It depends how you count a user interaction. YouTube ads are pay per view. A view is defined as someone watching the ad for 30 second or longer, at which point the advertiser gets billed for a view (around 10 cents or so). However, only a small % of these views lead to a click to the advertiser's website. So although the PPV is lower than contextual CPC, it is about the same when one compares actual traffic to the website.

Instagram ads are better but TikTok is way more entertaining to me. I almost always get a chuckle or even a laugh every time I use TikTok, last time I opened Instagram all I got was boring food pictures, pictures of dogs and a friend's family picture...

I agree completely – and I wonder if it's part of the problem. If an advertiser on TikTok doesn't entertain me, I'm swiping. Whereas on Instagram, I'm more willing to look at some pants or whatever for a second – it's not that much less interesting than the competition (baby pics).

Good point, haven't thought of that. I guess Instagram is still in trouble because of the loss of eyeballs to TikTok. I've seen a few famous TikTokers advertising products at the end of their video. Maybe they could require taking a cut there. I guess they'll figure something out, that's why they hired all those facebook executives.

I have noticed significant change in TikTok ads over the past year. A lot of the newer ones use TikTok-like format, using a popular meme to promote their product, and I find those quite a bit more effective, if only because they're not obvious to tell apart from normal content.