You’ve embraced the short-form video app that’s been sweeping the globe (2 billion downloads and counting!) but how does TikTok work.
But making creative videos about donut cereal is just one step in building a successful TikTok presence. Because you’ve got to get people to actually watch your videos, too.
What is a “view” on TikTok?
Different social media platforms measure “views” in different ways, but on TikTok, its super simple: the very second your video starts to play; it’s counted as a view.
If the video auto plays or loops, or a viewer comes back to watch it multiple times, those all count as new views. (When you watch your own video, however, those views are not counted.)
Getting someone to watch all the way to the end? That’s a different story. But with that fairly low barrier to entry for what counts as a “view,” but how does TikTok work in racking up the metrics on it isn’t too tough.
How does TikTok work with pay per view?
TikTok launched its Creator Fund in August 2020 to offer payouts to the platform’s most popular and successful users. So how does TikTok work:
“Through the TikTok Creator Fund, our creators will be able to realize additional earnings that help reward the care and dedication they put into creatively connecting with an audience that’s inspired by their ideas.”
There’s no standardized fee amount or payment plan (the amount available in the Creator Fund changes daily, apparently), but expect to make between $0.02 and $0.04 per 1,000 views.
But not just anyone can cash in on TikTok’s generosity. To be eligible for TikTok Creator Fund payments, you need to meet all of the following criteria:
- Be at least 18 years old.
- Have a minimum of 10,000 followers.
- Have had a minimum of 100,000 video views in the past 30 days.
- Be based in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain or Italy. (Sorry, Canada!)
- Your account needs to meet the TikTok Community Guidelines and Terms of Service.
If that’s you, you can apply for the Creator Fund via the app. Go to Settings and Privacy, then Creator Tools, then TikTok Creator Fund. If you’re eligible, you’ll be prompted to enter your contact info and agree to the Creator Fund Agreement.
Should you buy TikTok views?
No! You shouldn’t buy TikTok views! Stop it! Put that credit card down! So how does TikTok work when you buy its views?
As we learned from our recent experiment of buying TikTok followers, it’s not possible to shop for social media success.
Maybe your view metrics will go up, but your engagement rate will plummet, you won’t gain any followers, and the audience you’ve hired to watch will all eventually be removed by TikTok anyways.
Save your money, and invest your time instead… into following these hot tips for building authentic, lasting engagement.
Ways to get more TikTok views
Hashtags are a powerful tool in your TikTok arsenal. It’s how the all-mighty TikTok algorithm identifies what you’re posting about and who might be interested in watching it. Hashtags are also essential for helping users discover your content via search.
There’s also some evidence to suggest trending topics are more likely to end up on the For You page, so it can be worthwhile to watch for what’s currently trending and hop into the conversation with related content (that’s still authentic to your brand, of course).
To find out how does TikTok work with which hashtags are trending, tap on the Discover tab, and then tap Trends at the top of the screen.
Find your specific audience
There’s a specific sub-genre of TikTok for everyone out there, from the oh-so literary BookTok to a vibrant rug-tufting community. Figure out who you want to be hanging out with, and observe popular accounts in those communities to see what sort of hashtags, formats and references they might be using to inspire your own related content.
