TikTok was originally released to the world in 2018, but it took two years and a global quarantine to make the platform a household name. It now has 800 million active users—30 million of them live in the U.S.—and ranks as the sixth largest social network in the world.
TikTok is popular because it’s fun to use. Now that it offers analytics to ProAccount users, you can track that fun and harness it to connect with customers and promote your brand. Here’s what you need to know about TikTok analytics.
How to Navigate the TikTok Dashboard
To access TikTok analytics, you need a ProAccount. You can switch over to a ProAccount under the Privacy and Settings Tab on your profile page. After making the switch, you’ll get a new analytics button under your account options.
The app starts tracking data the day you switch to a ProAccount, so you won’t see anything for at least a week. When the data is available, you’ll find it sorted into three categories: Overview, Followers and Content. You’ll click on these tabs to see more details about the >metrics.
Overview Data
The Overview section gives you a summary of your account’s performance. You can view the data available for the last seven days or the last 28 days. Here’s what you see:
- Video Views is the number of times a video was viewed. You see this information on a bar graph for each day.
- Followers is the number of people following your account. This information is shown on a line graph.
- Profile Views is the number of times someone viewed your profile each day during the time period. Like the Video Views metric, this data is displayed on a bar graph.
This information is helpful as you make big picture decisions like when and how often to post. For example, a boost in your video views each Sunday or on the last weekend of the month may indicate that your target audience is most active on those days. As you plan your next campaign, schedule posts for those popular periods.
It also lets you monitor the overall performance of your account. If you notice an upward trend in your number of followers and profile views, you should take a closer look at the type of content you’re posting. The increased number of followers may mean they’re interested in what you’re sharing.
Followers Data
The Followers section provides a look at your audience, how it is growing over time and what it’s doing within the platform. You can see its gender split displayed in a pie graph and location on a bar graph with percentages.
On their own, these are interesting tidbits about your audience. When you compare the metrics to other data like video views, traffic sources and followers, you start to learn the types of content that lead to greater engagement and brand awareness.
Say you noticed a surge in your number of followers. If you dig a little deeper, you may notice that these followers are concentrated in a specific country or decided to follow you after you shared a particular video. You can then post similar content to see if the trend continues.
Content Data
For digital marketers, TikTok saved the best metrics for last. In the Content section, you’ll get access to data about each post. When you click on an individual post, you can see the following details:
- Number of likes, comments and shares tells you how many people liked your video, left a comment on it or shared with others.
- Total play time is the cumulative number of minutes or hours people have viewed your video.
- Total number of views is the cumulative number of people who looked at your video.
- Average watch time lets you know how long viewers watched the video.
- Traffic source tells you how users found your post (For You feed, your profile, Following feed, searches).
- Viewer location is the top location of your posts’ viewers.
With this data, you can determine the content your audience wants to see—and what they’re likely to skip. Look for indicators of engagement: the posts with the greatest numbers of comments and shares. That’s what you want to repeat.
Putting It All Together
When you combine data from TikTok analytics, you have powerful information about your TikTok audience and how you can connect with them. You may notice, for example, that posts about your kitchen fails are being shared the most on weekends or that your yoga hashtag challenge brought in a number of new followers from South America. This helps you create and curate content for successful TikTok marketing campaigns.
