September 28, 2022

Do You Know How To Measure Your Success On TikTok?

You can post all you want on a social platform, but it’s easy to get fooled into thinking those posts are getting more traction than they really are because you’re using the wrong data as a measuring stick. Worse, you may be misinterpreting the data and assume something other than reality. If TikTok is your platform of choice, keyword research portal Semrush has a number of suggestions on what to track to measure your success.

Engagement data to measure your success on TikTok on the Music 3.0 Blog

First understand that TikTok is still a growing platform. According to Statista, the platform: 

  • Is used by 57% of women around the world
  • Has 136.42 million users in the United States alone
  • Has users that spend over 19 hours watching posts every month
  • Increased first-time installs by 400% year over year between 2017 and 2021

But how do you measure TikTok success? Here’s what Semrush says to check out.

Total Time Watched 

“Total time watched is the cumulative amount of time people have spent watching your video. TikTok currently shows this information only for individual videos. The bummer is that if you want to determine your average total time watched across your account, you’ll need to collect this information on all of your videos first.

  • It’s important because: tracking this metric will allow you to evaluate how successful new content is compared to other videos you’ve posted in the past, or under certain hashtags. You can also use total time watched to provide context for other metrics such as views or engagements.
  • You can find it by: accessing the browser version of TikTok Analytics, ideally on a desktop. In Analytics, select the Content section and tap the video you want to analyze. You’ll find your total and average watch time for that post on the video details screen.

Engagement 

Unfortunately, TikTok analytics doesn’t offer just one engagement metric. Instead, the Analytics Overview screen includes video views, profile views, likes, comments, and shares during the analyzed period. 

  • It’s important because: it tells you how effectively your content connects with your audience. Additionally, the higher your engagement, the higher your reach is likely to be.
  • You can find it under: the engagement tile—which contains your account’s video and profile views, likes, comments and shares—on the Overview page in Analytics. You can also view engagement data for individual videos by navigating to that content and looking at the video details screen. 

Video Views 

Video views are the amount of times people have played your video. Unlike other platforms, TikTok counts a view from the moment a video begins to play. This metric also counts repeat plays, so if a user loops your video several times, each loop will be counted as a view. You can view this metric at the account level (for all of your content) and at the video level.

  • It’s important because: video views are counted from the moment they start, they’re essentially TikTok’s equivalent of an impression. Like impressions, video views tell you how effectively you’re putting content in front of your audience.
  • You can find it at: the account level, open TikTok Analytics. You can find your account’s video views in the Engagement tile. To see how many views a single video earned, open the video details. 

Hashtag Performance

Typically, this refers to how many viewers found your video via a certain hashtag. However, if you’re creating custom hashtags for your brand, you could also look at the number of videos posted under that hashtag to analyze its performance as well.

  • It’s important because: The hashtags you use on your videos can significantly impact your view count and engagement, so using the right ones is crucial. By tracking your video’s performance by hashtag, you can make more strategic choices and attract more viewers. (Additionally, if you’re trying to create a custom hashtag to help your audience connect with your brand, it’s extremely helpful to know how much traction it’s earned.)
  • You can find it at: the video details screen under “Video views by section.” If you want to see the performance of a hashtag in and of itself, simply look up the hashtag on TikTok. Its views will be displayed to the right of the hashtag.”

If you really want to measure your success on a social platform, knowing just what to measure is the critical element.


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