In recent years, TikTok has taken the world by storm. Among all social media platforms, it has become the most popular among young consumers, as well as the one where people spend most of their time. As of 2023, the average American adult will spend 55.8 minutes per day on TikTok, more than on YouTube. This is quite an accomplishment for a young social network to surpass its competitors in just five years.
A greater achievement is that TikTok's posts have the highest engagement rate per post of all social networks. User-friendly creative tools, the increased popularity of short videos, and the platform's potential for virality all encourage users to interact with uploaded content. A growing number of brands leverage the viral and engagement potential of TikTok influencers to keep up with current trends and connect with young consumers.
Average time spent on social media platforms per day
What Is TikTok Engagement Rate?
The engagement rate on TikTok is the indicator of how well a creator’s content resonates with their followers. Brands can use this information to determine how effective an influencer is as well as how engaged their audience is. TikTok engagement rate is measured by adding the number of likes, number of shares, and number of comments the latest 30 posts received, then dividing the sum by the number of views and multiplying it by 100%.
TikTok engagement rate formula: [(number of likes + number of comments + number of shares) / number of views] X 100%.
Say, you want to calculate the post engagement rate of a TikToker whose videos generated 3,500 likes, 250 comments, 800 shares and 35,000 views. Then, applying the above formula, the result is 13%. You may count this TikTok metric manually or use HypeAuditor’s free TikTok Engagement Rate Calculator tool.
What is the average engagement rate for TikTok creators?
Influencers’ average TikTok engagement rate can fluctuate depending on their topic, follower size, and content quality. As a rule of thumb, a good engagement rate on TikTok is around 10%. Videos uploaded by smaller creators generate even higher value.
TikTok influencers' sizes based on their follower counts
Is TikTok engagement rate important?
Yes, the engagement rate is one of the crucial TikTok metrics brands should analyze. It reflects the audience's genuine interest and interaction with the posts, which is an indicator of the level of trust users have in a creator and their skill level. It also suggests that the content is effective enough to capture people’s attention and this can help brands grow their visibility and expand their reach to new customer groups. In addition, TikTok’s algorithm favors the level of ER when recommending videos to users. This further can enhance brand awareness and exposure.
What factors affect TikTok creator engagement rate?
TikTok's algorithms consider engagement metrics when determining the visibility of both organic and sponsored content, so brands and influencers alike should be aware of factors that affect influencer engagement rates on TikTok.
Content quality: The quality of content can be interpreted as the quality of the video or story, relevance, uniqueness or the way the story is delivered. It is important for brands to seek out creators who understand their audience and can produce content that engages them.
Posting consistency: Posting frequency is another factor that influences a TikTok creator's ER. Short, spontaneous, and less sophisticated videos are TikTok's trademark. As a result, users can post content more frequently on TikTok than on YouTube. Consequently, TikTokers should share at least 1 to 3 videos with their followers each day. Posting frequently will allow them to keep their audience engaged.
Hashtags: Users' For You Pages will feature videos of influencers who regularly use trending TikTok hashtags related to their niche in their captions. More people will discover their videos if they stay current and use popular and viral TikTok hashtags.
Challenges: Lip-sync, dance, celebrity look-alike challenge, or even a fridge and clean-up challenge. Every day, a new challenge appears on TikTok. The best way to connect with other users is to take part in challenges. They're easy to replicate, trend quickly, and attract attention. TikTok challenges are an effective tool to generate audience engagement.
Video length: TikTok videos are generally short and straight to the point. If the first three seconds of a video are not compelling enough, users will keep scrolling. TikTok's algorithms consider watch length and viewing frequency when deciding what content to showcase on For You Pages. Therefore, the video will not appear in users' feeds.
Captions and music: Caption and music choice also have an impact on a video's popularity. Using trending songs and using clear captions will increase the number of views.
Interacting with other users: Whether regular users or creators, engaging with the TikTok community encourages reciprocal engagement. See if the influencer replies to their audience's comments, shares other users' content, or collaborates with other creators.
Videos with strong engagement send messages to the platform's algorithms that the content is valuable and entertaining, thus promoting it to a wider audience.
Identifying influencers with authentic and active engagement on TikTok
Don’t focus only on the engagement rate, analyze the number of likes, shares, views, and comments as well. Comments and shares are considered more valuable TikTok metrics compared to likes and views.
Pay attention to the quality of comments. If users only leave one-syllable words or emojis beneath their videos, it is a sign that those users are fake.
From the above, it is clear that follower counts can be misleading. By looking at the profiles of an influencer's followers, you can get a sense of their audience quality.
Prioritize creators who post videos regularly and manage to keep their followers engaged with relevant content.
Finally, look for creators in influencer discovery tools based on a set of criteria and explore their audience demographics, engagement level, and content performance.
Common mistakes brands make when evaluating influencers on TikTok
Several companies make the mistake of selecting influencers based only on engagement rate as it plays a key role in TikTok's content recommendations. Nevertheless, companies can make other mistakes when analyzing influencers.
Considering only the audience size: Many brands equate a big follower base with a high engagement rate and success. However, huge follower counts can be tricky. TikTokers sometimes use unauthentic methods to grow their audience in order to attract more collaboration offers. These fake followers don't generate profitable engagement.
Failing to check engagement authenticity and quality: Bot followers leave irrelevant, meaningless comments that don't contribute to the collaborative project's success. Brands need to assess the nature of comments as well as the type and depth of engagement.
Not researching an influencer’s past partnerships: Businesses should thoroughly research creators’ backgrounds, previous collaborations, and content performance before teaming up with them. A content creator who takes part in challenges in their niche as well as reacts to trending memes is more likely to remain popular with TikTok users.
Neglecting to audit creators’ cross-platform presence: By examining creators' engagement and performance across social networks, companies can determine their genuine level of influence as well as identify new collaboration opportunities.
Overall, the engagement rate is essential on TikTok because it affects content visibility and sheds light on influencers' performance. Still, brands need to assess influencers’ TikTok engagement rates with other metrics together to completely understand a creator’s true impact.
