TikTok is a platform where you can easily amass engagement. You might have initially gotten a great response to your content on the platform. But after some time, the engagement starts to dip considerably. We assure you that you are not alone in this, and all of these users are trying to figure out how to get more engagement on TikTok.
The TikTok algorithm seems to push posts from newly minted accounts, which fools users into a false sense of security. However, the same content fails to earn the engagement it initially got, which is a perplexing dilemma.
Everyone wants to figure out their TikTok engagement rate accurately, but have you stopped to ask why?
Why Is Your TikTok Engagement Low?
You might be new to the platform or someone who, after initial success on TikTok, is now experiencing a lowered engagement rate. Understand that several factors could be at play here. Here’s what we have gleaned so far from our TikTok ventures:
Low Watch Time
The platform considers the watch time of a video when recommending it to other users. If your video is unable to retain viewers until the very end, then the algorithm won’t be able to figure out whom to show it to. This might be because the content you are creating is neither educational nor entertaining.
Posting At the Wrong Times
The time at which you drop your content is a crucial determinant as to how it is going to perform. If you’re posting at a time when none of your targeted viewers are active on the platform, then it won’t get those initial interactions. This will lead to the video not getting recommended to other TikTok users who might be interested in your content, hence fading into obscurity.
Failing with the Sample Audience
TikTok uses a sample audience system, showing your video to 200-300 people to gauge its performance. If the content doesn’t appeal to this group, TikTok won’t promote it further, trashing any chances of getting better impressions. This is the view pattern for this case-
Getting Views from the Wrong Demographics
Getting views doesn’t always mean getting engagement. If your videos attract a broader audience beyond your target demographic, they may watch but not interact. This could mislead TikTok into recommending your content to the wrong group, reducing engagement from your intended audience.
While difficult, there are many tricks you can try to hold onto your audience’s attention since TikTok gives free rein to creativity.
Now, let’s focus on some of the actionables on how to increase engagement on tiktok.
How to Get More Engagement on TikTok [13 Ways]
Here are some effective practices to boost engagement on TikTok:
1. Start With a Strong Visual Hook
The first concern for you should be preventing viewers from scrolling away from your video. The 3-second rule says that the first three seconds are the most important part of your TikTok video as they decide whether it’ll be shared by the TikTok algorithm or not.
So, you have to create a strong hook at the start of your video to hook your audience in. Make sure to include a strong textual element that hints at the main subject matter of the content. This has been proven to either convince the viewers to stay long enough actually to see your main content or to engage with it.
Graham Weaver, a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business and on TikTok, has perfected the art of proverbially stopping you in your tracks. He very effectively puts the main topic of his video in the beginning and adds it as a text on screen. The viewer reads the text and stays to find the answer. The numbers speak for themselves.
2. Discover Proven Content Ideas
A great tool for your search for successful content ideas is the TikTok Creative Center. This page provides insights into ongoing trends, hashtags, songs, top creators, and much more. A true cornucopia of what’s currently working on TikTok. Be sure that these topics are also of great interest to your audience, making them perfect for your use.
3. Jump on Viral Trends
TikTok is famous (and sometimes infamous) for its ever-emerging trends and challenges, which are ephemeral but take the platform by storm. Participating in these TikTok viral trends is the best way for you to stay relevant and grow your visibility immensely.
When you incorporate trending sounds, hashtags, or challenges into your videos, it not only boosts visibility but also showcases your brand as current and in tune with the platform’s culture.
Here’s Duolingo’s take on the ongoing trend of #teenagefeatures which shows promising engagement rates.
4. Leverage User-Generated Content
Any user-generated content (UGC) is a powerful commodity for brands to strengthen their connection with their audience. Creating these posts lets you foster stronger connections and helps grow your brand organically.
This is particularly effective on TikTok, where features like Duet and Stitch enable other users to build on existing content, creating unique and shareable videos that further amplify your brand’s reach. You can repost this UGC from your TikTok account or download it to share it while tagging that user in the comment section.
Following is an example of the effectiveness of UGC used by an organic skincare brand, Sky Organics. Their average views per TikTok are 400 to 500, but a UGC video of theirs literally went viral with more than 40 times the views and 112 saves.
5. Maintain a Consistent Content Style
To stand out from the crowd of millions in a creative space like TikTok, it’s important that you adapt and stick to a certain style for your brand. Your content should consistently reflect your brand’s unique identity and style. Whether your’s is a fun and lighthearted brand or more serious and focused, your TikToks should embody that style.
A major chunk of Gymshark’s TikTok content revolves around motivational quotes with the dark, sleek, and modern setting of gyms with mostly golden accents. However, this does not stop them from breaking their rhythm and posting something funny in between.
6. Create. More. Content.
If you are starting your TikTok journey and trying to grow your audience, it’s important that your content appears on their feeds more often than not. For this, you have to consistently post on the network and keep your TikTok followers engaged and entertained. Furthermore, it increases your visibility within the TikTok algorithm, making it easier for new viewers to discover your TikTok page.
TikTok recommends publishing one to four times a day. Once you have gained a considerable follower base for your account, you can tone down your publishing frequency. But you must post on TikTok at least once a day.
To stay on track, consider using a TikTok scheduling tool like SocialPilot that allows you to plan and schedule TikTok posts in advance, ensuring a steady flow of fresh content. You can create and schedule a complete batch of TikTok posts in one go. This will relieve you from having to regularly go to your TikTok account and post manually.
7. Determine the Best Time to Post On TikTok
Selecting the best times to post on TikTok is essential to give your posts a chance to appear on maximum feeds. If a TikTok video receives some engagement in the initial period when it’s published, the algorithm pushes it forward to more feeds.
To achieve this push, you have to post at intervals when your target audience is online and the most active. This can increase your TikTok engagement by leagues. Hence, posting times are conducive to the reach and engagement your posts receive.
There is no common best time for all users to post on TikTok. However, our research suggests that the best days to post on TikTok are Tuesday and Thursday, with optimal times between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. EST. Hers’s a weekly analysis for your reference.
8. Reply to the Audience to Garner Engagement
Engagement can be sustained only when you reciprocate it. By this, we mean that if the audience is liking and, more importantly, commenting on your TikTok posts, it’s vital that you respond to them. An informal platform like TikTok is ideal for posting content and creating a dialogue with your followers. Replying to comments, hosting Q&As, and responding to DMs all add up to portraying you as a genuine brand that prioritizes its audience.
Bubble Skincare, with 2.6 million followers, comes across as a proactive brand that engages with its audience. They even go as far as to engage and comment on other brand’s content.
One effective way to engage is by replying to comments, not just with text, but with videos. TikTok’s video reply feature allows you to create personalized responses, adding a unique touch that resonates with your audience. It’s a fun way to surprise your TikTok followers and make them feel seen. Along with this, engaging with content from other creators can also help you build a better network on TikTok.
Useful Tip: It’s not necessary to always reply or participate in conversations that are sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes inciting a bit of a debate in the comments section can
9. Use TikTok Paid Ads
Paid content always provides that extra push for your account to boost your posts’ reach, giving it expanded visibility. TikToks ads are crafted to be short, succinct and to grab attention, ideal to draw the highly engaged user-base of the platform. With 15% better engagement rates compared to other social platforms, TikTok provides brands the perfect stage to invest in paid ads to get the best results outr of all other networks.
TikTok offers various ad formats, including:
- TopView Ads
- Spark Ads
- Carousel Ads
- Branded Effects
- Brand Takeovers
- Branded Hashtag Challenges
Each format is tailored to maximize impact and drive user interaction. To create a good TikTok ad, start strong with a catchy hook line or high-impact visual. Keep the length short, and best if you add a trending soundtrack to it.
With 72% of TikTok users finding platform advertising inspiring, TikTok ads offer a powerful tool for brands
10. Benefit from Collaborating With Influencers
Influencers are the defacto power-players onf social media platforms, especially TikTok. They are relatable and familiar and highly influential figures in their communities. This makes them effective partners in connecting with a broader, highly engaged audience. Hence collaborating these powerful personalities with their loyal following can grant a whole lot of credibility to your brand on TikTok.
Here’s an example showing three TikTok posts from Wendy’s page where two of the TikToks are normal run-of-the-mill posts. However, the one shown in the middle is a collaboration with the globally famous musician DJ Khaleed. The views on the normal posts and the one in the middle are considerable.
Influencer partnerships are particularly beneficial as they introduce you to a broader audience, that too through sources that hold heavy credibility in their eyes. This connection prompts an immediate boost in engagement for those who are already conditioned to interact with the influencer.
Whether you partner with nano-influencers who have a smaller but highly engaged following or macro-influencers with a broader reach, the key is to find influencers with a considerable engagement rate on TikTok and whose audience aligns with your target market.
11. Inform While Entertaining
Educational or informational content on TikTok is quite famous as it’s served in a more appetizing way. By creatively combining education with entertainment, you can capture and hold your audience’s attention. Whether you’re teaching a skill, sharing a recipe, or offering advice, educational content encourages multiple views. As a result, this fosters a deeper connection and keeps your audience engaged.
Useful Tip: If you are providing educational or information content in your TikTok video, make sure to address how it is a solution to problems your audience might be facing. This strengthens the value of your content for the viewers as creates opportunity for conversations in the comment section.
12. Construct Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Fear of missing out, or FOMO, as Gen Z has dubbed it, is the secret weapon for marketers to boost clicks and overall TikTok engagement rates. Creating FOMO among young TikTok users is not that difficult; it can be achieved by showcasing exclusive offers, limited-time deals, or sneak peeks of upcoming products.
This feigned urgency, packaged in short clips giving limited information, heightens the viewer’s curiosity. In turn, this makes them give you whatever you prompt in your post, be it comments, clicks, likes, or shares. FOMO-driven content can significantly boost visibility and engagement rate on TikTok.
13. Provide a Peek Behind-the-Scenes
Sharing behind-the-scenes content is one of the ongoing TikTok trends that offers the audience a unique glimpse into your creative process, helping to build a stronger, more personal connection. By revealing the effort, creativity, and thought behind your work, you create a sense of authenticity that resonates with viewers.
The following snapshot shows a TikToker’s account who creates content on old-fashion Mario games. Every other video on his account gets more than a million views but a behind the scenes TikTok has crossed 50 million views.
What Is A Good TikTok Engagement?
Now that we have discussed how to get more engagement on TikTok, you have to know what constitutes good engagement. However, defining a particular number as a good engagement rate is difficult as it varies from network to network. Also, benchmarks change based on the industry you belong to.
However, a ballpark figure for the average engagement rate on social media in general is 1-3%. Any number higher than this is considered decent.
However, TikTok sees a higher average engagement rate than the rest of the networks. Research has indicated that a good TikTok engagement rate can be between 4% and 18%. However, the sky is the limit on TikTok, as celebrity accounts have been seen to reach engagement of 50% and above.
If you want to manually calculate engagement rate, there are many formulae, but we’ll give you the simplest way to find the ER for a TikTok video.
Start Boosting Your TikTok Engagement
After reviewing all these TikTok strategies, it’s evident that there are multiple effective strategies to boost engagement on TikTok that go beyond simply playing with the algorithm. TikTok stands out as one of the top platforms for creators, prioritizing fun and rewarding creativity. Ultimately, the more you engage and connect with your audience, the better your content will perform, leading to increased engagement and success on the platform.
