Until recently, most of the marketing campaigns on TikTok were quite frankly trial and error. Brands were aware of the value of TikTok and the enormous potential for audience reach that it held — especially to the more than one billion Gen Z users — but they were unsure exactly how to measure their influencer marketing efforts.
Now — with additions like the contextual advertising feature, TikTok Pulse alongside TikTok Spark Ads — the app is cementing itself as somewhat of a social media marketing weapon. Today, TikTok’s influencer marketing ads are less experimental and more intentional. From hashtag challenges and dances to tutorials, try-ons and duets, brands are using these paid partnerships to start their own ‘trends’ on TikTok. But now that we know how influencer marketing works on TikTok, we need to understand how to measure it.
How are other brands measuring influencer marketing on TikTok today? Exactly which metrics are they using to measure the success of their ads or campaigns on TikTok, and why is it important to keep track of them?
We’ve got the answers.
Here's what you need to know about measuring influencer marketing on TikTok
The key metrics used to measure the success of campaigns on TikTok
Brand awareness
Brand awareness is how familiar consumers or users are with your brand, products, or services. It’s tricky to measure this precisely, but some specific metrics can indicate how many people have seen content associated with your brand, like:
• Total video views
• Total reach of branded hashtag
• Number of plays on a brand song
• Total play time (how much time in total everyone has spent watching your video)
• Reached audience
The total reach of a branded hashtag is a particularly interesting metric here because it takes into account the total number of views for every video that has used the hashtag. It’s a great way to measure the performance of a campaign that involves multiple influencers and user-generated content. 
Engagement
Content engagement metrics show you how many people actually engage with your content, rather than just passively watching it. These metrics are typically viewed as more valuable than views because they let you know if the audience enjoyed the video.
Engagement metrics include:
• Total number of likes or hearts
• Total number of comments
• Total shares
• Total follows
• Average watch time
Let’s dig a little deeper into the average watch time. This is a valuable metric that provides insight into how the unique TikTok algorithm works. The average watch time tells you how long, on average, a user spends watching your video before scrolling away. The longer that a user spends watching your video, the better. It suggests that your video interests them and has caught their attention. Videos with a longer average watch time perform better in the TikTok algorithm and are more likely to go viral — so getting viewers to stick around is vital. 
Virality
TikTok as a platform has allowed Creators and brands to go viral like never before. The nature of the app means that if your content performs well, it could be shown to millions of people who have never encountered your brand before. Other than super successful brand awareness and engagement metrics, some virality metrics to keep an eye on are:
• Number of user-generated videos using your branded hashtag
• Number of user-generated videos using brand song
If your branded hashtag starts trending, that’s when you know you’ve made it. 
Conversion
Conversion metrics are arguably the most important, because they relate most closely to the ultimate goal for the majority of TikTok influencer marketing campaigns: sales or leads. In fact, some of the metrics above can sometimes be referred to as ‘vanity’ metrics because, while they look good and make you feel good, they’re not always indicative of whether you’ve achieved what you set out to do.
Conversion metrics can include:
• Number of sales from TikTok traffic
• Number of TikTok website referrals
Another useful way to track where your paid partnership TikToks are sending your potential customers is to track the activity on the link in your bio. Use a link that tracks clicks to see just how many curious eyes are peeking at your profile during your marketing campaign period.
Influencer’s content and profile analytics
When running a TikTok influencer marketing campaign, it’s important to specify that influencers should share the ad results through their analytics data. Some valuable information is only available to them, so make sure to get a screenshot to see how the ad content performed.
Some of the information you can extract from these analytics includes:
• Total plays
• Total likes
• Total comments
• Total shares
• Total favourites or bookmarks
• Total playtime
• Average watch time
• Watched full video
• Reached audience
• Video views weighting on the For You page vs Personal Profile
• Video Views by region
Ready to set up an influencer marketing campaign on TikTok?
With TikTok still in its early days, it’s a fantastic time to start your influencer marketing journey. The organic reach potential for TikTok is huge, and your brand shouldn’t miss out.
TRIBE can get you started with access to our vetted community of thousands of talented TikTokkers who will pitch their creative ideas to your brief. Request a demo today.
