There was a time where TikTok (then Musical.ly) had zero analytics other than video views and engagements. Now, there’s a wealth of statistics that have reached the platform to help users accurately analyze their content and channel. There’s a few statistics in particular that are a godsend to be able to push forward your overarching strategy and make sure your channel is evolving based on the data, not opinion.
Retention Rate
Retention rate is a no-brainer for TikTok analytics, but it’s often overlooked. You find your retention rate in the analytics of individual videos and it shows you where the audience dropped off throughout your video. When looking at it, you’ll be able to see exactly where the viewers lost interest and therefore be able to decide what you can do to stop that from happening (or, at the least, delay it to have a longer retention rate.
If your retention rate drops after the first few seconds, have a look at what you’re doing in the first few frames to hook your audience in. Is it bland, unengaging or boring? We definitely want to change that by bringing in more aesthetically pleasing visuals, more on screen captions to give the audience context on what they’re going to see, or a storyline they can follow. If you’re finding a video is 30 seconds long and has a 50% retention rate, could you trim down the video to 15 seconds to give yourself a higher retention rate? The stronger your retention, the more likely the algorithm will push your content on the For You Page
New Followers
Looking at what videos brought in the most new organic followers will be a sure fire way to understand what type of content is generating the ultimate engagement. At the end of the day, if you can create content that viewers on the For You Page are enjoying your content so much that they click follow, then you’ll be able to sustainably grow your followers whilst still giving your community content that they love you for.
Naturally this statistic will fluctuate - not every single video will have the followers flooding in, but if you can navigate your content strategy off the back of that statistic, you’re onto a good thing.
Video views…but not as you know them
Obviously video views are a great statistic to look at, but let’s take it one step further. On each individual video, you can actually see WHEN the video views have come in. It’s been known that TikTok videos have a lifespan of up to 70 days, so you can be strategic with the timing of your post to benefit from SEO spikes which, in turn, will generate more views in the long run.
Let’s say, for example, you post about Christmas in November and you use plenty of SEO terms to do with the festive period. You could benefit from multiple spikes of viewership throughout the leadup of Christmas just by timing it well and having great SEO in place.
By having the above strategy, you’ll be able to increase your views over time which will increase your discoverability and put you at the forefront of the audiences’ For You Pages.
Timing of engagements
Wouldn’t it be great to know at what point in the video the viewers had engaged? Well, with TikTok analytics, you can! Being able to see when the audience has shown their appreciation for your post is an incredibly powerful tool. By seeing the timestamp of when people have engaged, you can see what actually happened at that point within the video. You can then make sure that you either; do more of that to increase your chances of having more people engage, you can make sure you’re bringing in that element into every single piece of content you produce to encourage the audience to engage with your content consistently, or bring that element in sooner within the video to ensure that the audience doesn’t have to wait too long to get to the part they love.
All in all, there’s a tonne of ways you can use the TikTok analytics to your advantage, but focussing on your individual video statistics to start with will massively help you enhance your content strategy and create a solid community.