TikTok Analytics: What Affiliate Marketers Need to Know
- March 19, 2024
TikTok isn’t quite like other social media platforms out there. And that’s especially true when it comes to TikTok analytics. But, once you learn how to access and use the data and metrics TikTok gives you, you’re well on your way to monetizing your latest dance challenge video (or whatever kind of content you produce ?).
For creators and influencers looking to earn money from their content, TikTok makes an effort to stand out from the likes of Instagram and YouTube. Lately, affiliate marketing on TikTok has become more viable as its algorithm is known for out-of-the-blue viral videos, skyrocketing content from just about anyone and everyone to a massive audience.
But harnessing this viral power to get your audience to use your Amazon Associate link (or whichever affiliate program you use) is a mysterious art. And TikTok analytics are the key to solving it.
How to Access Your TikTok Analytics
To access your TikTok analytics, you need to register your account as a TikTok Pro Account (it’s free to do so). Once you have a TikTok Pro Account, you can dive into the performance of your posts, the demographics of your audience and see if people are viewing your profile.
How to Switch to a TikTok Pro Account
- Navigate to your profile and click the three dots at the top right corner.
- Under the “ACCOUNT” heading, click “Manage Account.”
- Under the “Account control” heading, click “Switch to Pro Account.
- Navigate through the TikTok Pro onboarding, then select the category that most accurately fits your TikTok content as well as your gender.
- Verify your email or phone number, and you’re good to go!
How to See Your TikTok Analytics
After you sign up for a TikTok Pro Account, you can access your analytics in three ways: in the mobile app, via desktop, or through an actual video.
Access TikTok analytics in the mobile app: Go to your profile and tap the three dots at the top right. Under the “ACCOUNT” heading, tap “Analytics.”
Access TikTok analytics via desktop: Click your profile photo in the top right and select “Analytics.” Accessing analytics through a desktop is the only place you can download reports and analytics for later analysis.
Access TikTok analytics through an individual video: While watching the video, tap “More (…)” and then tap “Analytics.” This will show the analytics of the video you’re watching.
Once you have access to your analytics, it’s time to start digging into the data and pulling out insights.
The Three Types of Analytics You Have Access to in TikTok
When you access your analytics through the app or via desktop, you have three categories you can dive into: Overview, Content, and Followers. Each category will provide different data at varying time windows and levels of detail.
Overview
The profile Overview tab is the first analytics tab you’ll see, and it provides an overview (surprise, surprise) of your TikTok profile’s performance and follower count. In the Overview tab, you’ll find a dashboard that displays the Count of Video Views, Followers, and Profile Views for the last 7 or 28 days. You can also go up to 60 days or set any custom time window between 7 and 60 days.
Content
The Content tab shows the performance of each video you’ve posted. You can tap into each video to see the following metrics:
- The length of the video and how long it’s been since you posted it.
- The number of likes, comments, and shares the video has earned.
- The total playtime, total views, and average watch time of the video.
- Traffic source type to see where on the internet your audience is coming from.
- Audience territories to see where they are located physically.
What’s essential about TikTok’s Content metrics is that, according to TikTok, “All Content metrics are available for the last seven days only.” You won’t be able to dive very deep into historical metrics by individual video unless you do so manually, checking and recording data in a spreadsheet on your own.
Followers
The Followers tab provides data on your audience, where they’re from, and what kind of posts they like. The metrics you’ll find in this tab are:
- Gender.
- Top territories.
- Changes in follower growth
- Follower activity (shows when your audience is most active).
- Videos your followers watched.
- Songs your followers listened to.
- Number of profile views, which you can toggle between 7-day and 28-day view
When it comes to affiliate marketing, these three categories of TikTok metrics are not created equally. There are a few that stand out as great metrics to watch.
What Makes TikTok Affiliate Marketing Different
Before we dig into relevant TikTok metrics for affiliate marketers, it’s important to understand a few harsh realities about TikTok affiliate marketing. You might think of it as YouTube affiliate marketing with a few extra hurdles.
- You can only add affiliate links to your profile. Your audience will have to navigate to your profile and click the link there for affiliate marketing to work.
- TikTok warns users if a link takes them outside the app. If a user clicks the link in your profile, TikTok will warn them that it is an external link and ask them if they’re sure about leaving TikTok. This is both a security measure and a way for TikTok to keep its users on the platform.
- TikTok video performance fluctuates. TikTok themselves are very upfront about this fact, saying that, “If one of your videos performs differently than others before it, keep in mind that fluctuations are normal…Experimentation is an important part of the creation experience on TikTok.” Don’t focus on the individual performance of your videos. Instead, focus on the overall performance of your profile over time.
These three factors heavily inform our recommendations for which TikTok metrics to track.
Which TikTok Metrics Are Most Important for Affiliate Marketers?
The success of your affiliate marketing efforts depends on your understanding of your audience. The more relevant and honestly helpful your recommendations are, the more people will click your link and the more likely they’ll buy the product (which leads to more commissions!).
With this in mind, we’d point you towards a few places to find useful TikTok analytics for affiliate marketers: profile views in the Overview tab, traffic source type and audience territories in the Content tab, and the entire Followers tab.
Overview Tab: Profile Views
In TikTok affiliate marketing, the goal is to get people to click the link in your TikTok profile. Looking at profile views in your profile overview is how you tell if you’re driving people from the For You Page to your profile in a consistent way.
If you’re not driving profile views, experiment with your videos to increase engagement. You might try using direct calls to action for your audience to click the link in your profile.
If you are driving profile views and even link clicks but are receiving low commissions, it’s time to look at the link itself.
You can use tools like LinkinProfile and Kit.co to make the most of that single link. These tools aren’t necessarily affiliate-first, though, and can run afoul of the FTC’s affiliate linking regulations around proper disclosures.
Fortunately, GeniusLink’s Choice Pages have built-in disclosures, among other features that give your audience a choice of which link to click as well as product comparisons. After implementing Choice Pages, Armando Ferreira of MondoBytes saw a 160% spike in Amazon Associates commissions.
Content Tab: Traffic Source Type and Audience Territories
The Traffic Source Type and Audience Territories metrics in the Content Tab give you a good picture of your audience’s behavior and geographic location. Both are important in affiliate marketing for different reasons.
Knowing where your videos do well (for instance, a video of yours goes viral on Reddit or Twitter), you’ll see where a good chunk of new followers and viewers came from. You can then direct your social media efforts on those platforms to target this audience with your content.
Geographic location is vital in affiliate marketing because localization problems can steal your commissions. If someone in your audience clicks your affiliate link but is from another country, their browser may redirect to a local version of the websites that won’t log your affiliate link.
Localization is why it’s good practice to use a link management service like GeniusLink to make sure that no matter where your audience is located, you’ll get your affiliate commissions.
Try GeniusLink for Free.
Followers Tab: The Whole Thing
Your affiliate marketing will only be as successful as your understanding of your audience. You need to know what your audience is looking for so you can start to narrow your search for the right brands and products to partner with and update your content strategy to fit your target audience.
TikTok’s Followers tab is the best way to understand who your audience is and what kind of content they like. Use this information to tweak your content, experiment, and connect with your audience in an authentic way.
Once you make that honest connection, your audience will trust your recommendations and go through the effort of clicking to your TikTok profile, clicking your link, and purchasing the product from the brand.
It’s essential to have fun with this part. Don’t focus too much on the total likes of one single post, and don’t overthink your analytics. Just try to connect with your target audience. TikTok recommends that you “lean lightly on analytics, and use them as a source for insight rather than strategy.”
We agree. Analytics are just are fun to dive into, but numbers and metrics are no substitute for tried-and-true strategies.
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Author
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