Engagement on TikTok is unlike any other channel. You can generate incredible reach and views for a single video, and fall flat on the next. It’s enough to make you wonder what a good engagement rate on TikTok actually is these days.
While it may be cool to create a viral video that ends up on everyone’s FYP, generating consistently high engagement rates for your brand is the ultimate goal. Using a few engagement strategies to drive growth and participation on TikTok can help your brand reach the right audience, amplify reach, and increase brand awareness.
Below, let’s go over what a good engagement rate on TikTok is, how to calculate your TikTok engagement rate, and effective ways to increase your brand’s engagement on the platform.
What is a Good Engagement Rate on TikTok?
The median engagement rate per follower is 2.6%, according to our TikTok benchmark report. This rate is six times more engaging than the next most engaging channel, Instagram.
And since TikTok is a video channel, it’s also worth noting what the median engagement rate by view is. Counting the number of times a viewer liked, commented, or shared and dividing it by the overall number of views measures just how compelling your content was. On TikTok, the median engagement rate by view is 3.4%.
When it comes to posting frequency, the average brand publishes about 1.9 videos per week or about eight per month. The most active brands, those in the top 25%, published videos at least four times per week on average.
How to Calculate Engagement Rate on TikTok
At Rival IQ, we define engagement as measurable interaction on organic and paid social media posts. On TikTok, this includes likes, comments, and shares.
TikTok engagement rate is calculated based on all of these interactions divided by total follower count. Here’s the formula to calculate your brand’s TikTok engagement rate:
There are a few different ways to calculate engagement rate, but we find that dividing by the number of followers paints a more accurate picture of how your brand’s engagement rate compares to similar brands in your industry — regardless of audience size.
Top 5 Industries on TikTok
While brands of all industries and sizes are finding success on TikTok, there are a few industries that are doing especially well on the platform.
The top five industries on TikTok, as ranked by engagement rate by follower, are:
- Higher Ed
- Sports Teams
- Food and Beverage
- Travel
- Financial Services
It’s no surprise that schools and Sports Teams stand out the most on the platform, with a median engagement rate of 9.5% and 4.2%, respectively. These two industries consistently stand out above the rest across all social channels.
Start analyzing your brand’s TikTok engagement with a free Rival IQ trial.
Get my free trialFor instance, if we take a look at Rival IQ’s hashtag analysis for top-performing airlines, we can see which hashtags were most used, how many airlines on TikTok were using them, and what the engagement rate is for each one. If you were a marketer for an airline, you could use this to determine which hashtags are worth using in your videos to increase your engagement. You could also use this as an opportunity to tap into a lesser-used hashtag that still performs well in order to stand out above your competitors.
4. Reply with videos
In the same vein as mentions, replies are one of the best ways to increase your engagement by amplifying your video’s reach. By re-engaging a follower who previously commented, you’re creating an opportunity to grab their attention and get back on their radar again.
Creating content as a reply is also a great way to give followers the content they want to see and let them know you’re taking their comments, questions, and feedback into consideration, making them active participants.
Use video replies to answer FAQs or fulfill audience demands like Laneige frequently does. The beauty brand makes it a point to give the audience exactly what they want when it comes to their TikTok content, with their “mixing” series becoming some of their most engaging posts.
Garnering over 10M views and earning 621K engagements, the TikTok below scored an engagement rate by follower of 190%, or 135 times the median for health and beauty brands. Talk about a successful way to promote a new product!
5. Find the posting frequency that works for you
While posting frequency on TikTok continues to grow over time, brands are still posting less here than on other channels.
As we mentioned earlier, the median posting frequency across all brands on TikTok is about 1.9 videos per week or about eight per month. This could be because creating video content requires more planning and resources than creating carousels or graphics on Instagram. Or it could be because brands are still figuring out the right cadence. Either way, it’s important to experiment with what works for your brand.
Take a look at your industry posting rates and, more specifically, your competitors to figure out how often you should be posting. Start by experimenting with one post per week then increase or decrease your posting frequency depending on the engagement rates you generate.
6. Use a hook (and keep it short)
Short-form video is the priority of TikTok. Even though videos can be up to 10 minutes long now, the average length of a TikTok video is between 34.37 and 50.4 seconds, depending on the size of the account.
No matter how long the video is, the first few seconds matter the most. Viewers on TikTok have short attention spans. If it’s not immediately clear what your video is about, or there’s nothing visually appealing about it, then users will quickly scroll past it.
A common way to introduce the topic of a video is to use text overlay in the first frame. This can also be used as your cover photo, which helps your video stand out in the thumbnails on your page. After your hook, either a) deliver value quickly or b) promise a reveal. Let’s look at a video from NYX Cosmetics for an example of this in action.
In the video below, the first frame uses text to introduce an intriguing concept: “contouring with science.” Immediately, the video tutorial starts, which includes step-by-step instructions at the bottom. The TikTok uses a hook that’s instantly attention-grabbing and then subtly but effectively promotes the brand’s contour product via the tutorial.
With 103K engagements and a 12.5% engagement rate by follower, the video achieved nearly nine times the median engagement rate for health and beauty brands on TikTok.
7. Tap into audio
Trending audio was the main feature that propelled TikTok into popularity, so it’s no surprise that it continues to be a major engagement tool on the platform.
Not only does using trending TikTok sounds help increase your video’s discoverability, but it also makes it more memorable. 68% of TikTok users say they remember a brand better when they use a popular song in one of their videos.
Of course, this goes beyond songs to include any kind of trending audio. For instance, Alaska Airlines joined in on a viral meme that’s centered around a podcast conversation. The sound is typically used to shed light on an interesting (sometimes obvious) fact. In this case, the airline took this opportunity to spotlight how it has the “most legroom of any U.S. legacy airline in Premium & First Class.”
The video was a fun way to incorporate a viral trend while also creating something its followers will remember. The metrics also prove that the video resonated with followers. With a 21.3% engagement rate by follower, the brand generated a rate that’s nearly seven times greater than the median rate for travel brands by getting creative and leveraging a popular sound.
8. Track your analytics
At the end of the day, what works for other businesses on TikTok may or may not work for yours. The only way to figure out where to focus your TikTok marketing efforts is to track your analytics.
Compare your metrics to the average all-industry rates or the engagement rates in your specific industry, whether that’s Food and Beverage, Beauty, or Higher Ed. To get the most accurate picture of your performance, it’s best to track your analytics with similar brands.
Tap into live benchmarks for your industry to get real-time insights into top-performing posts and trending conversations. You can also use Rival IQ to create a landscape of competitors in your industry. Within the landscape, you can see which videos are generating the most engagement by view or by follower, and how your videos stack up. You can also see which topics and hashtags are being talked about the most within your industry.
Once you’ve tapped into what your competitors are doing, create, analyze, and measure your videos against this data to really understand what’s working and what’s not.
Wrapping it up
As TikTok continues to dominate the social media landscape, it’s proving to be a must-have channel for brands across all industries. Engagement rates on TikTok are well above Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and will likely remain high as the video-sharing app has impressive reach and influence.
To harness TikTok’s engaged audience for your brand, experiment with the proven engagement methods that the top-performing brands are using. Stay tapped into what other businesses in your industry are doing to drive engagement, but don’t hesitate to try something different to stand out above the pack. As long as you analyze and measure your efforts, you can adjust as you go to find the average TikTok engagement rate that works best for your brand.
This post was originally published in June 2023 and has since been updated.
The post What is a Good Engagement Rate on TikTok? appeared first on Rival IQ.