerce: Lessons from the Livestream Wars in China By: Ayelet Israeli, Jeremy Yang and Billy Chan
  • Hometown Foods By: Julian De Freitas, Jeremy Yang and Das Narayandas
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.