Updated on April 2022
As last year’s #1 most popular iPhone app download and with more than 1 billion active monthly users, TikTok is a powerful force in the world of social media marketing.
Many brands and marketers, however, showed reluctance about jumping on board the TikTok train until recently. It’s different. It’s younger. It’s unexpected. And for many marketers, it’s the great unknown
Fortunately, TikTok analytics provides you with everything you need to develop success on its platform. Its analytics program can help refine your content for premium reach, engagement, and conversions on the platform.
In this guide, we show you how to use all of TikTok’s analytics and insights, including:
- Content insights on TikTok Pro
- Advertising insights on TikTok Business Center
- Ad insights for Agencies on TikTok Business Center
- Brand resources on TikTok Business Center
We also step you through creating your TikTok Pro, TikTok For Business, and TikTok Business Center accounts (all easy-peasy and free!).
Guide To TikTok Analytics For Marketers
Why TikTok Matters To Marketers
How To Access TikTok Content Analytics
How TikTok Pro Content Analytics Differ
Inside TikTok Pro Content Analytics
New! TikTok For Business Self-Serve Ads And Insights
New! TikTok Business Center Customizable Analytics
Why TikTok Matters To Marketers
Released in 2016, TikTok was the most downloaded app of 2021.
With more than one billion active monthly users, the platform now gives its main competitor, Instagram (estimated 1.4 billion users), a run for its money — while massively outnumbering some of the internet’s longest-running social platforms such as Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, and Snapchat.
TikTokkers flock to the app to create short-form videos that express what they’re feeling and thinking, watch and join in on simple challenges, and connect to a community that collectively seeks to pursue laughter and lighthearted joy as part of their daily routines.
Whether participating in dance crazes, current event commentary, pranks, or DIY videos, TikTokkers willingly let their guards down to form genuine connections on the social media network.
During quarantine, TikTok was a favorite platform for many people needing a lift or connection to real people during the isolation, and that momentum continues.
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“We’re all just kind of going through it all together,” said content creator Ariel Martin, “and we happen to be documenting it all on TikTok.”
Many brands and marketers spend their waking lives trying to create on other platforms what TikTok is already filled with — a human connection.
Brands that are ready and willing to form a genuine connection on a community-centered social media platform should get to know TikTok.
One of the best examples of TikTok tools for brands is its content analytics platform, available only to TikTok Pro members.
In this article, we’ll show you how TikTok analytics works and how you can use it to achieve marketing goals such as increasing conversions, boosting your brand reach, and growing your audience.
How To Access TikTok Content Analytics
There are a couple of ways to access your brand’s TikTok content analytics.
Sharelov provides a streamlined way to quickly view and share your top marketing metrics. You can access the insights instantly and even download or share them with team members.
You can check out TikTok analytics on Sharelov today with a free 14-day trial. Sign up right now and follow along as we walk you through the steps below!
TikTok Pro provides in-depth analytics for brands that need to dig beyond typical marketing priorities and into the minute details of content performance.
Below, you’ll find step-by-step instructions for both Sharelov and TikTok Pro analytics programs.
How To Instantly View TikTok Analytics On Sharelov
Sharelov’s TikTok analytics makes markers’ jobs easier with immediate listings of the top metrics you need to meet brand objectives.
The interface is super user-friendly and saves a lot of time for marketers who like to check their metrics daily.
To view your brand’s TikTok metrics on Sharelov, select the “Analytics” tab from your dashboard, then select the “TikTok” filter.
TikTok Daily Metrics
Keeping close tabs on your analytics helps you closely monitor the progress of your brand’s content and interactions.
Most teams don’t have the time to scour the hundreds of pieces of data available on TikTok Pro daily. Instead, you can use Sharelov to conduct a daily overview of your top Instagram metrics.
Consider monitoring the following TikTok post metrics on a daily basis:
- Total fans
- Total likes
- Engagements
- Impressions
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Top 5 Posts (chart view only)
To view these stats select “Analytics” from the main menu, then “Summary” from the submenu.
The analytics Summary tab instantly gives you an overview of your brand’s overall performance on Instagram, and can be viewed as a list or chart.
List View allows you to instantly review your top metrics.
Chart View provides you with more detail and context.
In Chart View, you can access your Top 5 Posts rated by engagement or recency.
Top 5 Posts by engagement
Top 5 Posts by recency
In Chart View, you can also access more details about your Top Posts with a single click.
Clicking on any of your Top Posts opens a detailed view of that post’s metrics. The Repost button also allows you to share the content to another campaign.
Daily reviews of your brand’s performance on TikTok only take a minute or two.
Those couple minutes provide you with a significant advantage, though, because frequent monitoring lets you and your team know if your content is on the right track.
TikTok Post Metrics
Monitoring your TikTok post metrics shows you how well your campaigns and posts are performing. This lets you create more of the type of content your audience likes, interacts with, and shares with their friends.
The most helpful metrics for monitoring your post performance are:
- Engagement rate
- Comments
- Reach
- Total engagements
- Total reactions
To find these metrics, go to the Posts subsection of your Sharelov Analytics dashboard. This section provides you with detailed metrics for all your TikTok posts.
Using the All Metrics view allows you to scroll through individual posts, with the top metrics for each displayed in an easy-to-review format.
You can filter posts to display by date, or according to engagement rates, comments, reach, total engagements, or total reactions.
In the Highlights view, you can also filter to display posts by comments, most recent, and most engaging.
Highlights view provides you with more analytics.
Click on any post to pull up in-depth metrics on its content performance, view and reply to comments, or repost to another campaign.
Reviewing your post metrics on a regular basis lets you know how well each piece of content is performing.
You can also discover what days of the week and what time of day your audience is most likely to interact with your content, so you can publish TikTok posts at the best times for high engagement.
Follow these analytics closely to learn what type of posts your audience responds to, so you can create more highly-engaging content!
How To View Analytics In TikTok Pro
TikTok analytics provides brands and businesses with detailed metrics on their profile activity, content performance, and audience behavior.
Source: TikTok
The full analytics program can only be accessed through a Pro Account, but converting your current account to a Pro account is free and only takes a moment (and we show you how below).
TIP: Please access TikTok Pro directly, and never click on any texts that prompt you to download the app. Texts with links to download the app are a scam, according to a recent report by Business Insider.
What Is A TikTok Pro Account?
The Pro Account is an upgraded version of a standard TikTok account, created for brands that want to grow their audience and better-engage communities on its platform.
You must convert to a Pro Account if you wish to use the full analytics program.
How To Set Up A TikTok Pro Account And Access Analytics
Signing up for a TikTok Pro account is free and only takes a few moments.
From your mobile device:
- Open the Privacy and Settings tab from your profile page.
- Select “Manage My Account.”
- Select “Switch to Pro Account.”
- Follow the instructions to get started.
Now, you can access TikTok insights through the analytics button in your account options, on mobile and desktop.
How TikTok Pro Content Analytics Differ From Other Social Media Insights
If you’re familiar with other social media analytics and insights programs, you’ll easily find your way around TikTok’s platform. It’s very similar to the look and feel of Instagram Insights, making onboarding easy and intuitive for your whole team.
There are a couple of ways TikTok differs from some other social media insights programs. Before you begin viewing the metrics, get familiar with the following three traits.
1. You Can Only View Data From the past 7 (sometimes 28) Days
On TikTok, some metrics only show 7 days’ worth of data, while other insights allow you a peek into the past 7 and/or 28-days.
TikTok allows you to download your data, so that, over time, you can build your own database for reviewing insights over the course of months and years.
For example, if you want to view bi-weekly or quarterly progress, you can download your TikTok Analytics into a CSV file from a desktop computer.
Then, just add the data to a spreadsheet such as Excel or Google Sheets, which will allow you to save your data for deeper insights over time.
2. Time Frames Are In UTC Time Only
When you’re reviewing metrics related to the time of day (such as when your followers are online), keep in mind that TikTok analytics are not presented in your local time zone.
Remember to convert times to your own zone before interpreting or evaluating time-related data.
Source: World Server
World Time Server is free to use and provides several options for converting schedules to your preferred zone.
3. The “Videos Your Followers Watched” Section Is Awesome!
Don’t skip over this section too fast, or you’ll miss some fantastic audience insights!
“Videos Your Followers Watched” helps you discover what trending content your audience watches, plus grants you access to details such as captions, hashtags, comments, and like/share counts.
Learning what your audience responds to outside of your brand page helps you determine what’s prompting your audience to watch and engage with videos.
Use the information to create more of what your followers crave!
Inside TikTok Pro Content Analytics
In this section, we take you through a tour of the metrics provided in the TikTok Pro analytics program.
TikTok’s content analytics dashboard contains three main sections:
- Overview: general information about your views and followers
- Content: detailed information about how your audience responds to your content
- Followers: information about what your audience is doing on TikTok
The tabs provide you with enough information to determine what type of content your audience enjoys, when the best posting times are, and how well your content is performing.
Overview Tab
The Overview Tab provides general information about your views and followers. You can view metrics from either the past seven days or the past 28 days.
- Video views: the total number of times your videos were viewed
- Followers: your total number of followers
- Profile Views: How many times your profile was viewed
Data in the Overview section provides insights into your brand reach and how well your videos are performing.
You can use data from the Overview section to gauge the effectiveness of your TikTok marketing.
TIP: Use the data from your Overview section to find out how well your follower base is growing from week to week. To boost your brand reach and add more followers, create new content that’s similar to your highest-performing videos.
Content Tab
The content tab reveals your top 9 videos based on the fastest growth in viewing numbers over the past 7 days.
When you tap on any video in this section, it brings up additional details about that video, such as:
- # of likes, comments, and shares
- Total play time
- Total views
- Average watch time
- Traffic source types
- Audience territories
TIP: Use metrics from the Content section to learn whether you’re reaching people in your target area and find out whether your videos are effectively entertaining people.
For example, if your average watch time is low, it could mean you have a great caption but that the video doesn’t deliver entertainment quick enough. Moving more actionable parts of your video to the earlier sections can help pull people in and keep them engaged.
Followers Tab
Followers: Learn how many followers you’ve gained or lost in the past 7 days and view your current follower count.
- Gender: Find out what percent of men versus what percent of women make up your audience.
- Top Territories: Discover what country your followers are logging in from with a bar graph that shows how well you’re reaching your target location.
- Follower Activities: Determine what time of day your followers are most likely to log in.
- Videos Your Followers Watched: Find out what trending content your audience is watching on TikTok!
- Sounds Your Followers Listened to: Discover your followers’ favorite songs and sounds for the past seven days.
This section shows you thumbnails of top videos for your audience, along with the title, author, caption, and number of likes-comments-shares for each video.
Sounds Your Followers Listened to: Discover your followers’ favorite songs and sounds for the past seven days.
TikTok Pro Tips
Engage your audience and get more TikTok followers by creating more of the kind of videos they like to watch. Use soundtracks that are popular with your audience!
Increase your conversions by increasing TikTok traffic from your target region, for example, by placing regionally-targeted ads and posting at times in your target time zone.
Determine the best times to post by reviewing your follower activities to learn when your audience is most likely online. Remember to convert to your local time from the UTC times listed!
Separate from TikTok Pro, TikTok For Business and Business Center provides brands with a full suite of services to help place and track ad performance.
In the next section, we show you around the New! TikTok For Business and Business Center, which provide robust analytic capabilities and customizable dashboards for advertisers.
New! TikTok For Business Self-Serve Ads And Insights
Now Available In The U.S., TikTok For Business now provides self-serve advertising tools for brands in over 20 regions, including a full suite of customizable ad performance analytics — plus a wide range of resources to help you create successful campaigns.
Source: TikTok For Business
The Difference Between TikTok Pro And TikTok For Business
TikTok Pro (covered in the first half of this article) provides content analytics.
TikTok For Business, released in July 2020, provides self-serve ad placement, resources, and analytics for advertisers.
- TikTok For Business allows brands to place ads on TikTok and its network according to their marketing objectives.
The platform also provides creative guidance and resources to help make your ad campaigns a success. - TikTok Business Center provides a full suite of personalized, customizable advertising analytics for solo-run businesses, teams, and agencies.
TikTok For Business Self-Serve Advertising
TikTok’s new ad platform allows you to budget, purchase, place, and target audiences as easily as you can on rival platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.
Like many other platforms, TikTok requires advertisers to select ad objectives, which help determine what types of ads you’ll place, where they’ll get placed, and who will see them.
Some of the ad objectives you can choose from include:
- Reach: Make your ad visible to as many people as possible
- Traffic: Send traffic to your website, ad, or landing page. You can also create a custom audience for targeted traffic, for example if you want to reach people who previously installed your app.
- App Installs: Persuade viewers to download your app
- Video Views: Send viewers to your video content
- Conversions: Drive specific actions such as newsletter signup, special offers, or purchases
When placing ads, you’ll find several helpful options, such as:
- Split testing: Create an A/B test and try different ad strategies to see which bring the best results.
- Automated Creative Optimization: Skip the A/B testing and allow artificial intelligence to discover the highest-performing combinations of your creative assets.
- Budget or No Limit: Set a daily limit or a lifetime limit on the spending for this campaign. Once you’ve reached the limit, your ads will stop running. Or, select “no limit” to manually supervise your ad spending.
- Intelligent Optimization Tool: Automatically changes the aspect ratios of any video to the parameters needed for the TikTok platform. Upload your non-qualifying videos and allow this tool to do all the work for you!
TikTok’s Intelligent Optimization Tool in action
Source: TikTok Business
Additionally, the ad platform provides you with advanced audience targeting options, such as Shared and Lookalike audience placement.
TikTok’s Audience Estimate Overview helps you gauge the size and selection of your audience as you’re placing your ads.
Also good to know is that if you’re targeting an audience that’s already visited your website, or when running an ad campaign that drives viewers to your website, you’ll need to install TikTok Pixel on your website.
TikTok Pixel is an HTML code that tracks user behavior on your website. Pixel helps brands:
- Measure campaign performance
- Tailor ad delivery to users who are most likely to interact on your site
- Target ad audiences and lookalike audiences based on behavior such as when they dropped out of your funnel
To set up TikTok Pixel on your website, you must be able to answer “yes” to these two questions:
- Do you have a website for your business or brand?
- Are you able to edit your site’s theme or code?
The TikTok Pixel Helper (Chrome Plugin) can assist you in testing your Pixel install by confirming that you’ve installed it correctly.
Pixel is mandatory for businesses wanting to evaluate the relationship between TikTok and their website.
TikTok For Business provides sophisticated ad targeting and placement in a simple format that’s easy to use. Its tools, testing, and AI-learning features provide advertisers with plenty of ways to ensure a solid return on their advertising dollars.
You can get yourself, your team, or your agency enrolled by signing up for free on the TikTok For Business site.
TikTok Business Center Customizable Analytics For Advertisers
The TikTok Business Center (bookmark it!) is the central hub for accessing analytics and managing your account, allowing you to:
- Manage multiple accounts and users
- Create new accounts
- Grant permissions to external partners
- Access your analytics with customized dashboards
Source: TikTok Business Center
Before you can access the Business Center and analytics program, you’ll need to create your own Business Center account (separate from TikTok Business).
How To Create Your Own TikTok Business Center Account
- Go to TikTok Business Center and click the “Enter Business Center” button in the upper right corner of the page.
- Create a Business Center name and choose your time zone. The time zone applies to data analysis, so select the zone that you prefer for viewing your data.
- Upload a profile image.
You can create and manage multiple ad accounts (called “assets”) from your Business Center dashboard. Agencies should choose the agency option, which provides additional features.
Each Business Center can add up to 150 accounts.
To assign your team to different ad accounts, enter the account number and request that the account admin grant approval. The admin receives the request by email, where they can also confirm the addition.
Once an ad account is approved, you can add individual members to it by inviting them via email.
Assigning Permissions
With TikTok Business Center, you’re allowed to designate people to act on your behalf by assigning permissions. There are two levels of permission:
- Business Center permissions: Admin or standard roles
- Add Account permissions: Admin, operator, or analyst roles
Getting Your Agency Set Up
Business Center for agencies is a version of TikTok Business Center that allows agencies to tailor settings for multiple clients. Each account can create up to 50 Business Centers.
Inside TikTok Business Center Analytics
The Business Center provides you with in-depth analytics for your TikTok ads, including a big-picture view on the dashboard and micro-data on the Campaign pages.
Customizable Insights Dashboards
The main dashboard, or Overview tab, provides several essential data, including:
- “Active” or “Not Delivering” status of campaigns, ad groups, and ads
- Performance metrics
- Downloading and exporting of chart data
- Customizing your own format with column displays
The top half of the overview dashboard provides you with general data and trends related to your ads, including costs, engagement data, and conversion metrics.
Scroll down past the main dashboard and you’ll find fully-customizable data tables for Campaign, Gender, Placements, and Operating System.
Each table provides several data filtering options.
The Campaign dashboard displays in-depth information about your campaigns, ad groups, and ads. Its customizable features allow you to:
- Create and save custom campaign filters for later viewing
- Customize and save columns with Custom Columns, which lets you prioritize metrics in a drag and drop interface.
- Open detailed campaign metrics with View Data to learn more about your ad, ad groups, or campaign’s audience and performance data. You can customize time periods and tailor the display to daily or hourly data reporting.
Source: TikTok Business Center
- Build visual charts. Turn your most important metrics (“dimensions”), into one visual chart. For example, you might display total cost, click rate, conversion rate, or clicks.
- View ad performance by audience. The breakdown tab allows you to sort performance data by audience indicators such as age, interests, and location.
In a world where new launches tend to roll out in bits and pieces – slowly – TikTok’s Business Center is a refreshing surprise. Its treasure trove of analytic capabilities and helpful resources will surprise any visitor expecting a small-scale beta rollout.
Additional TikTok Business Resources
In addition to all its tools and abilities, both the Business and Business Center programs offer a wealth of creative and help guide resources for data-driven advertisers.
TikTokkers don’t want to view traditional advertising, so it’s essential that marketers understand how to create “TikToks” instead of “ads.”
Fortunately, the Business Center provides plenty of resources, creative inspiration, case studies, and examples to help you get started.
TikTok business blog publishesTikTok updates, news, and brand case studies.
TikTok Creator Marketplace connects brands with influencers and provides additional analytics to track influencer campaigns.
TikTok Learning Center provides training videos that walk you through topics such as AB split testing and how to monitor your ad performance through analytics.
TikTok For Business Learning Center
TikTok Business Help Center answers all your questions about ads, billing, account management, and performance metrics.
TikTok Business Help Center
TikTok Business Center is a candy store for marketers who rely on analytics to drive better ad performance.
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Its robust metrics, coupled with drag-n-drop customizable viewing charts, make TikTok’s ad analytics simple, quick and effective for marketers.
Why Use TikTok Analytics
Social media insights, or “analytics,” help businesses learn more about their audience by showing them how people respond to their social content and advertising.
Analytics are a combination of metrics that tell you who’s viewing and interacting with your content and how you can create more of what engages your audience.
The content analytics on TikTok Pro help you increase engagement, reach new audiences, and discover more about what your audience loves.
Advertising metrics on TikTok Business Center help you target the right audience and create the best type of content for high-performing ads.
Optimize your marketing and ad campaigns by taking advantage of TikTok’s analytic capabilities. We think you’ll love the easy interface and customizable tables!
TikTok Analytics Helps Marketers Reach Their Goals
TikTok’s rapid yet steady growth over the past couple of years makes it more likely that marketers will include the platform in their social media strategies for 2022.
Like any social media platform, measuring content and ad metrics is the best way to build success and measure ROI.
TikTok’s analytics programs are sophisticated yet simple to view and customize.
Marketers wanting to track content metrics can access them on TikTok Pro, while customizable advertising analytics are available on TikTok Business Center, which supports TikTok For Business.
TikTok’s new Business platforms provide a large library of resources to help marketers utilize insights to their advantage and create successful content and ads.