TikTok analytics social media measurement benefits

Image source: TikTok

Many consider TikTok the up and coming social media network. The app features 15-second, looping videos, often teens dancing or performing short skits to music. It has been the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store and now boasts more than 500 million users.

Some innovative, mostly larger, brands are experimenting with the app, but most marketers remain unconvinced they need to buy into the shiny new thing. That’s likely at least partly because TikTok has lacked analytics — until now. TikTok recently launched its Pro Accounts that it says offers “new insights to avid creators,” those prolific users (brands and influencers) who want to see in-depth data about how their videos perform on the app.

How to Set up a Pro Account

With Pro Accounts, power users can view weekly and monthly views, follower growth, and trending videos.

To view the analytics, the first step is to set up a Pro Account. On your profile page, open the Privacy and Settings tab. Choose “Manage My Account.” Tap “Switch to Pro Account.”

Then select a category, such as Public Figure, Personal Blog, Education, Media or Entertainment. Enter a phone number for your account and then enter the code you receive via SMS. (There always seems to be some personal data you have to give up for platform analytics.)

After it’s set up, you’ll see an Analytics button under privacy and settings options. Tap that to view the analytics dashboard.

“We’re making this feature available to anyone who wants to enable it, and we can’t wait to see how our creator community uses this to bring their content creation to the next level,” TikTok states in its announcement.

The dashboard lacks historical data. It starts collecting data after you’ve set up a Pro Account, points out Lachlan Kirkwood, digital marketing specialist and the founder of Clickthrough.Marketing in Social Media Examiner. You’ll have to wait up to seven days for enough data to start displaying insights. Kirkwood recommends publishing as much content as possible during that time to gain deeper insights.

What’s in the TikTok Analytics Dashboard

The dashboard displays three main categories: profile overview, content insights, and follower insights, Kirkwood explains.

Profile overview shows total video views, profile views, and follower counts to indicate how well your profile is performing.

Content insights are probably the most valuable. Its top-level view displays total views of each video post from the past seven days, from newest to oldest. It also shows which of your videos have been trending on the For You page and the total number of views those videos accrue. It reveals data about individual posts, such as their like counts, total number of comments, shares, total play time, view, average watch time, traffic source types and audience territories.

Follower insights allow you to associate TikTok videos with overall account followers. By looking at the days you publish content and aligning that content to follower growth, you can gauge if your content was prompting users to follow your brand.

TikTok doesn’t provide data on accounts you don’t own. To obtain information on competitors and influencers, you can try Pentos, which taps publicly available profile data to display insights on TikTok accounts, Kirkwood says. Pentos also displays historic data. Sponsors of influencers can ask them for their TikTok analytics or, better yet, obtain access to their analytics dashboard via screen sharing to assure reporting accuracy.

“If you’ve been curious to try TikTok as a social channel, now is a great time to get started,” Kirkwood concludes. “With analytics finally accessible, you can easily monitor the results from the platform and iterate your approach accordingly.”

Bottom Line: New analytics tools may remove a significant roadblock to future TikTok growth. By examining analytics available through Pro Accounts, marketers can gauge the success of their TikTok videos and compare them to content on other channels.