9:16 native vs repurposed-from-TikTok: watermark tax

9:16 native vs repurposed-from-TikTok: watermark tax
n=260 Reels, 28-day window, same accounts posting both.
— Clean 9:16 export: median 29% reach rate
— Re-uploaded with a visible third-party watermark: 17%
Delta ≈ 12 points — the single largest tool-choice penalty in this dataset.
Watermark-removal tools recovered most of it: cleaned re-uploads landed at 26%, within 3 points of native.
So what: cross-posting between platforms is fine, but the export tool matters more than the edit. Strip platform watermarks before upload or eat a ~40% relative reach cut.