CAKES body, a DTC startup that sells discreet, self-adhesive silicone nipple covers, has been able to make bank on TikTok thanks to the virality of its organic content.
But the possibility of a TikTok ban in the US – combined with rising content moderation challenges – is pushing TikTok-reliant startups like CAKES to devise channel diversification strategies.
CAKES body, which launched in early 2022, gained an active organic following on TikTok for its nipple covers and has since expanded its product line to include bralettes and triangle-shaped covers – or “boob solutions,” as company co-founders and sisters Taylor Capuano and Casey Capuano Sarai call them.
Rather than ditching TikTok – going viral brings in new customers after all – the sisters are now using it as a testing ground to determine which content to promote on other channels, including YouTube’s and Meta’s platforms.
CAKES spent 2023 building a paid media presence on Facebook and Instagram. Now it’s trying to find a balance between Meta, YouTube and YouTube Shorts, while continuing to use TikTok as an awareness driver “to get as many customers into the fold as we can,” Capuano said.
The pros and cons of TikTok for DTC brands
CAKES body has TikTok to thank for its early successes.
An organic video that went viral in May 2022 helped kickstart the brand’s DTC site sales, resulting in $1 million in revenue in its first year.
But “hoping you go viral every month isn’t really a path to growing business,” Capuano said.
Although TikTok is aggressively pushing its own ecommerce hub, TikTok Shop, it’s still in its early days. CAKES mostly sells its products from its own site, with about 10% of its sales coming from TikTok Shop.
Facebook or Instagram, by comparison, make it easier to buy products straight from a brand’s website.
Censorship is another reason CAKES is turning its attention to other platforms. The brand doesn’t display actual nipples in its creative, but nipple covers alone are enough to make TikTok flag the company’s videos as sexual content and take them down. This type of censorship is all too common for brands in the women’s health and wellness vertical. For CAKES, the problem has been more severe on TikTok compared to Meta, Capuano said.
A new approach to TikTok
Today, CAKES primarily uses TikTok as a litmus test for its paid media. It decides what content is worth paying to boost on Meta based on how it performs organically on TikTok.
CAKES tracks which of its TikTok posts have at least 100,000 views and also result in sales. It estimates that roughly one in every 10 of its TikTok videos contribute to revenue, and these are the videos it promotes as ads on Meta. According to the sisters, being more selective about its paid media has helped improve the brand’s overall return on ad spend.
But TikTok is no longer purely an organic channel for CAKES, which now spends roughly 20% of its paid media budget on the platform. The majority of its remaining budget goes to Meta.
CAKES isn’t alone in spending so heavily on Meta. Other DTC brands are doing the same, which means Meta is getting more crowded as a result, Capuano said, which means it’s getting expensive to stay competitive.
And so CAKES is also building a new presence on its next frontier: YouTube.
Watching the boob tube
Adding organic YouTube videos and paid Google ads into the mix should help CAKES reach $50 million in revenue this year, Capuano Sarai said.
YouTube is a logical next step for a brand that cut its teeth on TikTok. Both platforms are hubs of user-generated content that aim to attract brands with shoppable video.
Similar to how it started out on TikTok, CAKES is now posting organic videos on YouTube Shorts. In the fall, it plans to roll out longer-form content on YouTube proper to educate consumers about its products, and it has plans to sell products on YouTube livestreams.
YouTube is CAKES body’s biggest opportunity on the horizon, Capuano said.
Casting a wider net should help CAKES with its two main goals: customer acquisition and retention. CAKES currently has roughly 1 million customers, up from 300,000 at the end of last year.
According to Capuano, focusing more on channel diversification is “de-risking our business” from the volatility of individual platforms.
