In a 2022 study, 20.6% of social media shoppers said they buy products they see on TikTok “all of the time.” That percentage was higher on TikTok than on any other social platform.
Plenty of brands can tell you this firsthand. Last February, when Sider’s Woodcrafting, a maker of cutting boards, had a video go viral on TikTok. Traffic to its website increased by 4,000%. Within a day, it had entirely sold out of its merchandise.
TikTok can become a steady revenue source, too. The clothing brand Sani says that as much as 60% of its monthly revenue comes from people who discover it on TikTok. Those are enormous numbers for a nascent social media platform.
But how do you rack up those video views—and, by extension, those sales—in the first place?
The secret to getting a higher number of views on TikTok is simple: You need a high video completion rate.
If most people finish watching your video, TikTok will assume it’s an engaging video, and it will push it to users’ For You Pages (FYP). If most people don’t finish watching, however, then TikTok will assume the video isn’t worth promoting to most users.
That means, to take your view count to the next level, every editing choice you make should focus on giving your audience a reason to watch your video until the end. And bonus points if you can get people to re-watch your video in high numbers.
Here are some tricks you can use:
Most TikTok videos are structured around a reveal in the final seconds of the video. One popular video, for instance, opens with a TikToker announcing, “Guys, I’m panicking,” before revealing that his panic is all about not having “something sweet” to eat after his meal.
Here’s the secret: When you make the final reveal of your video extremely quick, just 1-2 seconds, it encourages viewers to re-watch the video. This is helpful for multiple reasons:
A blogger and TikToker did a side-by-side comparison of two otherwise identical videos. In one, the final shot lasted 4-5 seconds. In another, the final shot lasted only 1 second. When the shot was longer, her video got 4,460 views.
But when she cut down the last moment to just 1 second, so many people re-watched it that she netted 1.6 million views, which is roughly 358 times more than the first.
If there is a lot of text splashed across the video, as long as the video is engaging, people will try to read it. The more they read, the longer they watch it. A study from Hootsuite concluded, “The more text you have on the screen, the better. It increases watch time.”
The one caveat: there has to be a point to the text. It has to be funny, or have a clear takeaway. If it doesn’t, viewers will stop reading and swipe to the next video.
The biggest mistake a brand can make is to spend a lot of money creating TikTok videos that feel too professional. TikTok is dominated by front-facing camera videos: regular people talking into the camera on their walk, on their couch, from under the covers of their bed.
The low production quality is part of the appeal. People watch TikTok videos for the stories or the insights, not for the production value. When a brand posts a sleekly filmed video, it will immediately look out of place on someone’s FYP, and they’re likely to treat it as an ad and swipe away.
TikTok gives one really important hint about what it wants to see. 25% of the top-performing videos are between 21 and 34 seconds, according to the company. In other words, keeping your video generally in the range of 30 seconds is a good strategy.
This isn’t a strict rule, of course, but there is a definite risk in making videos that are too long. For now, long videos tend to peter out. A VP of media at ESPN said in November 2021, “I haven’t seen it work exceedingly well for anyone.”
TikTok displays your videos vertically, and you want to make sure they look good that way. Videos with a 9:16 aspect ratio saw 60.5% more impressions than other kinds of content.
TikTok says hashtags are one of the pieces of information it uses when it decides which videos to recommend on a given user’s FYP. However, a trending hashtag isn’t the most important factor.
By adding accurate and relevant hashtags to your post, you can ensure your videos reach your desired viewers.
Brands should also be sure to add shopping-specific hashtags, like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, so people who browse those hashtags can discover your video.
When it determines whether to promote a video more widely, TikTok prioritizes engagement almost as much as the completion rate. Metrics that affect your engagement rate include: TikTok likes, comments, shares, and downloads.
However, commenting is especially important. Some experts estimate a single comment is 15x to 20x as valuable as a like.
You want to create an active comments section, where you are engaging directly with your fans. With Chatdesk, our Experts can respond to customer questions directly in the TikTok comments. We’re the only customer support platform to integrate with TikTok. To learn more, schedule a free demo with us today.
(Chatdesk customer support teams will reply to your viewers directly in the comments, helping to drive engagement and sales)
(Chatdesk customer support teams will reply to your viewers directly in the comments, helping to drive engagement and sales)
Words of advice for producing quality videos that pull in views — like using good lighting and creating educational content — are tried and tested. However, some so-called “TikTok hacks” offered by other tutorials aren’t as effective.
When Kapwing, a studio for social media creators, tested what goes viral on TikTok, they found that 8 of their 10 most popular videos didn’t include audio at all. Instead of trying to hop on a popular sound, it’s always better to prioritize unique, high-quality content of your own.
TikTok knows when a video has been re-posted, and it will usually assign it even less reach than it gave to the original version of the video.
There’s one exception, according to Kapwing: If your video has at least a 1:10 like-to-view ratio, and if you see a quick editing fix you can make to improve the video, then you can repost it. Otherwise, don’t bother.
Commenting on other people’s videos is a great way to bring viewers to your TikTok account without paying for advertising.
The best way to do this: Find niche—but trending—types of content that in some ways relates to your product, and then leave a comment on it. You can even try commenting on a TikTok influencer’s video. Just make sure that their TikTok followers are composed of your target audience. Proactive social engagement is something Chatdesk can help you with too.
A popular subgenre, for instance, involves TikTok users rating the bathrooms of people they just hooked up with. In one video, a girl praised a boy for having both Cetaphil and Moroccan Oil in his bathroom. Both brands found the video, and they left short, witty comments of support.
These comments don’t feel like intrusions, exemplified by the fact that the original TikTok creator liked and responded to them. They also are a great way to get viewers to click over to your TikTok profile and discover your videos.
