How to Measure TikTok Performance? [2024]

House of the Dragon season 2 is the hottest topic this month. What reach did it generate on TikTok on its premiere day? Over 12 million! That’s like filling North Korea’s massive Rungrado 1st of May Stadium about 105 times. And guess what? 93% of the mentions are positive. The hype is real!

Checking the series performance is all fun and games. But do you know how well you’re doing on TikTok?

This article is your handy guide. I’ll explain the most critical metrics, how to measure them and present some examples.

Let’s dig in!

TikTok performance measures how well your content resonates with app users. Measuring the proper performance metrics is vital for marketers to craft effective TikTok strategies, enhance audience engagement, and drive conversions.

Table of contents:

• What is TikTok’s performance?
• How to measure TikTok performance?
• Benchmark the performance
• Conclusion

What is TikTok performance?

TikTok performance refers to how well your content performs on the platform. It includes metrics like reach, engagement, impressions, and many more.

Creating engaging content that catches the audience’s attention is crucial to becoming visible on the platform.

And… it’s hard to make one if you don’t get any feedback on your work and can’t improve it.

You can think of measuring performance as getting feedback on what you produce.

Measuring TikTok performance is necessary to:

• Understand what content resonates with your audience.
• Optimize your TikTok strategy for better results.
• Identify strengths and weaknesses in your campaign.
• Increase brand visibility, engagement, and, in the long run – conversion.
• Drive more traffic and conversions from your TikTok videos.
• Stay ahead of competitors.

How to measure TikTok performance?

Measuring your performance is a complex process. The platform is constantly changing; thus, the metrics you should measure will also change.

However, there are some general TikTok metrics that are more consistent. Which ones?

01 Social media and non-social reach

Social media reach represents the total number of unique users who have seen your content. It’s a crucial metric that shows the size of your potential audience.

Thanks to measuring social media and non-social reach, you will find out:

• Which types of content resonate most with your target audience and boost engagement?
• Seasonal patterns or trends crucial for brand visibility.
• Your audience demographics to tailor your content better.
• The effectiveness of paid advertising.
• Competitive analysis for better market positioning.
• Changes in reach and sentiment to identify and respond to potential PR crises early.

How to measure it?

TikTok provides each post’s reach data through internal analytics.

You can access this data by navigating to the specific TikTok video > analytics.

But even if you plan your campaign for TikTok – it will likely spread beyond the platform, and you should be aware of how it performs.

That’s why measuring also the non-social reach is crucial for understanding your TikTok performance.

You’ll need advanced media monitoring tools like Brand24 for non-social reach.

This is what the “House Of The Dragon” reach looks like in the Brand24 dashboard:

02 Impressions

Impressions count the total number of times your content has been seen. This metric is important because it gives you a sense of how attractive your content is.

By tracking impressions, you will find out:

• How often is your content being seen?
• The effectiveness of your posting schedule and frequency.
• The potential reach of your TikTok marketing efforts.

How to measure it?

TikTok’s built-in analytics can track this metric.

Just click on the three dots under your specific video and go to “Analytics”:

Did you know?…

High impressions indicate increased brand awareness and engagement potential. The difference between reach and impressions can be tricky. 

For example, if someone loves a TikTok video and rewatches it multiple times, each view counts as an impression, but they are only one person reached.

03 Engagement Rate

Engagement rate shows how well your audience interacts with your content through likes, shares, comments, and clicks.

By tracking the engagement rate, you will find out the following:

• Which types of content generate the most interaction?
• How engaged are your followers with your brand?
• Whether the posting time matters

This all can give you opportunities to refine your content strategy for better results. But to make that work – make sure to monitor engagement rates for individual posts and overall account performance.

A high engagement rate suggests that your audience finds your content valuable, reflecting loyalty and trust.

How to measure it?

Calculate the engagement rate by dividing total interactions by total views and multiplying by 100.

Here’s an example based on the previously attached TikTok analytics:

For a video with:

• 54,000 views
• 4,583 likes
• 17 comments
• 1,368 shares
• 82 saves

The engagement rate would be:

Total interactions = 4,583 + 17 + 1,368 + 182 = 6,150

Engagement rate = (6,150 / 54,000) * 100 ≈ 11.39%

04 Followers growth

Followers growth tracks how many new followers you gain over a given period. It’s a good indicator of how your online community is growing.

By tracking followers growth, you will find out:

• How well your content attracts new followers.
• The effectiveness of your TikTok marketing strategies.
• Seasonal trends or content themes that boost follower acquisition.

Analyzing this data can also inspire ideas for future videos by identifying what content resonates most with your audience.

How to measure it?

Track the number of new followers over time using TikTok’s analytics. Look at the growth rate over days, weeks, and months to identify trends.

Find this information in Analytics > Overview.

A growing follower count indicates increasing interest in your brand, which can directly result from successful marketing strategies.

05 The volume of mentions

The volume of mentions is a key metric that tracks how often your brand is talked about online.

By tracking mentions, you will find out:

• Which social media platform is generating the most mentions of your brand?
• What topics or content types get your audience to discuss your brand?
• Opportunities to enhance your SEO through potential influencer collaborations.

How to measure it?

Use AI-powered tools to track and analyze your brand mentions. Social listening tools like Brand24 track the volume of mentions and provide ready-to-use analysis.

For example, here’s the number of TikTok mentions for “House Of Dragon”:

And this is what its specific mention looks like in the Brand24 dashboard:

High mention volumes indicate strong visibility, engagement, and trend alignment. These are super important for TikTok performance and can attract more views, likes, and shares.

Also a very helpful feature is an Anomaly Detector that can help you understand what’s behind any unusual spikes in mentions.

For example, analyzing the spike in reach on June 17, 2024, to 57M for “House Of The Dragon” can help correlate this increase to a season 2 release, highlighting its success:

03 Share of voice

Share of Voice (SOV) compares your brand’s market visibility to your competitors.

By measuring Share of Voice, you will find out:

• How well your social media campaigns perform
• Which social media channels boost your brand, and which ones need more work
• What tactics are working for your competitors and might work for you, too

Plus, by comparing your SOV with competitors, you can identify successful strategies that you can adapt to improve your brand’s performance.

How to measure it?

Use tools for social listening like Brand24 that can determine your SOV against specific competitors.

Here’s what the comparison of two recent giants (“House of the Dragons” and “Bridgerton”) looks like:

04 TikTok Video engagement

TikTok video engagement tracks how much people interact with your videos via likes, comments, and shares.

Why is it so important?

High engagement on individual videos can boost your overall account performance, helping more people notice your brand.

By tracking TikTok videos engagement, you will find out:

• Which video formats and topics are most popular?
• How to replicate successful content strategies.
• The impact of engagement on your overall reach.

How to measure it?

Track likes, comments, and shares for each video. Analyze which videos perform best and why.

Here’s an idea: Use A/B Testing!

For example, experiment with different content formats to gain insights.

How to do it?

1. To determine whether videos or photos work better on your TikTok, create two posts on the same topic – one using a video and one using pictures.
2. Check which post gets more likes, comments, and shares.
3. Use this information to refine your content strategy, focusing on the format that generates more engagement.

On the screen below, you can see the test I took recently. The difference is enormous!

And guess what, it’s the photos that performed better.

05 Video watch time

Video watch time measures the total time users spend watching your videos.

Longer watch times mean higher engagement and interest, indicating that your content is holding attention.

By tracking video watch time, you will find out:

• The effectiveness of your video content in retaining viewer attention.
• Which types of videos generate the longest watch times.
• How to improve content to increase viewer retention.

How to measure it?

TikTok analytics provides watch time data.

Go to: Analytics > Video > Watch time.

Tracking video views is also essential as a key performance indicator, as it greatly influences the algorithm. 

The longer your watch time is, the higher the chance of going viral!

06 Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (CTR) measures how often people click on a link in your post compared to how often it’s seen.

A high CTR indicates effective call-to-actions, which are crucial for driving traffic to external sites such as product pages or blogs and converting visitors.

By tracking CTR, you will find out:

• The effectiveness of your call-to-action.
• How well your content drives traffic to desired destinations.
• Opportunities to optimize links and landing pages.

How to measure it?

Track clicks versus total views to calculate CTR. To improve your strategies, monitor the effectiveness of different calls to action.

You can find information about your clicks in TikTok’s Analytics > Overview > Conversion:

07 Presence Score

The Online Presence Score is an overall rating of how visible your brand is online. 

It’s a great way to simplify your day-to-day analysis – and that’s exactly why Brand24 developed it!

Instead of checking every little metric, you can look at the Presence Score, which combines them all.

By tracking the Presence Score, you will find out:

• Whether your brand awareness is increasing or decreasing.
• The significant impact of events on your brand’s popularity.
• Whether it’s time to reassess your PR strategy.
• If there are any potential issues to address.

How to measure it?

Brand24 provides this score in the “Analysis” tab. This is what it looks like:

A high presence score indicates strong brand visibility. You should monitor changes to understand the impact of your marketing efforts.

08 Reputation Score

The Online Reputation Score reflects the public’s overall perception of your brand. Similar to the Presence Score, the idea behind it is to simplify your daily tasks.

You can check this score to get a quick look at how your brand is doing in terms of brand perception.

By tracking Reputation Score, you will find out:

• The health of your brand perception.
• Areas for improvement.
• About any potential PR crisis
• The impact of campaigns, new products, or any significant events on public perception.

How to measure it?

You can access your Reputation Score in Brand24’s dashboard > “Analysis”:

09 Sentiment 

Sentiment analysis lets you peek into how people feel about your brand based on what they say online. Social listening tools can group your brand mentions into negative, neutral, and positive and then analyze those to show you:

• How does the sentiment of your brand change over time?
• Which social media platforms are giving you thumbs up, and where do you need to improve?
• How your audience reacts to your campaigns.
• Early warning signs of trouble to adjust your strategies.

How to measure it?

You can try to do it manually if you want to focus on TikTok itself.

However, I think it will be ineffective. I suggest using an advanced tool that will gather your mentions from all over the internet and present you with insights like:

How your sentiment changes over time:

AI-based the most negative source:

Exact emotions behind the sentiment of your brand:

Pro tip: Brand24 lets you see how people feel about your brand in real time, providing detailed insights into emotions and sentiment.

Tip: Benchmark the TikTok performance

Think about running a race without knowing the time or seeing the other runners. How would you know if you’re ahead or need to speed up?

That’s why benchmarking your TikTok performance is crucial. It’s like finding a reference point.

Benefits of Benchmarking:

• You know how far you’ve come and where you must go to hit your goals or compete with your rivals.
• Discover what strategies work for your competitors, and consider how to use similar approaches.
• Focus your time and budget on what truly works, reducing wasted effort.
• Keep up with the pace of your industry and ensure you’re not falling behind.

How to benchmark?

Use the Comparison tab by Brand24 to analyze key metrics and get a comprehensive view of your performance.

The recently released new seasons of two giants, “Bridgerton” and “House Of The Dragon,” will serve as an example.

Here’s what their competitive analysis looks like in Brand24:

Hmmm… but how about asking AI for the competitor research? Perhaps my idea of benchmarking Bridgerton wasn’t the best?

Let’s ask the AI Brand Assistant – the feature that combines ChatGPT knowledge with data from your Brand24 projects.

As you can see, I had a slightly different perspective. And I think Brand Assistant got it better.

Conclusion

In the digital age, data is king. Knowing whether your TikTok efforts are successful or falling short is nearly impossible without monitoring the performance. 

Analyzing and adjusting your strategy based on the right metrics is key to becoming visible on the platform.

Leveraging AI-powered tools like Brand24 can help you gain insights into how your brand performs across various platforms. You can also respond to trends, engagement levels, and audience sentiment in real-time.

Final thoughts:

• Regularly monitor performance metrics to keep your strategy relevant and effective.
• Use data-driven insights to refine and adjust your content based on audience engagement and feedback.
• Utilize advanced tools powered by AI for detailed analytics and data-based decision-making.

Be the trendsetter! Try Brand24 for free and make your brand the talk of TikTok!