How To Increase Your TikTok Engagement Rate In 2024?

With over 1.67 billion active monthly users, Tiktok is undoubtedly the most powerful platform for brands to build a loyal and engaged audience. 

However, attracting and retaining your followers’ attention on TikTok is no easy feat. It requires more than merely following the latest trends and hoping your video goes viral.

Even though there is no sure-shot path to success for TikTok marketing, following these 9 growth hacks can help you attract your target audience’s attention and drive more engagement on TikTok.

What is TikTok Engagement Rate, and how to calculate it?

Before diving deep into the various growth hacks to boost your engagement, let us understand what TikTok’s engagement rate is.

Engagement Rate (ER) is a social media metric that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your content and understand how engaged your audience is with your content. 

The higher the ER, the better.

Here is the TikTok engagement calculator formula to calculate the engagement rate.

TikTok Engagement Rate = [(Total Number of Likes + Comments + Shares)/Total Number of Views] * 100

9 Killer tactics to increase TikTok engagement rate in 2024

With TikTok’s growing popularity, marketers are constantly looking for ways to make their videos stand out and achieve better engagement. It’s no wonder that 52% of marketers using TikTok as a part of their marketing plan and looking to increase their investment in 2023 and beyond

However, to boost engagement and capture your audience’s attention, you need to do more than produce videos based on trends. 

Let’s look at some proven growth hacks to help you gain your audience’s attention and increase engagement. 

1. Take inspiration from top brand pages

There’s no doubt that TikTok is one of the most effective platforms for growing your brand. Many successful brands are already killing it on TikTok by creating engaging content, which allows them to reach a broader audience and build stronger relationships with their followers.

While some brands use TikTok to showcase their products in a fun and creative way, others use it to tell their brand story and connect with their customers on a deeper level. And if you’re looking to grow your brand by building a more engaging audience on TikTok for marketing, it’s important to take inspiration from successful brands and learn how to market on TikTok.

One great example is the EdTech brand Duolingo. Thanks to their creative and engaging content, they’ve built a massive 4.9M following on TikTok. From witty challenges to creative videos, Duolingo knows how to capture the attention of its target audience-making it a star on the platform.

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When you analyze brands like Duolingo, you will see that entertainment rather than promotion is the key to growing an audience on TikTok.

TikTok analytics can help you see how you rank against your competitors and the insights can be used to win more followers. 

2. Leverage user-generated content 

User-generated content is a great way to increase engagement on TikTok, allowing users to be creative and have fun with the platform. 

This content can be user-generated videos about your product and services and challenges or hashtags encouraging users to participate and create more content. Additionally, you can encourage users to use the Duet and Stitch features of the app to create unique new content using your content.

Besides connecting with your target audience, UGC also helps you to boost your brand awareness and facilitate more sales. According to a Stackla study, 80% of respondents stated that they trusted consumer-generated content more, and it influenced their buying decisions.

One of the top brands that utilize UGC effectively is GoPro. Their page has several UGC videos highlighting newly launched products, product quality, and product durability. Using this approach, they have managed to build a TikTok page with over 2.2 million subscribers.

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3. Invest in TikTok ads 

TikTok ads are short, creative, and attention-grabbing, making them an excellent way to reach new audiences, increase engagement, and boost sales. 

TikTok boasts of having one of the most engaging user bases, with 15% better engagement rates than other platforms. Thus, TikTok ads offer brands a great opportunity to reach a highly engaged audience. 

Additionally, the fact that 72% of TikTokers find advertising on the platform inspiring proves that brands are actively tailoring their ads to appeal to the platform’s users. 

Here are some tips for creating engaging TikTok ads to reach a wider audience:

• Identify your target market
• Start with an engaging hook or high-impact visual 
• Keep your ads short and concise
• Take advantage of viral trends
• Use trending music
• Leverage user-generated content

The haircare company K18 reported a 70% increase in average daily sales after launching their first paid campaign on TikTok. Within a month, this campaign generated 27 million views, and the hashtag #K18Hair was viewed over 73 million times and enabled K18 to grow from 2k to 20k followers.

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4. Research viral trends and #hashtags (or start your own)

What makes TikTok really stand out is the ability it provides its users to create and leverage viral trends and hashtags.

When a trend goes viral on TikTok, it has the potential to reach a massive audience. TikTok analytics tool helps you increase your followers and TikTok engagement rate by tracking TikTok trends and hashtags. Doing so can ensure that your content is timely, relevant, and capitalizes on the latest trends. 

That could mean creating videos that feature popular TikTok challenges or using trending hashtags and audio in their content. 

Gymshark is a leading fitness brand on TikTok known for leveraging TikTok challenges and hashtags. Their 66 Days: Change Your Life challenge became a massive success, with their hashtag #gymshark66 generating 193 million views.

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Pro tip: Using tools like Keyhole’s social listening Analytics, you can track particular hashtags and see if they are worth adding to your posts or not. You can even track particular trends and check top posts, engagement metrics, influencers, etc..

5. Inculcate storytelling into your marketing strategy

It’s no secret that businesses that create authentic content on TikTok find the most success. However, engaging storytelling is what makes content perform at that next level. Additionally, creating narrative formats that are simple to execute at scale will save both time and money.

Furthermore, you can also encourage your audience to create content that involves simple storytelling through trends and challenges–this has the potential to skyrocket your engagement rate.

A leading social media marketing agency Fanbytes leveraged storytelling to maintain the momentum of JP Saxe’s track ‘If the world were ending.’

They asked influencers to create scenarios for the ‘If the world were ending’ track and showcase memories they missed during the lockdown.

The TikTok campaign helped Fanbytes gain 400,000 influencer views, 550,000+ user-generated content views, and a 31.53% engagement rate.

6. Provide clear descriptions for your TikTok videos

Video description and hashtags help you describe your video effectively –increasing visibility and engagement rate on TikTok.

In a new updateTikTok has increased its video descriptions’ character limit to 2,200 characters from 300 (as first reported by social media consultant Matt Navarra). This means you have more space to experiment and explain your video. 

According to TikTok, users should write longer descriptions to make their content more searchable and likely to appear on other users’ “For You” pages.

Furthermore, speaking your audience’s language in the video descriptions will help you draw their attention and encourage them to engage with your content–connecting with them on a deeper level.

Here’s an example of Xbox Canada’s video making an inside joke about “The Headset Dent,” which most of their target customers and gamers will relate to. Since the joke is relatable, relevant, and engaging for a specific audience, it’ll definitely resonate with them, encouraging them to engage.

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7. Formulate a solid hashtag strategy

All your effort in creating quality content will be in vain if you can’t get it in front of the right audience. A solid hashtag strategy can increase your content visibility, help you identify competitors, and even give you ideas for TikTok marketing.

Using hashtags is a great way to categorize your content, making it easier for users to find your content and also assisting the TikTok algorithm in displaying it to the right people. 

Tips for using hashtags on Tiktok 

• Utilize niche hashtags to reach your target audience

• Reach a wider audience by using a mixture of popular and niche hashtags

• Be sure to use a maximum of three to four hashtags per post

• Ensure your hashtags are relevant to your content

• Use trending hashtags, and don’t shy away from hashtag challenges

A top footwear brand, Crocs, claims that using brand-specific hashtags (#Croctober,#CrocTok, #CrocsOnRoblox, etc.) is an integral part of its winning social media strategy on TikTok.

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8. Leverage TikTok live-stream 

With TikTok live streams, you can interact in real-time with users and create a more personal connection. Going live can also significantly increase brand awareness, generate leads, and drive conversions. It is estimated that consumers will spend $17.2 billion via social apps this year and most of this money will go to their favorite creators.

Tips to make the most of TikTok live streams

• Pick the right time: Choose a time when your audience is most active. 

• Keep it short: It is recommended to keep your live stream no more than 30 minutes.

• Plan your live stream: Although a script is not necessary, planning your live stream in advance can help you stay focused.

• Respond to comments: Engage your viewers in the chat by responding to their comments, questions, or requests.

Using their TikTok Mega Mall, Colgate leveraged TikTok live streams extensively and gained over 214.8M total impressions, leading to 1.4M unique visitors to their TikTok Mega Mall.

9. Track engagement with analytics 

As TikTok grows, it becomes very important for you to be at the top of your game to stay relevant. To achieve a high TikTok engagement rate, you need to understand how your content is performing, which content resonates with your audience, and tailor your content strategy accordingly.

An analytics tool can help you monitor TikTok engagement and see how your content performs. Your brand’s engagement can be gauged by metrics such as video views, follower growth, comments, likes, and shares. Based on the demographic data of your TikTok audience, you can find out where your followers are from, their gender, and what days and times they are most active. With all of this information, you can customize and target your content so that it resonates and reaches your audience. 

You can use tools like Keyhole’s TikTok Analytics to track your engagement with the help of their live dashboard, which brings all the required data together in one place.

This analytical tool can also help you to:

• Analyze the performance of your profile.

• Keep track of your top hashtags based on engagement. 

• Get recommendations on how to increase views, likes, and comments. 

• Analyze your competitors’ performance and see what better you can do

• Find out what your audience liked and disliked.

• Track keywords and hashtags to monitor their populairity and sentiment.

Conclusion 

These were some of the proven growth hacks that will surely increase your TikTok engagement rate and bring you more TikTok followers if appropriately implemented. While all these growth hacks are great, the most important thing is always to post quality content consistently. The quality of your content and the value it brings to your community will ultimately drive more engagement.

Finally, have fun and be creative – the more unique and engaging your content is, the more likely people will notice your TikTok account.