TikTok has exploded in popularity over the past few years, becoming one of the most used social media platforms globally. As of January 2023, TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide (Source). On TikTok, users can create and share short videos, follow content creators, and interact with videos through likes, comments, shares, etc.
One important metric on TikTok is profile views – the number of times a user’s profile has been viewed. Profile views indicate how much reach and visibility a creator has on the platform. For TikTok creators and influencers, having a high number of profile views is a sign of a growing audience and demonstrates authority in their niche.
But does every TikTok user accumulate profile views? Or are there some accounts that get very few or no profile views at all? This article explores whether all TikTok users receive profile views.
TikTok User Statistics
In 2023, TikTok has over 1.3 billion active monthly users globally, according to Shopify. This represents massive growth from just 500 million global users in mid-2018. TikTok is now one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.
The countries with the most TikTok users are China with 244 million monthly active users, India with 247 million, the United States with 73 million, and Brazil with 56 million. While the user base skews young, over 40% of TikTok’s monthly active users are aged 30 and older according to Hootsuite.
TikTok’s growth has been explosive. The app saw 315% year-over-year new user growth as of early 2022, far exceeding competitors like Instagram and Snapchat. However, established platforms like Facebook and YouTube still have much larger total user bases of 2.5 billion and 2.1 billion users respectively.
How Profile Views Work
On TikTok, profile views allow you to see how many times other users have visited your profile page. Anyone visiting your profile, even if they aren’t following you, will get counted as a profile view. According to TikTok’s help center, profile views update approximately every 24 hours.
TikTok’s algorithm determines whose profiles you see in your Profile Views list. Factors that influence which profiles you see include accounts you engage with frequently, accounts that engage with you, location, interests, and content relevance. The algorithm aims to show you a mix of expected and surprising profiles tailored to you.
Other factors that can influence your profile views include using relevant hashtags, trending audios, participating in viral TikTok trends, engaging with your followers, posting consistently, and running TikTok ads. Having an interesting, complete bio and profile also helps attract profile views. Overall, creating content optimized for the TikTok algorithm is key to getting more profile visits.
Variability in Profile Views
The number of profile views can vary greatly depending on the TikTok account. Accounts with more followers and that post more frequently tend to get more profile views than accounts with fewer followers and less frequent posting. According to Mashable, “more popular accounts have profile views in the tens of thousands, while smaller creators see views in the hundreds.”
Other factors that influence profile views include the type of content posted, how engaging the content is, whether the account uses paid TikTok advertising, and the number of viral videos. Accounts focused on viral trends and challenges tend to see spikes in profile views. Having a video go viral can lead to a massive boost in profile views. As Mashable notes, “If one of your videos blows up…your profile views will get a significant bump.”
Essentially, the more visibility and engagement an account has, the more views their profile will receive. But even within a similar tier of followers and engagement, profile views can vary dramatically based on the type of content and viewership patterns. As TikTok usage evolves, most accounts will see fluctuating profile views rather than constant growth.
Inactive Users
An inactive TikTok account is defined as one that has not been logged into or posted content for 180 days or more. According to TikTok’s inactive account policy, usernames associated with inactive accounts may be removed after prolonged periods of inactivity.
Inactive accounts are unlikely to accumulate new profile views unless the account owner returns and starts engaging again. Since these accounts have no new content or activity, there is little reason for other users to view their profiles.
TikTok does not provide public statistics on the number or percentage of inactive accounts. However, it’s reasonable to assume a large platform like TikTok has many user accounts that have gone inactive over time as people’s interests shifted or they stopped using the app.
While inactive accounts may maintain their existing profile view count, they are unlikely to gain many new profile views unless the owner resumes posting content and interacting with other TikTok users again.
Strategies to Get More Profile Views
There are several strategies TikTok users can employ to get more profile views:
Focus on creating quality, engaging content. Interesting, funny, informative, or viral-worthy videos are more likely to earn profile views as they get more exposure.
Use relevant hashtags so your content comes up in searches. Popular hashtags like #fyp and #foryou can help videos be discovered.
Interact with your audience by commenting on videos, reacting to comments, going live, etc. Being active in the TikTok community leads to more profile visits.
Utilize cross-promotion by linking your other social media accounts in your TikTok bio. This allows followers from other platforms to check out your TikTok profile.
Run TikTok ads and influencer campaigns. Paid promotions, especially through popular creators, can direct significant traffic to your profile.
Post consistently to stay top of mind. Having new content for viewers to watch keeps them coming back to your profile.
Use captions, hashtags and sounds to optimize content. Making videos searchable results in more views.
Go live regularly. Live videos notify all your followers and can attract many profile views.
Analyze your analytics to optimize based on your best-performing content.
Collaborate with other creators. Appearing in duo videos or doing shoutout swaps exposes you to new audiences.
Paid Advertising
TikTok offers robust paid advertising options to help creators promote their profiles and gain more views. According to TikTok’s help documentation, creators can use the Promote tool to create and run ads to attract users to their profiles.
Paid ads can be an effective way to quickly boost profile views. As noted in a Hootsuite blog post, advertisers can pay based on objectives like profile visits. TikTok advertisers typically pay around $0.10 per profile visit from an ad.
But paid advertising has limitations. As Databox explains, the paid profile visit rate only measures the percentage of users who click an ad then visit the profile page. It doesn’t account for further engagement.
While paid ads can drive profile traffic, creators still need compelling content and engagement strategies to convert visitors into lasting followers and fans. Paid ads alone won’t necessarily improve long-term growth.
Bots and Fake Views
Some TikTok users attempt to artificially inflate their profile views by using bots or buying fake views from third-party services. Bots are automated programs that can continuously view a user’s profile to drive up their view count. Services selling fake views will run bot networks to add views to user accounts after purchase.
There are several risks associated with using fake views. TikTok has sophisticated systems to detect artificial activity and may suspend accounts using bots or fake services. Buying views also goes against TikTok’s community guidelines and undermines the integrity of the platform. Fake viewers do not represent real people interested in your content.
TikTok is very active in trying to combat artificial profile views and fake activity. They use machine learning systems to analyze behavior patterns and identify bot accounts. TikTok frequently suspends accounts caught using third-party services to boost profile views. The company sees this as crucial to maintaining TikTok’s authentic user experience.
Profile Views vs Other Metrics
While profile views are an important metric on TikTok, there are several other key metrics that can help measure success and engagement. Some of the most important TikTok metrics to track include:
- Followers – The number of followers indicates your potential reach and audience size. However, not all followers actively engage, so profile views can show who is actually visiting your profile.
- Likes – The number of likes on your videos shows content engagement. Likes help make videos more discoverable on TikTok. Profile views indicate interest even without likes.
- Comments – Comments demonstrate active engagement with your videos. However, profile views capture traffic even if users don’t comment.
- Shares – When users share your video it expands reach. But profile views measure reach and interest before shares occur.
While metrics like followers, likes, comments, and shares are all valuable, profile views provide additional insight into audience behavior. Profile views give a more complete picture of total interest and traffic to your profile and content.
According to industry experts, the most important TikTok metrics to track are reach, engagement rate, audience retention, traffic sources, hashtag performance, and audience demographics (Socialinsider.io, 2024). Monitoring profile views along with these other metrics can optimize your TikTok strategy.
Conclusion
In summary, not everyone on TikTok has the same number of profile views. The amount of profile views a user has depends on many factors like account activity level, posting frequency, content quality, engagement with others, and use of advertising. While some accounts, especially larger influencer accounts, have millions or even billions of profile views, most regular users only have hundreds or thousands of profile views. Profile views alone are also not the best metric for measuring account success on TikTok. More important metrics are follower count, likes, comments, and video views. To conclude, profile views vary widely across TikTok, and not everyone has a high number of profile views. The key factors that lead to more profile views are consistently creating engaging, high-quality content, actively engaging with others, running ads, and using appropriate hashtag and caption strategies to get content seen by more users.
