How to See Video Insights on TikTok

Ever post a TikTok video you thought was a guaranteed hit, only to watch it get fewer views than a video of your cat sleeping? We've all been there. The good news is that TikTok gives you all the tools you need to stop guessing and start understanding what your audience truly wants to see. This guide will walk you through exactly how to find, read, and use your video insights to create content that really performs.

First Things First: You Need an Analytics-Ready Account

Before you can see any meaningful data, you need to make sure your account is set up for it. TikTok analytics are only available for Creator or Business Accounts - they're not enabled for standard Personal Accounts. If you're still using a Personal Account, switching is free, easy, and absolutely necessary if you're serious about growing your profile.

Switching is a smart move. Not only do you get access to analytics, but these accounts also offer features tailored for creators and brands, like the ability to add a link in your bio (once you meet certain criteria) and access to different music libraries.

How to Switch to a Creator or Business Account

If you're ready to make the switch, it only takes a minute. Just follow these steps:

1. Open the TikTok app and go to your Profile page.
2. Tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger menu") in the top-right corner.
3. Select Settings and privacy from the menu.
4. Tap on Account.
5. Choose Switch to Business Account or tap on Creator tools to get the option for a Creator Account. TikTok will guide you through the last few steps, like selecting a category that best describes your content or business.

A quick tip: The main difference between the two is access to audio. Business Accounts are limited to a Commercial Music Library of royalty-free sounds to avoid copyright issues. Creator Accounts have access to the full library of trending sounds and popular music, which can be an advantage for content creators who rely on trends.

How to See Your Individual Video Insights

Once you’re set up with the right account type, checking the performance of a specific video is simple. Analytics won't appear instantly, give your video at least 24 hours to collect enough data to be useful. After that, you can check in on its performance anytime.

Here’s how to find the insights for any individual video:

• Step 1: Go to Your Profile. Open TikTok and navigate to your main profile grid where all your videos are displayed.
• Step 2: Choose Your Video. Tap on the video you want to analyze to open it in full-screen mode.
• Step 3: Access More Options. Look on the right side of the screen. Tap the three-dot icon (...) below the "Save" icon. On some versions of the app, this might just say "More data" at the bottom of the screen.
• Step 4: Select Analytics. A menu will pop up from the bottom. Find and tap the Analytics button (it often has a small bar graph icon).

That's it! You’ll be taken to a detailed dashboard breaking down every aspect of that video’s performance. Now, let's look at what all those numbers actually mean.

Decoding Your TikTok Video Analytics: The Metrics That Matter

Staring at a dashboard full of numbers can be confusing, but each metric tells a unique story about your content and your audience. Your analytics are typically broken down into a few different sections. Let’s go through them one by one.

The "Performance" Tab: The Big Picture

This section gives you an immediate overview of how your video did from an engagement perspective. It's the first thing you'll see and provides the topline numbers.

Total Video Views

This is the total number of times your video has been viewed. It’s a great initial indicator of reach, but it doesn't tell the whole story. A video could have tons of views but low engagement if people scroll away after two seconds. A better way to contextualize it is by comparing it to your follower count. If a video gets significantly more views than you have followers, it means it successfully broke out onto the For You Page.

Engagement Numbers: Likes, Comments, Shares, and Saves

These four actions are the bread and butter of TikTok engagement. They're not all created equal:

• Likes: This is a simple, low-effort way for a viewer to say, "I enjoyed this." It's a positive signal to the algorithm, but the weakest of the four.
• Comments: Comments require more effort and show that your video sparked a reaction - good, bad, or funny. They are a much stronger signal to TikTok that your content is making an impact.
• Shares: A share is a powerful endorsement. When someone shares your video, they're not just telling TikTok they like it, they're telling their friends, family, or followers. This is how videos truly go viral, as each share introduces your content to a new pocket audience.
• Saves: Saves (formerly Favorites) might be the most underrated metric. When a user saves your video, they're flagging it as valuable, informative, or entertaining enough to watch again later. This is a huge indicator that you're creating evergreen content that provides real utility or high entertainment value.

The "Viewers" Tab: Audience Behavior Broken Down

This is arguably the most important section for understanding the quality of your content. High view counts don't mean much if people aren't actually watching your video.

Total Play Time

This number represents the cumulative amount of time everyone has spent watching your video. While it's cool to see a big number here, it's a bit of a vanity metric on its own. It's more heavily influenced by view count than by actual watchability.

Average Watch Time

This is one of the most important metrics on your entire dashboard. It tells you the average duration people watched your video before swiping away. For example, if you have a 30-second video with an average watch time of 21 seconds, that's incredibly strong. If your average watch time is only 4 seconds, you know you're losing viewers' attention very quickly.

Your goal should always be to get this number as close to your video's total length as possible. This metric directly tells the algorithm whether your content is good at keeping users on the app - which is TikTok's primary goal.

Watched Full Video

This percentage shows you how many viewers made it all the way to the end. It's the ultimate sign of a successful video. While a 100% completion rate is unlikely, anything over 30-40% is generally considered really good, especially for longer videos. If this number is consistently low, it could mean your intros are engaging but your endings are weak.

New Followers

This one is simple but powerful: it's the number of people who liked your video so much they tapped the "+" to follow your account. It's the clearest measure of how a single video contributes to your overall channel growth.

Putting Your Insights into Action: From Data to Better Content

Metrics are useless unless you use them to make better videos. Your analytics are a direct line of communication from your audience. They're telling you what works and what doesn’t. Here’s how to listen.

Spot Your Winners and Find the Pattern

Go through your last 10-15 videos. Which one had the highest average watch time? Which had the most shares or saves? Don't just look at views. The videos that kept people’s attention and encouraged them to hit "save" are your roadmap.

Did these videos share a common theme, format, or editing style? Maybe they all started with a confrontational question, used a list format ("5 Mistakes You're Making"), or featured a specific type of humor. Whatever the pattern is, that's what your audience is responding to. Your mission is to double down on that.

Analyze Your Hooks and Drop-Off Points

If you see a lot of your videos have a low average watch time (e.g., 3-5 seconds on a 20-second video), you almost certainly have a "hook problem." The first 1-3 seconds of your TikTok video are the most critical. You have to give the viewer a compelling reason to stop scrolling.

Re-watch the beginning of your worst-performing videos. Are they slow? Vague? Boring? Compare them to the hooks of your best performers. The difference is often obvious. Maybe your best videos jump right into the action, use bold on-screen text, or state a controversial opinion from the very first frame.

Understand How People are Finding You

Within your analytics, you'll find a section called Traffic Sources. This tells you where your viewers came from. The main sources are:

• For You: These are views from the For You Page, TikTok’s discovery engine. High numbers here mean the algorithm liked your video and pushed it to a broad audience.
• Personal Profile: Views from people who clicked on your profile and watched the video from there.
• Following: Views from your existing followers who saw it on their "Following" feed.
• Search: Views from users who found your video after searching for a specific keyword or hashtag. A high percentage here indicates your TikTok SEO is strong.

If you get a lot of "Search" traffic on a certain video, look at the keywords and hashtags you used. This topic is clearly in demand and something you should create more content about.

Create for a Specific Action

Think about what your content is designed to do. Is it a quick tip someone would want to save for later? Or is it a hot take designed to start a debate in the comments? Looking at which metrics a video excels in can help clarify its purpose.

• High Saves? Your audience finds your content highly practical. Make more tutorials, checklists, and how-to guides.
• High Comments? You're great at sparking conversation. Keep making videos with questions, opinion polls, and relatable scenarios.
• High Shares? You excel at making content that is highly shareable - often because it's funny, super relatable, or deeply emotional. Lean into that style.

By aligning your content ideas with the engagement type you're aiming for, you can be much more intentional - and successful - in your content strategy.

Final Thoughts

Understanding your TikTok video insights is the difference between creating content randomly and building a deliberate, effective content strategy. By regularly checking your views, average watch time, engagement signals, and audience behavior, you can move beyond guesswork and make smarter decisions that lead to real growth.

Once you get a handle on your TikTok analytics, tracking performance across all your other channels can feel just as overwhelming. We built Postbase to make this easier by putting all your cross-platform analytics into one clean dashboard. Instead of jumping between apps, you can understand what's resonating on TikTok, Instagram, and more, all at a glance - helping you turn raw data into a cohesive, powerful content strategy.