How to Analyze the Performance of TikTok Videos
Published on 26.06.2026 by Chizoba T
If you are struggling to appear on the FYP page, you might be left wondering what you are doing wrong, especially if you are creating outstanding videos. Chances are that it's no longer about the kind of videos you are creating but about not using the performance of your previous videos to shape your future video creation.
Again, if you are just looking at one or two metrics to make a decision, that will not help. You need to understand how to analyze your TikTok videos like a pro if you want to take your account from zero to going viral with a good TikTok growth blueprint. In this article, we guide you on analyzing the performance of your TikTok videos. By analyzing metrics such as average watch time and completion rates, you can see exactly which videos, topics, or formats (e.g., educational, humorous, or tutorial) resonate most.
Why It’s Important to Analyze the Performance of TikTok Videos
TikTok video analysis offers a range of benefits, such as:
- Improve your videos. When you analyze metrics such as average video watch time and competition rate, you can determine which video topics and formats resonate with your target audience. For instance, you might discover that your target audience wants humorous content or educational videos, which can be a good social media outreach strategy that brings results.
- TikTok strategy optimization. When you track the performance of your TikTok videos, you can be in a better position to hypothesize. For instance, you can figure out if posting at 9 p.m. works better than 8 a.m. You can also determine the video lengths that seem to work well for your target audience. When you analyze your video metrics, you can then optimize the content accordingly. You can use the retention graph to identify when viewers stop watching and fix weak points in the first 2 to 3 seconds.
- Understand your audience demographics. TikTok video analysis will provide important insights into your target audience. It will provide insights into their location, interests, and gender to ensure you create content that matches their interests. It will enable you to spot audience trends early so that you can create relevant and discoverable content.
- Determine your ROI. If you are managing the TikTok account on behalf of the client, reviewing video performance can help demonstrate that your strategy is working.
A Step-by-Step Guide for Analyzing TikTok Video Performance
To better track the performance of your TikTok video, we can divide the analysis into three key steps. These are:
Initial Performance Analysis
You want to ensure that your TikTok videos drive high engagement and conversions. This is why you need to conduct the initial assessment one or two days after posting. At this stage, you will be looking at the potential of the videos to go viral.
You can check things like:
- If the videos are getting more than normal watch time, it's an indication that your content is highly relevant.
- An increase in engagement. When you see that your content is getting a high number of comments, likes, and shares, it shows your content is relatable and is resonating well with the target audience.
- View velocity. View velocity refers to the ability of a TikTok video to accumulate views immediately after its publication. If your video is receiving high velocity, the algorithm interprets this as the video trending, increasing the chances of it being promoted in the FPY or suggested feed.
- An increase in followers. When you see a sudden rise in the number of followers immediately after posting, it means the video is resonating with its target audience.
You can see these metrics in the native TikTok analytics, or you can leverage third-party tools for deeper insights.
Weekly Performance Analysis
You need to check the performance of your TikTok videos each week to get a deeper understanding of why each video worked or didn't. When doing that, pay attention not just to the numbers, but also to the strategic and creative elements that drove the results. For instance, consider the tone of voice used in the video.
- Check the top 20 best performing. You can shortlist the video that got the highest engagement in terms of shares and saves. Pay attention to the patterns in those videos that you may want to repeat in your future videos, and to the formats or themes worth repeating to determine whether they will yield similar results.
Monthly Video Performance Analysis
TikTok strategies and trends get outdated fast. This is why it is also advisable to review your TikTok video performance each month. This can help to provide a deeper picture of the performance of your TikTok account and enable you to track the progress of your TikTok account.
Monthly video performance analysis can be important, as it can take up to a month to see the real impact of a truly viral video on the overall account performance. Therefore, check the impact of the video on the engagement, reach, and follower growth. A monthly check can offer a good balance between quick insights and long-term account performance.
When conducting a monthly TikTok video performance, you should pay attention to:
- Long-term trends. Check if there are chances in the views your videos are getting and the impact of the follower growth numbers. Rather than looking at the absolute numbers, you can compare how the social media metrics compare from one month to another.
- Get future optimization efforts. Consider the kind of content that seems to resonate with your current audience. Which kind of video received the highest number of views? These insights will help to guide your future video optimization efforts. For instance, you can check and notice that the post with the highest number of views has a similar theme of humor, which could be a sign that your target audience prefers humorous content. When checking for patterns, consider both the top- and bottom-performing videos.
On top of tracking metrics such as engagement and review views, pay attention to data such as the audience retention rate and check for drops in performance.
Advanced TikTok Videos Analysis Methods
It's also important to pay attention to the in-depth video performance. You can do that using two methods. These are:
Content Themes Analysis
All kinds of TikTok videos have a particular theme, such as humor, product education, and customer journey related to a niche. That also means you need to have a theme for your content pillars. But why is this analysis necessary? Unless you truly understand why someone would like to watch a video, it can be hard to create a successful video.
Many people go to TikTok to get entertained, so humorous content is likely to work well. If you are creating overly promotional content, this can impact engagement. A good idea is to find a balance between entertaining and promotional content. You can leverage these TikTok video content ideas for B2B brands. You can then use content pillar analysis to validate your decisions, ensuring that you are aligning your content with the client’s goals.
Competitor Analysis
No matter how good your TikTok video performance is, if your competitors are performing better than you, it means you have work to do. A competitor analysis will provide you with insights into your competitors’ performance. It involves tracking the top metrics of your competitors, such as the video views and the engagement from the videos.
Take time to also check your competitor's posting schedule. Is it consistent? Are they creating content that feels intentional and unique, or are they just having some random videos without a clear purpose? Check your competitor’s content pillars to see if you are missing any that may be driving a lot of followers to the TikTok profile. You can find out by looking at competitors’ content.
You might discover that your competitors’ content pillars include customer stories and testimonials. When you discover that this kind of content is performing better than industry news, it is a sign that you may need to add it. Take time to review your competitors' best-performing content and reverse-engineer it.
When checking their best-performing content, you should pay attention to the tone used in every post, the type of CTA they use in the captions to increase engagement, and the storytelling techniques that make the content outstanding. When you observe these elements, you can identify the kinds of content that resonate with your audience and use them to build a stronger content strategy.
Key Video Metrics to Analyze
So, which TikTok video metrics should you analyze? Here are a number of them to consider:
- Audience demographics/ profile views. The TikTok profile views can show the number of people who visit your profile after watching your videos. It can show a good level of genuine interest and the follower growth rate. Audience demographics will show who your profile viewers are, complete with metrics like age, location, and gender. If your demographic isn't from your target market, it can indicate that your content isn't bringing the right target audience.
- Follower growth. A metric that tracks the increase of your TikTok audience over a given time, illustrating the content themes or videos receiving the highest number of followers. Check if there are spikes in the follower growth, an indicator of well-performing videos.
- Video views. This metric, which shows the number of times your video is watched, is a clear indicator of the visibility and reach of the content.
- Engagement rate. This metric tracks how viewers are actively engaging with the content through likes, shares, saves, and comments. If your content is getting a high engagement rate, it indicates that it resonates with the target audience and is sparking participation and reactions.
In Conclusion
Unless you are tracking your TikTok videos’ performance, it can be hard to determine what is working and what isn’t. On the other hand, a TikTok video analysis can provide insight into the kind of videos that are likely to receive millions of views. Therefore, use the above steps to conduct a TikTok video analysis.