How To Find Engagement Rate on TikTok and Why It Matters

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Carolyn Howell

Last Updated: May 21, 2024

TikTok Growth

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With the highest engagement rate per post than any other social media platform, TikTok is THE place to be for creators and businesses. How does TikTok foster active engagement? Is it easy to get a slice of the proverbial pie? Find out how to find engagement rate on TikTok and why you should keep an eye on this metric for your TikTok success. 

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How To Find Engagement Rate on TikTok: Key Factors

To learn how to find engagement rate on TikTok, you must understand the key factors that affect engagement rate. On TikTok, engagement comes in the form of likes, comments, shares, and views. Audience engagement lets you know how popular your video is, the conversations growing around it, how well you’re reaching and connecting with the right people, and more. Engagement benefits both users and the accounts they engage with in different ways. But their common denominator is the TikTok For You page. 

The more a user interacts with your content, the more they see videos from your account and similar content from others on their For You page. At the same time, your content will be more likely to be found organically by other users with the same interests as your actively engaged user. 

Here are the key factors that determine your engagement success on TikTok:

  • Comments. What people say about your video will help you gauge how well they receive your message. 
  • Likes. The number of likes your video receives indicates how popular it is among your audience. 
  • Shares. Your number of shares indicates how big of an impact your video is making on the people who have seen it and its potential to go viral. 
  • Views. The number of views can help you determine if your content is showing up on For You feeds.
  • Total playtime. How long people watch your video lets you know whether or not it’s engaging enough to keep them watching until the end.  

Engagement Rate Formula for TikTok

Knowing how to find engagement rate on TikTok will let you measure your content’s success in engaging your audience. What engagement rate formula for TikTok can you use? 

Calculate TikTok Engagement Rate Based on Follower Numbers

There are two formula options that calculate TikTok engagement rate based on your follower numbers:

  1. ((Number of likes + Number of comments) / Number of followers) x 100
  2. ((Number of likes + Number of comments + Number of shares) / Number of followers) x 100

Take note that the engagement rate you get using either one of these formulas does not consider whether or not your followers have seen your videos. Among other things, the number you get will indicate how effectively you’re reaching your actual followers

Here’s a sample calculation:

1,137 likes + 65 comments + 43 shares = 1,245 / 7,300 followers = 0.1705 x 100 = 17.05%

How To Find Engagement Rate on TikTok Based on Number of Views

Another option for how to find engagement rate on TikTok is by using the total number of views. The formula is: 

((Number of likes + Number of comments + Number of shares) / Number of views) x 100

This formula may give you a higher or lower engagement rate depending on whether or not your total number of views is higher than your number of followers. Keep in mind that TikTok also counts repeat views. More often than not, your total number of views (overall or for a single video) may be higher than your number of followers. 

The number you get will give you an idea of how many of your actual viewers are actively interacting with your content. 

Here’s a sample calculation:

1,137 likes + 65 comments + 43 shares = 1,245 / 10,355 views = 0.1202 x 100 = 12.02%

How To Find Engagement Rate on TikTok: Where Do You Find the Numbers?

Where can you find the numbers you need to calculate your engagement rate? These metrics are available via your TikTok Analytics. To view your Analytics, just follow these steps:

  1. Go to your profile. 
  2. Tap the menu/three lines on the top right. 
  3. Tap Creator tools. 
  4. Select Analytics. 

The Overview tab on your Analytics page will show your follower growth, video views, profile views, likes, comments, and shares over a specified date range. You can use these numbers to determine your overall engagement rate, i.e., your engagement for all your videos over the last 7, 28, or 60 days, or a custom date range of up to 60 days.

If you want to calculate the engagement rate of a single video, go to your Content tab. You’ll find extended data and analytics for each video you post here. This is where you can check the following metrics for each of your videos for the last 7 days:

  • Total views
  • Total likes
  • Comments
  • Shares 
  • Average watch time
  • Viewer percentage that watched your video in full 
  • Traffic source type 
  • Audience territories 

Knowing how to find engagement rate on TikTok using these numbers will help you understand your performance on the platform. You’ll get valuable insights into what types of content work for your viewers, what captures their attention, how well you’re reaching your followers, and what changes you need to make to improve results. 

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How To Find Engagement Rate on TikTok for Other Accounts

If you’re curious about the engagement rate of a competitor or an influencer in your niche or industry, a hack can give you a reasonable estimate. Here’s how to find engagement rate on TikTok for other accounts:

  1. From the user’s profile page, you’ll find their total number of likes under their TikTok username. This number represents the likes they have received for all their videos. 
  2. Divide the number of likes by the number of followers, and multiply by 100. 

Remember that engagement also includes comments and shares, so you’ll only get a ballpark figure when you follow the steps above. However, you should still be able to gauge how well their videos are performing. 

You can also calculate another account’s engagement rate for a single video. Just follow these steps:

  1. Tap on the user’s video. 
  2. Get the total number of likes, comments, and shares. Add these numbers. 
  3. Divide the sum by the user’s followers, then multiply by 100. 

The user’s engagement rate for a single video can give you an insight into their viewers’ level of interest. You should be able to gauge if the video content resonates with its viewers and successfully elicits responses.

Aside from calculating engagement rates for individual videos, you can look at the total number of views for each video on their main profile grid. Analyze the most popular ones to determine what makes them appeal to audiences. See how you can change your content strategy to get the same results. 

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Why It’s Important To Know How To Find Engagement Rate on TikTok

Why should you know how to find engagement rate on TikTok? What insights can you get from your engagement rate? Here’s why it’s essential to know your engagement rate. 

  1. Your audience engagement indicates your videos’ popularity, directly affecting your exposure to new viewers. 
  2. Monitoring your engagement rate will give you a more accurate measure of growth compared to using vanity metrics like your follower count. 
  3. Maintaining a high engagement rate will help you stay relevant amidst the continuous deluge of new content on TikTok. 
  4. Analyzing your engagement rate will help you better understand what your audience wants. 
  5. Improving your engagement rate where and when necessary will help you “influence” the TikTok algorithm to pick up your videos and recommend them on the For You feeds of potential new followers. 

How To Increase Your Engagement Rate on TikTok

When you learn how to find engagement rate on TikTok, you must also figure out ways to increase and sustain your performance numbers. Here are some tips. 

  • Engage your community with a Q&A. TikTok’s Q&A feature allows you to answer questions from other users or to pose questions that your followers can answer. You can find the Q&A option by going to your profile, tapping the menu on the top right, then Creator tools. You can also use the Q&A feature via the TikTok camera.
  • Reply with a video to comments. Promptly replying to comments is an effective trick to keep conversations going and push video visibility higher. On TikTok, you can reply to comments with a video to make your viewers feel seen, heard, and appreciated. To reply with the video, just hit Reply on the comment and tap the video camera icon to the left of the comment box. 
  • Use Stitch and Duet. These unique TikTok tools allow you to combine another person’s video and combine them with yours. Stitch lets you stitch part of another user’s video to your video so you can add to it. Duet enables you to play your video side by side with another person’s. These tools effectively expand your reach and allow you to participate in lively conversations.  
  • Interact with other accounts. Put yourself out there and like and comment on other people’s videos. You can even reply to comments on another user’s video if you have something relevant and nice to say!
  • Follow accounts you can relate to. These could be other creators or businesses in your niche/industry and your most active followers. 

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Get the Right Engagement From the Right People

Knowing how to find engagement rate on TikTok is crucial to monitoring your performance on the platform. Your engagement rate tells you if your content strategy is effectively connecting with the right audience. You can compare your number of followers against your follower interactions. Or you can look at your number of views versus your number of likes, comments, and shares. 

Calculating engagement rate will give you a good idea of whether or not your videos are compelling enough to evoke a response from your audience. You can determine which types of content get more responses and which ones fail to communicate. 

Increasing your engagement rate and maintaining active engagement from your followers requires two essential elements that feed off of each other: the right audience and compelling content. If you have stimulating content but an interested audience is not seeing it, you need to improve your audience targeting strategy. 

Research to learn as much as possible about your target audience on TikTok. Use the right hashtags and trending sounds to increase your chances of getting the right exposure for your videos. Perform all the tricks out there to influence TikTok’s algorithm so that it shows your videos to viewers who might be interested. And you can increase your odds further by partnering with an expert in TikTok growth strategy, a company like High Social. 

Enhance your audience-targeting precision with High Social’s advanced, proprietary AI technology. Specify your target audience’s demographics and interests, and High Social will track down TikTok users who are the perfect fit. Subscribe to one of High Social’s growth plans to experience sustained and rewarding growth with highly interested and engaged followers. 

Level up your TikTok game and get the exposure you need. Start growing your TikTok today!