Views are the name of the game on TikTok. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve posted a few mildly successful videos, now is the time to step up your presence on the app. But it’s going to take a little more than just piggybacking off the latest trends or hoping one of your videos magically goes viral. Don’t worry; this article has you covered. Here, you’ll learn about how TikTok’s algorithm relies on views. And you’ll get to read about a few hacks to help your videos get more eyeballs on them.
Before we jump into all the strategies and hacks to get more views on TikTok, let’s run through a quick crash course on the basics of the app. Understanding TikTok will help you use the tricks below in your favor.
Anytime your video is played for at least 5 seconds, that counts as a view.
Yes, very much so. In fact, TikTok has a pretty strict policy regarding fake views. If TikTok finds out you’ve paid to have bots watch your videos, the view count will be taken down to zero.
TikTok has a creator fund to help incentivize its top tier of creators on the platform. There’s no set rate, but it ranges from $0.02-0.04 for every 1,000 views.
When someone watches your video, it’s instantly counted as a view. But videos on TikTok have been known to gain traction later because of how the algorithm curates content for users.
When you post a video on TikTok, it gets shown to about 300–500 random users. You need about 70% of those people to watch your entire video for TikTok for it to go viral.
This is a loaded question. There could be a lot of reasons. Check out the tips below to see a few possible reasons why you’re not getting any views and how to change that.
Sometimes, you just happen to post the right video at the right time, and the right people see it. It’s a perfect storm that causes your views to skyrocket. But, that said, you also might have used some of the helpful hacks mentioned below without even realizing it.
Sure, all engagement is good with your TikTok videos. But unlike other social media platforms, on TikTok, the view is king. Another important factor is the completion metric — how many times someone watches your video to the end. Here are a couple of tips to help you maximize your video’s potential with TikTok’s algorithm.
Hashtags are an essential part of how TikTok helps its users discover new content. If someone watches a video with the same hashtag you used, then there is a good chance they’ll also see your video later. And obviously, including #FYP and #ForYouPage can help your video end up on people’s For You feed.
Similar to including hashtags, using keywords in your caption can help TikTok figure out who to show your video to. The caption helps give the app some more context to what’s going on in your video.
Remember, views are nice, but completions are even better. Your video has a better chance of being rewatched if it’s only 7 seconds long, as opposed to 55 seconds.
Like hashtags, if you use a trending song or sound effect, TikTok is going to show your video to someone else who’s watched or liked a video with that same sound in it.
On TikTok, a Duet is when you do a split-screen video with another video that’s already been posted. Duets are a great way to piggyback off of someone else’s large following and help get your content seen by their fans.
Help spread the word about your TikTok. You can mention it on other platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. And if you don’t want to get on there and shout, “Hey, follow me on TikTok!” a more subtle approach would be to reshare your TikTok videos on those apps.
This is kind of a win-win, as you’re posting new content on those platforms. Plus, thanks to the little TikTok username icon floating around the screen, the hard work of telling people how they can follow you on TikTok is already taken care of.
It’s a hard question but one you have to ask yourself for any creative endeavor: “Who am I making this for?” The answer to that will help guide what type of content you should be making. And trust us, there’s an audience for everything on TikTok. Don’t think anything is too strange or too out there.
Once you figure out who your audience is, you can start learning when is the best time to post for them. How a busy, working mother uses TikTok is very different from how a college-age fashionista uses it.
Thankfully, TikTok offers analytics to help you see when your videos get the most engagement. And don’t forget that TikTok is a global app, so your audience might not even be in the same country, let alone time zone, as you.
This might sound counterintuitive to getting more views on one video, but the more videos you post, the more exposure you’re likely to get. If you do a video about the gym and someone watching workout TikToks sees it, they might come to your page and watch your other videos.
The best part is that you don’t need to worry about flooding your followers’ feeds. Because everything TikTok does is curated, it won’t feel as overwhelming as it might if you were to post multiple Instagram photos or Facebook videos a day.
While it’s true that most videos on TikTok are being shot on people’s phones, that’s no reason to slack off in quality. You should still maintain proper framing, good lighting, and the best quality sound possible. All of these things are going to keep users engaged. Not to mention that TikTok prioritizes videos that have higher quality on the For You Page.
After reading all these tips, hopefully, it’s apparent that there are multiple ways to help make your videos better and not just “trick” the algorithm. TikTok really is one of the best platforms for creators. It places a strong emphasis on fun and rewards users for being creative. Overall, the more you’re able to connect with an audience, the better your content will perform.