What TikTok metrics you need to track for TikTok marketing in 2024

If you haven’t been minding your TikTok metrics, now’s the time to start.

Especially as the app booms as a brand discovery and shopping channel. From organic and paid promotions to influencers and Shop, tracking TikTok analytics is a must-do for marketers.

The problem? Content moves fast on TikTok and the algorithm demands a high volume of videos.

But that’s all the more reason to keep a better pulse on your performance!

By knowing what’s working and what’s not, you can optimize your videos and strategy with confidence. Below we break down which TikTok metrics to prioritize and how to track them.

What are TikTok metrics?

TikTok metrics are data points that measure your videos’ performance and audience engagement. Through tracking metrics, you can uncover new opportunities to earn more views, fine-tune your TikTok marketing strategy and reach your target audience more effectively.

Like most social media metrics, you can track account-level and video-level analytics.

Here’s a snapshot of a few key TikTok metrics you can see natively in the app:

Growing and going viral on TikTok doesn’t happen totally by accident. Tracking performance goes hand in hand with higher engagement and understanding what viewers want from you.

What are the most valuable TikTok metrics for TikTok marketing?

Good question!

The performance insights provided by TikTok’s native analytics are a valuable source of information. Having a list of priority TikTok metrics can keep you from getting too into the weeds with your analytics.

Defining the best metrics to track will vary based on your goals. That said, below are a handful of the most important TikTok metrics to track regardless of your audience or industry. We’ll also highlight what these metrics look like when tracked using Sprout Social.

• Engagement rate. This video metric measures the ratio of views to interactions (likes, comments, replies, shares and saves). Increasing TikTok engagement goes hand-in-hand with greater reach and visibility within the app’s algorithm.

• Views. This metric measures the amount of times a video was watched. Keep in mind that TikTok views are counted as soon as a video starts or is automatically looped. Understanding which videos are earning the most views can highlight trending topics and future opportunities to create high-ranking content. Increasing your engagement rate and getting more views on TikTok can create a snowball effect of greater reach.
• Followers growth. This account-level metric measures the rate at which your audience is growing based on the number of followers you’ve gained. While followers aren’t the most important TikTok metric on their own, increasing TikTok followers organically is a good sign. On the flip side, stagnant growth can be a signal to adjust your content strategy.

• Click-through rate. This TikTok ad metric reflects how many people are tapping through and engaging with your ads versus total viewer impressions. Low click-through rates can be a sign of poor campaign targeting or ad creatives. On the flip side, strong click-through rates mean your ads are resonating with your target audience.
• Shares. This metric tracks how often people repost your content or share videos independently with other users. Shares are a valuable TikTok metric for B2C brands by highlighting products featured in videos that are being bookmarked and discussed among viewers.
• Audience demographics. This is a collection of TikTok metrics that covers the demographics (including the age, location and gender) of your viewership. Your social media demographics should reflect your target audience.
• Trending hashtags. This metric measures how often hashtags are used on TikTok. For example, you can see which hashtags result in the most reach and engagement for your individual videos. You can also find trending hashtags in TikTok’s Creative Center to understand which topics are trending across the app.

How to find TikTok metrics in the TikTok app

You can use TikTok analytics to highlight a wide variety of account-level and video-level metrics.

Next, we’ll cover in-depth what you can measure and where in the app to find these numbers.

TikTok Key metrics

Key metrics provide a big-picture overview of your account and recent content’s performance.

Here’s how to access them within your TikTok profile:

• From your profile, tap the ☰ menu. Select “Creator tools.”
• Then, tap “View all” to see your account-level analytics in more detail (“Overview”).
• In the “Overview” tab, you’ll see your TikTok Key metrics broken down by date range. You can view these metrics in 7-day, 28-day or 60-day increments (or set a custom timeframe).

TikTok metrics covered in this section of your analytics include:

• Post views. This is how many times your posts were viewed.
• Likes. This is the number of likes on your profile.
• Comments. This is the number of comments your posts received.
• Total views. This is the number of people who viewed your posts.
• Shares. The number of times your posts were shared.

TikTok Content metrics

TikTok content metrics provide a video-level overview of your content’s reach and performance.
Here’s how to access them within your TikTok profile:

• From your profile, tap the ☰ menu. Select “Creator tools.”
• Then, tap “View all.”
• Select the “Content” tab (to the right of “Overview”).
• You’ll see a list of videos titled “Trending posts.” According to TikTok: “These are the top 9 posts with the fastest growth within the last 7 days.”
• Select an individual video.

Under the “Video analysis” summary, you’ll see icons reflecting the following TikTok metrics for an individual video: likes, saves, comments, shares and saves.

You can drill down even further for individual videos by selecting the “Overview” tab.

Here’s a snapshot of the TikTok content metrics you can find in this dashboard:

• Total play time. The cumulative amount of time viewers spent watching your video.
• Average watch time. The average time people spent watching your video.
• Watched full video %: The percentage of people who finished your entire video.
• New followers. This is the number of viewers who started following you after interacting with your video.
• Video views. This is the number of views your video earned. This is measured hourly for the first 48 hours up until 7 days after a video is posted.
• Retention rate. This is the percentage of your viewers who are still watching your video at a particular time (measured in a range of seconds).
• Traffic sources: This is where people find your video, including sources such as TikTok search or the “For You” page.

By selecting the “Viewers” tab, you can dive into viewer-level analytics for a video.

• Total viewers. This is the total number of unique viewers for a video. This TikTok metric was formerly known as “Reached audience.”
• Viewer types (new vs returning viewers, non-followers vs. followers). This breaks down your audience into segments based on past engagement.
• Gender. This is the defined gender breakdown of a video’s viewers.
• Age. This is the defined age breakdown of a video’s viewers.
• Location. This is the defined geographic location breakdown of a video’s viewers.

Finally, you can find even more data under the “Engagement” tab:

• Top words used in comments. This measures most frequently words and phrases that appear in your TikTok comments.
• Likes. This measures the percentage of people who liked your videos at a particular point (measured in seconds) within a video.

TikTok Follower metrics

TikTok Follower metrics provide an overview of your account and audience growth over time.

Here’s how to access them within your TikTok account:

• From your profile, tap the ☰ menu. Select “Creator tools.”
• Then, tap “View all.”
• Select the “Followers” tab (to the right of “Content”).

Here’s a snapshot of what you can see within your TikTok follower metrics. Keep in mind that you need at least 100 followers to have full access to this data:

• Total followers. This is the total number of people following your account for a specified period.
• Net followers. This shows the net number of followers gained in a selected date range and comparison with the previous period.
• Follower insights. This is a demographic breakdown of your followers.
• Most active times. This is the average time your followers are active on TikTok broken down by hours and days.

How to use TikTok metrics to achieve your goals on TikTok

All of the data above can be eye-opening, especially when it comes to your audience and top-performing content.

But how do you turn your TikTok metrics into action?

To wrap things up, here are three ways to translate your data into actual business impact.

1. Uncover top-performing video formats

As noted earlier, content moves fast on TikTok.

Marketers have to experiment to figure out what works and what doesn’t. This means publishing videos of varying lengths and formats with different creative edits. For example, do your viewers engage with unpolished and off-the-cuff content? Do they prefer shorter-form or longer videos?

Answering these questions and beyond starts by looking at your TikTok metrics. Rather than frantically scrambling for video ideas, you can use your numbers to guide you toward video formats that resonate with your audience.

You can make your metrics part of a TikTok audit to assess your overall content strategy. Chances are you’ll find outliers and common trends between videos that earn the highest engagement and watch times. TikTok’s trending content tab makes it especially easy to find these videos in a matter of seconds. You can use these insights to repeat successful formats again and again.

2. Find a posting frequency that maximizes reach and engagement

Compared to other platforms, TikTok’s content demands can feel aggressive and daunting.

However, businesses and brands don’t necessarily need to overwhelm themselves to find an “optimal” publishing frequency on TikTok.

In fact, your native TikTok metrics are the best indicators for the best times to post on TikTok and how many videos per week earn the most engagement based on your individual audience.

Given how stretched marketing teams are right now, you have to allocate your time and resources carefully. Rather than meet some arbitrary daily posting requirement, consider that you can earn as much (if not more) engagement by cutting your posting frequency in half. You’ll never know until you look at your numbers.

3. Clarify and align your brand’s TikTok goals

Some brands are active on TikTok “just because.”

Of course, adopting a social platform for the sake of it is a recipe for off-course content and poor performance.

Consider how you can align your social media goals with your TikTok metrics and presence. For example, are you purely building brand awareness? Driving conversions and traffic?

Your goals will ultimately determine which metrics you benchmark and measure over time. Not to mention how you approach your content and engagement strategy. This again highlights why it’s important to have your priority TikTok metrics available at a glance to make decisions holistically.

Have you dug into your TikTok metrics yet?

Tracking TikTok metrics is still unexplored territory for many businesses and brands.

But there’s so much you can learn from your data if you take the time to dig into it. From driving leads to building awareness, a pulse on your numbers can help you move the needle ASAP.

If you haven’t already, check out how Sprout Social’s TikTok integration helps brands manage their TikTok analytics and content from end to end.