The TikTok FYP Rewired the Brain…Now Your Ads Have to Adapt

Summary

Podcast Summary: Brain Driven Brands

Episode: The TikTok FYP Rewired the Brain…Now Your Ads Have to Adapt
Host: Sarah Levinger
Date: December 11, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sarah Levinger and her co-host dig into how TikTok's “For You Page” (FYP) algorithm has fundamentally rewired consumers’ brains and media habits. They discuss what this means for brands trying to run effective ads and share actionable neuromarketing insights from leading brands. The conversation explores the impact of niche algorithms, shifting pop culture dynamics, and the need for hyper-relevant, persona-driven creative in advertising for 2026 and beyond.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How TikTok and Algorithms Changed Pop Culture (02:16–03:59)

• Shift from Popularity to Personalization:
  TikTok’s FYP serves ultra-targeted content based on individual user behavior—not follower counts or popularity.
  • Quote (A):
    “It isn’t even like, based on what’s the most popular... it’s just about you. Just about what do you as the individual respond to and consume.” [03:59]
• Erosion of Traditional Celebrities & Influencers:
  As a result, standard celebrity and influencer models are collapsing. Niche creators now capture fragmented audiences, causing broad-based pop culture to splinter.
• Direct Consumer Impact:
  The FYP influences daily decisions, from trying new supplements to adopting habits based on what influencers share, even when users aren’t actively seeking this information.

2. The Brain’s Attraction to Extreme Content (04:45–05:52)

• The “Danger & Bizarre” Magnet:
  Both hosts confess that their TikTok feeds show extreme or dangerous content (e.g., animal attacks, caving accidents), even though they’re typical, stable people.
  • Quote (B):
    “...the brain is naturally programmed to look for things that are dangerous, odd, bizarre, psychotic.” [05:03]
• Attention Economy Challenge:
  Life is mostly mundane, so only highly unusual or emotionally charged ads can stand out against the “danger content” that dominates feeds.

3. The Dilemma for Brands: How to Surface in Fragmented Feeds (06:17–07:45)

• Personalization vs. One-Size-Fits-All Fails:
  The FYP creates radically different experiences per user—making mass-market, “broad appeal” ads increasingly ineffective.

  • Quote (A):
    “The same sass is trying to show up in our feeds to sell us...how do you even start to try to target each of us?” [06:50]

• Identity-Focused Marketing is Critical:
  The co-hosts note that their success in testing identity-driven creative is rooted in an environment where identity is algorithmically prioritized.

  • Quote (B):
    “Marketers who were testing identity in an ecosystem that prioritizes identity.” [07:17]

4. Tactics for 2026: Multiplying Personas, Ads, & Contexts (07:45–10:05)

• Many More Personas—as Detailed as Possible:
  Brands must go deep on persona work: names, ages, what they eat and watch, how they spend weekdays vs. weekends, etc.
  • Quote (A):
    “I would go as detailed as giving them a name, a gender, age... where they’re going to be on Friday, what they think about Monday mornings.” [08:54]
• One Ad, One Persona:
  Every ad should be crafted for one specific persona at a time, reflecting that even the same person behaves differently on different days.
  • Quote (A):
    “Every single ad you create ... has to be designed for one of them and only one. Only one only because Sarah on Monday is crazy different than Sarah on Saturday.” [08:15]
• Core Emotion is Consistent, Surface Hooks Must Shift:
  Emotional needs (e.g., feeling healthy, nurtured) remain similar, but the hooks and packaging of content must connect with the “state of mind” of the persona in the moment.

5. Precision Over “Better” or “Faster”—Aim for Accuracy and Connection (10:49–14:17)

• “Better” is Relative, Accuracy is King:
  Rather than trying to make universally “better” ads, marketers must aim for pinpoint accuracy: the right story, hook, or concept for each micro-moment and persona.
  • Quote (B):
    “Accuracy. I’m going for accuracy, not necessarily high quality.” [12:44]
• Common Storylines Transcend Personas:
  Experiment with storylines/hooks to identify “brand-agnostic, customer-agnostic” content that reliably grabs attention across personas and brands, then iterate on those.

6. Practical Takeaway & Future Exploration (14:27–16:13)

• Repeat Winners—Identify Universal Hooks:
  When you find a storyline or structure that consistently spikes engagement, you’ve found a powerful lever for attention—use it across products and audiences.
• Connect in Real Contexts, Not Side-by-Side Comparisons:
  Ads should be crafted with the real consumer context in mind (scrolled past at 2am on the toilet or at a stoplight), not compared to a lineup of competitor ads.
  • Quote (A):
    “None of your customers are looking at all of the ads side by side here. Nobody. You’re looking at them in their newsfeed when they’re laying in bed or on the toilet or at a light in traffic...” [15:54]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On TikTok's algorithmic revolution:
  “TikTok has completely changed pop culture and I think that’s something to watch pretty carefully as brands because no matter what, pop culture is going to change everything about what you do, even if you don’t think about it that way.” – Sarah (B) [02:36]

• TikTok is about the individual, not mass appeal:
  “The algorithm on TikTok is driving the entire conversation for every platform in the business, including Meta.” – Sarah (B) [03:31]

• Ad creation in the FYP era:
  “Every single ad you create ... has to be designed for one of them and only one...because Sarah on Monday is crazy different than Sarah on Saturday.” – Co-host (A) [08:15]

• Reframing what marketers optimize for:
  “I’m going for accuracy, not necessarily high quality.” – Sarah (B) [12:44]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• TikTok’s Algorithm & Fragmented Pop Culture — 02:16–03:59
• Attention and the Brain’s Drive for Extreme Content — 04:45–05:52
• Personalization vs. Broad-Based Advertising — 06:17–07:45
• Designing Detailed Personas & Contextual Ads — 07:45–10:05
• Accuracy vs. “Better” Ads, Finding Common Hooks — 10:49–14:17
• Real-World Context and Consistency in Ads — 14:27–16:13

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Final Takeaways

• The TikTok FYP model has splintered attention and rewired consumer brains, making “one size fits all” ads obsolete.
• Brands must invest in deep persona research and micro-targeted creative—crafting each ad for a single use case or moment.
• Seek accuracy and emotional resonance, not arbitrary ideas of “better.”
• Discover and leverage universal storylines that transcend brand and persona boundaries, but always situate ads in real-life contexts.
• Marketers should focus on the moments and emotional needs of the individual consumer as dictated by their algorithmic feed for 2026 and beyond.

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For practical neuromarketing insights, Sarah recommends examining and doubling down on repeat-winning storylines while never losing sight of the need to stand out against TikTok’s ever-escalating “bizarre and extreme” content baseline.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome back to Brain Driven Brands. And let me just say before I introduce my co host here, I think we're kind of on a hot streak. The last, like, five or six episodes have been really strong. Numbers are growing. Life's good. I'm gonna take like 75 to 80% of the credit, but the other goes to my co host, Sarah. How are you?

[B]

You're gonna take 75 to 80 credit for a show that you show up on and just chat.

[A]

You're right. That's low. 90. 90.

[B]

You are the talent ballad. You deserve all the recognition.

[A]

Like, do you think Morgan Wallen, like, sets up the chairs in the arenas? No. He shows up to do the valuable thing.

[B]

You know, does the valuable thing.

[A]

Yeah. Wow.

[B]

First of all, you should pay your people more, especially if you're in country music, because dang, country music, like, exploded again in the last, I don't know, seven to 10 years. Which is really interesting because I feel like after the 90s, well, now they're doing like rap country. So I don't know.

[A]

Rappers can't give money without the country artists, so.

[B]

Oh, that's so true. I found it really interesting. That's like a very interesting cultural segue that, like, country and rap decided to, like, marry and get together and just have, like, crap, tons of weird babies.

[A]

You know what's crazy? My roommate in college wrote his, like, thesis on this.

[B]

Did he really?

[A]

How? Yeah, at the time. And it was about how, like, how is it that, like, rich white kids in Clemson, South Carolina are listening to the same trap music that people in the ghetto of Atlanta are. Yeah, and like, interesting 10 years have gone by because I'm super young.

And like, that's still happening, but now it's just like, more country inspired.

[B]

Well, and I had. Somebody asked me this the other day how much we are tracking at tether, like cultural movements. And I was like, 100 across the board. Like, anything that happens in pop culture, I watch. There's a new trend that's happening where Hollywood is kind of dying. I don't know if everybody's noticed. We're getting, like, full on celebrity cancellations. Like, people are just unfollowing out of millions of people off the board. I find this really fascinating because we're also not seeing a huge amount of growth in the influencer space. It's almost like people just aren't following anybody.

[A]

I think it's because it's gone niche.

[B]

Like, I also think the algorithms did this.

[A]

Yeah, I think like, 4U algorithms have, like, changed the game entirely. And then, like, I think there's people now that, like, there's not seven country artists to listen to, there's a thousand.

[B]

Oh my God, there's so many.

[A]

And like, you can have your favorites that are not big names at all, but, like, that is taking market share away from some.

[B]

Yeah. TikTok has completely changed pop culture and I think that's something to watch pretty carefully as brands because no matter what, pop culture is going to change everything about what you do, even if you don't think about it that way. If my favorite influencer is losing weight this month, I might try and follow what she's doing just because she's interested in that and her content is feeding me this message, which means I might look for different supplements. I might try and get like a personal trainer. Am I, like, I might go to. Why are you laughing?

[A]

I'm smiling right now because I just, I thought of. I had a conversation last week where I realized, like, how individualized everyone's for you pager. Because I started out a conversation with a guy by saying, you seeing all these videos of like animals mauling people at zoos.

[B]

And they were like, what are you watching?

[A]

First of all, haven't seen a single one. And I was like, it's all over my tik tok. So I don't know.

[B]

Well, and this is, this is the mo. Okay, this is gonna. We're not even gonna talk about the topic we decided to talk about today. We're gonna talk about this because I think this is key for 2026. That freaking algorithm on TikTok is driving the entire conversation for every platform in the business, including Meta. Yeah, TikTok is driving everything because they were the one that brought in this brand new algorithm that wasn't based on followers. I don't care if you had a million people following you. Your content was shit. Nobody's gonna see.

[A]

It isn't even like, based on what's the most popular. No, most engaging. It's just about you. Just about what do you as the individual respond to and consume. And for me, it's zookeepers being attacked.

[B]

By animals, apparently mauled by people. Which is hilarious because my.

[A]

It's not hilarious tragedy, but my, like.

[B]

Deep dark, like, TikTok feed is full of people dying in caves. Have you seen those?

[A]

No.

[B]

Yes. It's like these big stories. They're all cartoonized. Like it's little stick figures walking through.

[A]

People dying in caves.

[B]

Who died in a cave? Yes. And I'm terrified of this. This is like a big Fear. I have like a serious phobia of dying in a cave.

[A]

We should delete that. That. By the way, spoiler alert. The end of this episode is we just uninstall the app from our phone.

[B]

Get rid of TikTok. It's so bad for your brain. Okay. The reason though, I find this interesting. You watch videos of bears mauling people in a zoo. I watch videos of people dying in a cave because they were stupid and tried to go spelunking and then like, died because a raging river washed them away. This is interesting that both you and I, who are pretty, what I would say mentally stable people, are choosing to watch and generous, shake your head. We're choosing to watch this content because of something that's in here. Either a fear, a phobia, a fascination, whatever it is. Right. This is the interesting part about TikTok and the reason why it's very difficult to get organic content or even ads to hit well these days because the brain is naturally programmed to look for things that are dangerous, odd, bizarre, psychotic.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Really, really detrimental to your health. So if you see people who watch a lot of those shows where there's road rage or a lot of clips on like, like Karen's quote, unquote, like losing their minds on things, this is the type of stuff that the brain is pre programmed to watch and pay attention to because it's different than the norm.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Usually life is pretty boring. So this broader scale conversation, if we're making ads that go into this ecosystem and all the ads are just like, I found the perfect thing for my skin this year, you'll never believe what it is, like, you're going to. People are just going to scan right past that because it's too dull compared to bears, Molly. People in zoos.

[A]

Yes. Super boring compared to that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Do you know what I think is really fascinating about this too is like.

We have talked about, like, each brand has multiple different whys and multiple different Personas. And like, I think this is the perfect example of that of, like, me and you, who like, have a bunch in common. We work in the same industry. We are the breadwinners of our family. We have kids. Like, we are, we're podcasters. But like, for you, pages are totally opposite.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

But like the same sass is trying to show up in our feeds to sell us.

[B]

Yeah, very true.

[A]

And it's like, how. How do you even start to try to target each of us?

[B]

I wonder if this is the reason why all of the identity focused work that you and I have done for the past 18 months is working so well. Not necessarily because we're good at what we do. We are good at what we do. But I think in tandem, you had marketers who were testing identity in an ecosystem that prioritizes identity.

[A]

That's gotta be it. Well, like, that's what we're hearing from.

[B]

It makes me feel really smart, which is nice.

[A]

That's what we've been hearing from Facebook too. If you search the word Andromeda on Twitter. I'm sorry, um, but like, everyone's like, oh, we're supposed to be marketing to Personas now. And me and you have been like, hey, we're always supposed to be doing that 100%.

[B]

We've been doing that for the last.

[A]

That's not an algorithm change. That's like what humans were. Have been programmed to do for thousands of years, but now it's just been heightened and fed by all of our for you algorithms.

[B]

Okay, so help me think about this. If our algorithm is more suited towards a 4U style engagement where the stuff that we are being fed is based upon what we've watched a lot and specifically tracked to the day we watched it, because my Saturday content is not at all my Monday content, if that's what it is. What does that mean for the ads that we're going to create in 2026? Because I have this question in my school group right now, which is like, how do I make ads that fit the for you ecosystem?

[A]

I think you need to have many more Personas than you think. And then I think every single ad you create, with exception, has to be designed for one of them and only one. Only one only because Sarah on Monday is crazy different than Sarah on Saturday. And like, same with me, like today, like, I'm gonna eat a organic grass fed ribeye for dinner because, like, I'm.

[B]

Trying to be healthy again.

[A]

And then Friday I'm gonna drink a bunch of Jack and Cokes and get Taco Bell. Different mindset, right?

[B]

Taco Bell. Okay, yep, yep. Interesting. Personas. Define Personas.

[A]

I would go as detailed as giving them a name, a gender, a age.

What.

What they watch, what they listen to, where they're going to be on Friday, what they think about Monday mornings. Like as, how are you going to use possible. Because then we're gonna write ads and like, when I.

[B]

Towards all of that.

[A]

No, no, towards one of those at a time.

[B]

Oh, okay, so you're gonna have like broad range ads that just talk about Taco Bell and then just talk about ribeye and then just talk about like that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Basically. Let's look at adapt. Okay.

[B]

Okay. All right.

[A]

We know that like a lot of our gut health products, people want to feel confident and safe in their decision to buy that. I. Right.

[B]

Yes, yes. Yeah, no, no, I'm trying. My brain's moving too fast and I want to talk over you. Continue. Okay, keep going.

[A]

But don't you think when we go to shoot photography and videography and we go to write content for that ad, if I'm writing it to a man, it's different than writing it to a woman?

[B]

Yes, yes, I, I would agree with that. Yes.

[A]

And writing it to a 30 year old man is different than writing it to a 50 year old man?

[B]

Not necessarily. Not necessarily. And this is the reason why it comes back. And this. Oh, you need to go listen to the last episode that I posted where it was just like clips of a whole bunch of stuff because I re listened to the entire episode of the When. Right. The one episode that we did ages ago. Your customers really want to feel healthy and they want to like nurture themselves in their life with your products. When did that need start happening?

When? And that's why like all of this like for you page stuff, this conversation about algorithms and like interest level content, that's where this comes into play here. I think.

[A]

Well, and let me clarify, I think like where I would try to draw differences because like the core emotion doesn't change. I'm with you.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But if we are trying to grab the attention of someone in there for you page.

State of mind.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Don't you think that different content piques the interest of the third year old guy to the 50 year old guy to the 50 year Old Woman?

[B]

I don't know that.

[A]

Or you think both 30 and 50 year old guys are just watching Bears mall people on TikTok all day. So it doesn't matter.

[B]

This is the reason why I think this. You and I just got on a very random impromptu conversation with Evan from Motion where you like crashed our live because it was broken and nothing was working. You and I came on and watched the exact same ad. Your reason for staying in that ad was drastically different than mine because the ad started with an influencer that I had no idea was even a guy. But the rest of the ad was very technical which I was very involved in and like interested in. Both of us watched it though.

[A]

But like don't you think they could make an ad that hooks you better?

[B]

Better is not what I'm going for.

[A]

Oh, Expand on that.

[B]

Yeah, I. In 2026.

[A]

Because before we started to record, we said, faster is not what we're going for, which I.

[B]

Not what I'm going for. And better is not what I'm going for. Mostly because that's arbitrary. I don't know how. I don't know what better is for me compared to you. For you, better is bears mauling. For me, better is dying in a cave. I can't predict that as a marketer, so I don't know that better is what I want to do.

I'm struggling to figure out what it is that I'm trying to do. I'm optimizing for something specific, but it's not quite fast and it's not quite better.

[A]

It is.

[B]

What's the word?

[A]

Connection.

[B]

Yeah, It's. It's precision.

Not elite. Not achievement. Yeah.

[A]

But just super accurate.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Accuracy. I'm going for accuracy, not necessarily high quality.

[A]

So you're saying even if the hook isn't a bear attacking someone, because the emotion and the core feeling is. For me, I will stop anyway.

[B]

Yes. So now I want to know if you'll watch a video, say that I'm selling bear spray. If you'll watch a video with a bear attacking somebody at a zoo.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Will you also watch a video of just like a very bear level person attacking another person?

[A]

What do you mean a bear level person?

[B]

Like a big dude. Like a big. A big dude in a hoodie.

[A]

I don't watch people.

[B]

You're not gonna watch that? Okay. Will you watch a video of. I'm trying to think of something that bear spray would solve. Would you watch a video of a cougar, like a cat, attacking somebody in the wild?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. That's different.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's two different animals. Same kind of concept, though. Would you watch something of like, a bunch of bats attacking somebody?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Okay. See, so this is why I'm saying I'm not entirely sure that better is the. The key mechanism here that we're trying to achieve in somebody's brain. I think it's accuracy of story, because those three stories are the exact same thing. An animal attacks someone. The animal doesn't seem like it matters. The person doesn't seem like they matter.

[A]

No. Just like animals.

[B]

The story is the only thing that Nate connected to, which is something attacking something, and then I save it with said bear spray. End of that.

[A]

I like that. Any bears.

[B]

Okay, okay.

[A]

But listening out there, good for you guys. You got a bunch of free game here. All right, what's the takeaway.

[B]

I've seen this in my own content and this is the takeaway from this episode. I've seen this in my own content. I have content that's repetitive. That's like. I know for a fact that if I say this hook with this takeaway with this link, somebody's gonna stop. It'll blow up all kinds of things. When you start to see those repetitive storylines work, you have hit on a brand agnostic customer, agnostic avatar, agnostic story that can work in any capacity at any time. Finding those is the hardest part and that's what I want to work on in 2026. I'm still going to be involved in avatars and emotion and understanding identity, all these different things.

[A]

I you're focused on the commonalities rather.

[B]

Than I want to focus on common attention. Getting very enticing stories that I can take and use across any brand.

[A]

I'm into it. I think this episode deserves a follow up with Exactly.

[B]

Okay. All right. I agree. This is literally just Sarah's thought process during the day when I'm sitting here.

[A]

This is great. And for everyone listening, this was not the topic we were supposed to record on at all. I forget how we got here, but we got here and I'm glad we did because I think it's very important. And you reminded me of this yesterday on a loom I sent you. You were like, I was looking at a mood board of a bunch of like competitor ads and you were like, hey, let's remember that none of your customers are looking at all of the ads side by side here. Nobody. You're looking at them in their, their newsfeed when they're laying in bed or on the toilet or at a light in traffic. Like, we gotta make ads that connect in the placements that they're going to be served in.

[B]

Yes. And connect consistently. So every time they see something from you, they know it's you.

[A]

Yeah, I love that. Thanks for listening to Brain Driven Brands. If you want to get deep insights about your customers, go to Tether Insights IO. You're welcome to the ad read. You can follow me if you want. Or Sarah. Doesn't matter. See you next time.

[B]

Thank you so much for joining us on the show today. Appreciate you guys listening. If you want to follow me, I'm at Sarah Levenger. Anywhere you can see the content. He is at Nate Lagos. If you like this show and if you like this episode, go ahead and like, subscribe. Share with a friend. Drop us a review when you have a minute. We would appreciate it. Otherwise, have a great week. We'll see you next time.