TikTok Analytics, Explained
Brands can no longer ignore TikTok when it comes to influencer marketing. The platform’s unmatched algorithm presents a unique opportunity for content to go viral and reach millions of potential consumers, and TikTok creators are savvy about developing engaging video content that converts viewership to patronage.
Whether you’re launching a TikTok account for your brand or simply working with influencers on the platform to create branded content, you’ll want to understand TikTok’s available analytics and how to interpret them in order to perfect your TikTok marketing strategy. So let’s break down everything TikTok analytics!
How To Access TikTok Analytics
First thing’s first: how do you access TikTok analytics?
You’ll need a Creator or Business Account on TikTok (don’t worry, it’s free) to view analytics. Head’s up: you’ll only be able to access analytics for content after you sign up for a professional account, so go ahead, visit your settings, and switch ASAP so you’ll have access to metrics.
Now that you have your Creator or Business Account set up, go to Settings > Creator/Business Tools > Analytics, and you’ll be greeted with your Analytics overview.
Understanding Your Analytics Dashboard
There are 4 main tabs under your analytics: Overview, Content, Followers, and LIVE. Each tab provides important data for you to understand your account performance. Let’s take a deeper dive:
Overview
Overview shows the overarching trends of your account analytics over a given period of time (the default is “Last 7 Days”, but you can also view “Last 28 Days”, “Last 60 Days”, or enter a custom date range), including:
Engagement: how many times audiences are viewing and interacting with your account’s content *click the arrow to view this data represented in graph format*
Video Views: the total number of times all videos on your account were viewed
Profile Views: the number of times your profile was viewed
Likes: how many likes videos on your account have received
Comments: how many comments have been left on your videos
Shares: how many times your videos have been shared
Followers: how many followers your account has, including net gains
Content: how many TikToks you have published during the set time frame
Live: how many Live sessions you have hosted over the set time frame
Content
This is where you can see view numbers for recent posts and also find your Trending Videos.
The Video Posts section is pretty self-explanatory; it shows you all the videos you’ve posted in the past 7 days, their view numbers, and compares your number of posts to the previous 7 day period.
Below you’ll find the Trending Videos section, which is really valuable for you to understand what content of yours is performing best. This section shows the top 9 videos with the fastest growth in view numbers over the past 7 days.
How to use this data: Take a look at these videos and try to identify any trends or commonalities: maybe a certain topic you’re posting about is performing really well, or perhaps you started a trend that’s garnering a lot of engagement. Look at your popular videos and lean into that content!
Followers
This tab is where you can access demographics on your followers, as well as how your followers interact with other TikTok content.
First, you’ll see your follower count and growth rate over the past week. You can use this and the Followers information from the Overview tab to track increases in following.
Below, you’ll see a pie chart illustrating the gender of your followers.
Below that, you’ll see a percentage breakdown of where your followers are from, by country. Pro tip: Depending on where your followers are from, you may want to consider ensuring your content is accessible and relatable to international audiences (for example, adding translated captions if you have a large international following).
Further down, you’ll see Follower Activity that shows when your followers are most active on the platform, both by hour and by day.
Pro tip: this data is all recorded in UTC, so adjust for your time zone to understand when the best posting times are for your audience. (And if we’re being honest, we wouldn’t worry too much about posting at specific optimized times, as TikTok’s algorithm boosts content old and new alike to the “For You Page”).
LIVE
This tab specifically shares analytics regarding live stream content on TikTok. You have the option to view data for LIVE sessions either over the past 7 days or the past 28 days.
First, you’ll be provided with an overview of LIVE video data, including the number of LIVE videos hosted, the total number of views, new followers, total time of LIVE videos, and top viewer count.
Below that, you’ll also see how many unique viewers have watched your LIVE videos at least once.
Last, you’ll see how many “diamonds” (aka digital gifts viewers can send you during LIVE videos that can be redeemed for money) you’ve earned during LIVE videos.
Viewing Individual Video Analytics
Now that you have a better understanding of your account analytics, let’s talk analytics for specific videos!
To view your video’s analytics, click on your video and click the 3 dots on the lower right corner. One of your options will be “Analytics”, so go ahead and click that. You’ll now be able to see your video’s performance.
At the top, you’ll see 4 icons with numbers below each: a play button, a heart, a comment bubble, and an arrow:
The play button represents the total number of views the video has received.
The heart represents how many likes the video has received.
The comment bubble represents how many comments have been made under your video.
The arrow represents how many times the video has been shared (which includes link copies and DM shares).
The next section displays total play time (in hours), total views, the percentage of viewers who watched the full video, reached audience, and average watch time.
Pro tip: Average watch time is one of the most important metrics on TikTok and can make or break a video’s frequency on the FYP. A short average watch time means that viewers aren’t interested enough in the video’s content to watch through to the end, while a high one means your video is doing a great job keeping people engaged. Make note of your videos with high average watch times vs. low ones, and strategize different ways of getting information across if you’re seeing consistently low watch times.
The next section showcases traffic source types, meaning where your content is being seen on the app. Your viewers can find your videos from the following sources:
For You
Personal Profile
Following
Sound
Search
Hashtag
The last section shows audience territories for your specific video; in other words, where your viewers are from.
Now that you have a better understanding of TikTok’s analytics, you can now interpret content performance both from your brand’s account and from influencer partners and create a successful future TikTok strategy.
Have more questions about TikTok or interested in running a TikTok influencer campaign? Lytehouse can answer your questions.