The Complete Guide to TikTok Analytics: How to Measure Your Success

How do you evaluate success on TikTok? There are many metrics to look at: follower count, likes, comments, shares. But TikTok analytics go deeper: they allow you to measure weekly and monthly growth, total video play time, information about who is watching, and more.

With over 1 billion active accounts, every TikTok user has the potential to reach an enormous audience—but not everyone does. That’s why checking your TikTok analytics (and understanding them) is so important. Track the right metrics, and you’ll be able to hone in on the tactics that really work (and tell hype from reality).

If your brand is new to TikTok, analytics can take some of the guesswork out of your TikTok marketing strategy. Insights available to TikTok Business accounts can inform everything from when you post to what you post.

Keep reading, (and watch our video!) to learn which TikTok metrics you should be tracking, where to find them, and how you can use them to your advantage.

Who can view TikTok analytics?

Anyone can. Or rather, anyone who has a TikTok Business account. According to TikTok, these accounts offer “creative tools that empower 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

1. Go to your profile page.
2. Open the Settings and privacy tab (the three lines in the top right corner).
3. Tap Manage account.
4. Under Account control, choose Switch to Business Account.

5. Choose the category that best describes your account. Tiktok offers categories from Art & Crafts to Personal Blog to Fitness to Machinery & Equipment. (Is bulldozertok a thing?)
6. From there, you can add a business website and email to your profile. And those precious analytics are all yours.

How to check analytics on Tiktok

On mobile:

1. Go to your profile.
2. Open the Settings and privacy tab in the top right corner.
3. Under Account, choose the Creator Tools tab.
4. From there, select Analytics.

On desktop:

1. Log in to TikTok.
2. Hover over your profile picture in the top right.
3. Select View Analytics.

If you plan to download your analytics data, you can only do this from the desktop dashboard.

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 to. To see how your TikTok account is performing alongside all your other social channels, Hootsuite’s detailed reporting dashboard might be just the thing for you.

You’ll find performance stats, including:

• Top posts
• Follower count
• Reach
• Views
• Comments
• Likes
• Shares
• Engagement rates

The Analytics dashboard also includes valuable information about your TikTok audience, including:

• Audience breakdown by country
• Follower activity by the hour

You can use this information to schedule TikTok posts for the best time (a.k.a., when your audience is most likely to be online).

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Categories of TikTok analytics

Tiktok divides analytics into four categories: Overview, Content, Followers and LIVE. Let’s dive in.

@mypetfurend

…and poof ☁️❄️ 📷UNKNOWN #dachshund #wienerdog #Miniaturedachshund

♬ original sound – My Pet Furend 🐾

Overview analytics

In the Overview tab, you can see analytics from the last week, month, or two months—or, you can choose a custom date range. Want to know how your account performed after you posted that super-timely All I Want for Christmas is You lip sync in 2020? This is the place to go.

Content analytics

This tab shows which of your videos have been the most popular within a selected date range. It also provides information about each post, including metrics like views, likes, comments and shares.

Follower analytics

The Follower tab provides information about your followers, including a breakdown of gender as well as what part of the world they’re viewing from. You can also see when your followers are most active on the app.

If you’re looking for advice on how to gain more (real) followers, we’ve got your back.

LIVE analytics

This tab displays insights on live videos you have hosted within the last week or month (7 or 28 days). These analytics include follower count, how much time you’ve spent live, and how many Diamonds you’ve earned.

What do TikTok analytics metrics mean?

Overview tab metrics

The Overview tab offers a summary of the following metrics:

• Video views. The total number of times your account’s videos were viewed over a given period.
• Profile views. The number of times your profile was viewed over the selected period. This TikTok metric is a good indication of brand interest. It measures the number of people who liked your video enough to check out your profile, or people who are curious to see what your brand is up to on the platform.
• Likes. The number of likes your videos received in the selected date range.
• Comments. The number of comments your videos received in the selected date range.
• Shares. The number of shares your videos received in the selected date range.
• Followers. The total tally of TikTok users that follow your account, and how that’s changed within the selected date range.
• Content. The number of videos you have shared in the selected date range.
• LIVE. The number of live videos you have hosted in the selected date range.

Content tab metrics

From the Content tab, you can measure video performance.

• Trending videos. Shows you your top nine videos with the fastest growth in viewership over the past seven days.
• Total video views. The number of times a TikTok video has been viewed.
• Total like count of a post. How many likes a post has received.
• Total number of comments. How many comments a post has received.
• Total shares. The number of times the post has been shared.
• Total play time. A cumulative total of the time people have spent watching your video. An individual post’s play time does not reveal much on its own, but can be compared with other posts’ performance to determine your account’s average total play time.
• Average watch time. The average amount of time people spent watching your video. This will give you a good indication of how successful you were at maintaining attention.
• Watched full video. The number of times the video has been watched in full.
• Reached audience. The total number of users who watched your video.
• Video views by section. Where traffic for your post comes from. Traffic sources include the For You feed, your profile, Following feed, sounds, searches, and hashtags. If you’re using hashtags or sounds to boost exposure, here’s where you’ll see how well that worked.
• Video views by region. This section displays the top locations of viewers for the post. If you created a post or marketing campaign for a specific location, this is how to tell if it reached them.

Followers tab metrics

Visit the Followers tab to learn about your audience. In addition to key audience demographic stats, you can also see your followers’ interests, making this section a good source for content inspiration.

• Gender. Here you will find the distribution of your followers by gender. If you’re happy with your niche, keep playing to your crowd.
• Top territories. Where your followers are from, ranked by country. Keep these places in mind if you’re looking to localize content and promotions. A maximum of five countries are listed here.
• Follower activity. This shows you the times and days that your followers are most active on TikTok. Look for when activity is consistently high, and post regularly in that time slot.
• Videos your followers watched. This section allows you to get a sense of the content that is most popular with your followers. Have a look at this section often to see if it sparks any ideas for content. It’s also a good place to scope out potential collaborators.
• Sounds your followers listened to. TikTok trends are often underscored by audio tracks, so check the top sounds your followers have listened to to see what’s popular. Trends move fast on TikTok, so if you use these results for ideas, plan for a quick turnaround.

If you’re looking to grow your audience (and see more action in the Followers tab), consider creating content with more universal appeal. Or consider influencer marketing and partner with a relevant creator to gain exposure with different communities. For example, a pet toy brand may wish to team up with a four-legged TikTok influencer like Crusoe the dachshund to reach his audience.

@crusoe_dachshund

Anyone need any gardening help this wkd? #dogsoftiktok #gardening #dachshunds #fy #gardendog

♬ Baby Elephant Walk – Henry Mancini

LIVE tab metrics

The LIVE tab shows the following stats for your live videos in the last 7 or 28 days.

• Total views. The total number of viewers present during your live videos in the selected date range.
• Total time. The total time you have spent hosting live videos in the selected date range.
• New followers. The number of new followers you gained while hosting a live video in the selected date range.
• Top viewer count. The most users 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 (in this stat, a viewer is only counted once, no matter how many times they replay the video).
• Diamonds. When you host a live video (and you’re 18+), viewers can send you virtual gifts, including “Diamonds.” You can exchange these diamonds for real money through TikTok—more info on that here. This stat shows how many diamonds you have earned in the selected date range.

Other TikTok Analytics

Hashtag views

The number of times posts with a given hashtag have been watched.

To see how many views a hashtag has received, search for the hashtag in the Discover tab. An overview of the search results will appear in the Top tab. From there, you’ll be able to see the number of views, related hashtags, and some of the top videos that use the tag.

Total likes

From your TikTok profile, you can see a grand total of the number of likes you’ve seen on all your content. This TikTok metric could be used for a rough estimate of average engagement.

TikTok engagement rates

There are different ways to calculate social media engagement rates, and TikTok is no different. These are the two primary formulas marketers use:

((Number of likes + Number of comments) / Number of Followers) * 100

or

((Number of likes + Number of comments + Number of shares) / Number of Followers) * 100

Since like and comment metrics are visible on the platform, you can easily see how your TikTok metrics compare with other accounts. Or scope out the engagement rates of influencers before teaming up with them. This is just one way you can make money on TikTok (and there’s three more strategies here).

Average engagement estimate

For a back-of-the-envelope estimate of an accounts’ average engagement, try the following.

1. From a profile, click Likes to see the full total.
2. Count the number of videos posted.
3. Divide likes by the number of videos.
4. Divide this number by the account’s total number of followers.
5. Multiply by 100.

Keep in mind that most engagement rate formulas include comments in addition to likes, so you shouldn’t compare these results with those calculations. But since it’s time-consuming to count overall comment totals, this formula can be used as a quick way to compare accounts in-house.

Grow your TikTok presence alongside your other social channels using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts for the best times, engage your audience, and measure performance. Try it free today.

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