How do you rate success on TikTok? There are many indicators that you should pay attention to: the number of subscribers, likes, comments, reposts. But TikTok analytics goes deeper: they allow you to measure weekly and monthly growth, total video playback time, who’s watching, and more.
With over 1 billion active accounts, every TikTok user can reach a huge audience, but not everyone succeeds. That’s why it’s so important to check (and understand) your TikTok analytics. Keep track of the right metrics and you’ll be able to hone tactics that actually work (and tell the hype from reality).
If your brand is new to TikTok, analytics can take some of the guesswork out of your TikTok marketing strategy. The information available for TikTok Business accounts can inform everything from when you post to what you post.
Keep reading to find out what TikTok metrics you should track, where to find them, and how you can use them to your advantage.
Who can view TikTok analytics?
Anyone can. Or rather, anyone with a TikTok business account. According to TikTok, these accounts offer “creative tools that allow businesses to think like marketers but act like creators.”Sneaky! And the price is right (it’s free).
How to Switch to a TikTok Business Account
- Go to your profile page.
- Open the “Settings and Privacy”tab (three lines in the upper right corner).
- Click Account Management.
- In the Account Management section, select Switch to Business Account.
- Choose the category that best describes your account. Tiktok offers categories ranging from arts and crafts to personal blogging, fitness, and machinery and equipment. (is a bulldozer a thing?)
- From there, you can add the business website and email address to your profile. And all this precious analytical data belongs to you.
How to Check Analytics on Tiktok
On mobile:
- Go to your profile.
- Open the “Settings and Privacy”tab in the upper right corner.
- In the Account section, select the Contributor Tools tab.
- From there, select Analytics.
On desktop:
- Login to TikTok.
- Hover over your profile picture in the top right corner.
- Select View Analytics.
If you plan to upload analytics data, you can only do so from the desktop control panel.
How to Check Your TikTok Analytics in Hootsuite
If you’re a social media manager or business owner, TikTok is probably just one of the many social platforms you post content on. To see how your TikTok account is performing along with all of your other social channels, Hootsuite’s detailed reporting panel may be the way to go.
You’ll find performance statistics including:
- Top Posts
- number of subscribers
- Achieve
- views
- Comments
- Like
- Stock
- Engagement metrics
The Analytics dashboard also contains valuable information about your TikTok audience, including:
- Audience distribution by country
- Subscriber activity by hour
You can use this information to schedule TikTok posts for the best times (such as when your audience is most likely to be online).
TikTok Analytics Categories
Tiktok divides analytics into four categories: Overview, Content, Followers, and LIVE. Let’s dive in.
@mypetfurend …and poof ☁️❄️ 📷UNKNOWN #dachshund #wienerdog #Miniaturedachshund
Overview analytics
On the Overview tab, you can view analytics for the last week, month, or two months, or choose your own date range. Want to know how your account performed after you posted the super timely lip sync All I Want for Christmas is You in 2020? This is the place to go.
Content analytics
This tab shows which of your videos were the most viewed in the selected date range. It also provides information about each post, including metrics such as views, likes, comments, and shares.
Subscriber Analytics
The Followers tab provides information about your followers, including a breakdown by gender, as well as what part of the world they are viewing from. You can also see when your followers are most active on the app.
If you need advice on how to get more (real) followers, we’re here to help.
LIVE analytics
This tab displays information about the live videos you have posted in the last week or month (7 or 28 days). This analytics includes the number of subscribers, how much time you spent live and how many diamonds you earned.
What do TikTok analytics metrics mean?
Overview tab metrics
The Overview tab provides a summary of the following metrics:
- Video views. The total number of video views in your account for a given period.
- Profile views. The number of views on your profile for the selected period. This TikTok metric is a good indicator of brand interest. It measures the number of people who liked your video enough to check out your profile, or people who are curious about what your brand is up to on the platform.
- Like. The number of likes your videos received during the selected date range.
- Comments. The number of comments your videos received during the selected date range.
- Stock. The number of shares of your videos for the selected date range.
- Subscribers. The total number of TikTok users who follow your account and how this has changed over the selected date range.
- Content. The number of videos you have shared in the selected date range.
- LIVE. The number of live streams you have posted in the selected date range.
Content tab metrics
On the Content tab, you can measure the effectiveness of a video.
- Popular videos. Shows the top nine videos with the fastest growth in views over the past seven days.
- Total video views. The number of times a TikTok video has been viewed.
- The total number of likes for the post. How many likes the post received.
- The total number of comments. How many comments the post received.
- Total shares. The number of times the post was published.
- Total game time. The total amount of time people spent watching your video. The play time of an individual post doesn’t say much on its own, but it can be compared to the performance of other posts to determine your account’s average overall play time.
- Average viewing time. The average amount of time people spend watching your video. This will give you a good idea of how successful you were at keeping your attention.
- Watched the full video. The number of times the video has been viewed in its entirety.
- Reached audience. The total number of users who viewed your video.
- Video views by sections. Where does the traffic to your post come from? Traffic sources include the For You feed, your profile, the Following feed, sounds, searches, and hashtags. If you’re using hashtags or sounds to build awareness, you’ll see how well it worked here.
- Video views by region. This section displays the top viewer locations to post. If you’ve created a post or marketing campaign for a specific location, here’s how to find out if it hit them.
Followers tab metrics
Visit the Followers tab to learn about your audience. In addition to key audience demographics, you can also see the interests of your followers, making this section a good source of content inspiration.
- Floor. Here you will find the distribution of your followers by gender. If you’re happy with your niche, keep playing to the public.
- The best territories. Where are your followers from, ranked by country. Keep these locations in mind if you want to localize content and promotions. No more than five countries are listed here.
- Subscriber activity. This shows the times and days when your followers are most active on TikTok. Look for when activity is consistently high and post regularly during that timeslot.
- Videos your followers have watched. This section allows you to get an idea of the content that is most popular with your followers. Review this section often to see if it generates any content ideas. It is also a good place to find potential employees.
- Sounds that your subscribers listened to. TikTok trends are often highlighted by soundtracks, so check out the top sounds your followers have listened to to see what’s hot. TikTok trends change quickly, so if you’re using these results for ideas, plan on a quick turnaround.
If you want to expand your audience (and see more action in the Followers tab), consider creating more versatile content. Or consider influencer marketing and partnering with a relevant author to make your presence known in different communities. For example, a pet toy brand might want to team up with a four-legged TikTok influencer like Crusoe’s dachshund to attract their audience.
@crusoe_dachshund Anyone need any gardening help this wkd? #dogsoftiktok #gardening #dachshunds #fy #gardendog
LIVE Tab Metrics
The LIVE tab shows the following statistics of your live streams for the last 7 or 28 days.
- Total views. The total number of viewers present during your live streams in the selected date range.
- Total time. The total time you spent hosting live streams in the selected date range.
- New subscribers. The number of new followers you received by posting a live video in the selected date range.
- The maximum number of viewers. The highest number of people who viewed your live video at one time in the selected date range.
- unique viewers. The number of users who viewed your live video at least once (a viewer only counts once in this statistic, regardless of how many times they played the video).
- Diamonds. When you post a live video (and you’re over 18), viewers can send you virtual gifts, including “Diamonds”. You can exchange these diamonds for real money via TikTok – more information about it here. This statistic shows how many diamonds you have earned for the selected date range.
Other TikTok Analytics
Hashtag Views
The number of views of posts with this hashtag.
To see how many views a hashtag has received, look for the hashtag in the Discover tab. An overview of the search results will appear on the Top tab. From there, you’ll be able to see the view count, related hashtags, and some of the top videos that use that tag.
Total likes
On your TikTok profile, you can see the total number of likes you’ve seen on all your content. This TikTok metric can be used as a rough estimate of average engagement.
TikTok engagement metrics
There are different ways to calculate social media engagement rates, and TikTok is no different. These are the two main formulas that marketers use:
((Number of Likes + Number of Comments) / Number of Followers) * 100
or
((Number of likes + Number of comments + Number of reposts) / Number of followers) * 100
Because like and comment metrics are visible on the platform, you can easily see how your TikTok metrics compare to other accounts. Or study influencer engagement rates before teaming up with them. This is just one way to make money on TikTok (and there are three more strategies here).
Average engagement score
For a rough estimate of average account engagement, try the following.
- On the profile, click “Like”to see the full amount.
- Count the number of videos posted.
- Divide the likes by the number of videos.
- Divide this number by the total number of followers for the account.
- Multiply by 100.
Keep in mind that most engagement scoring formulas include comments in addition to likes, so you shouldn’t compare these results to these calculations. But since it takes a long time to count the total number of comments, this formula can be used as a quick way to compare accounts within a company.