How to create bingeable Tiktoks

1. Give the TikTok Algorithm the Right Signals

Your performance on TikTok is heavily influenced by how well you understand the algorithm.

As with any social media platform, the more positive signals your video sends to the TikTok algorithm, the more often your content is shown to others. And if it ticks all the boxes for what TikTok cares about, it may even become viral on the For You tab, where your content will be viewed by a large number of people. 

So, how do you optimize content for the algorithm?

While TikTok videos are undoubtedly quick, you may be surprised at how similar the TikTok algorithm is to the YouTube algorithm. Both platforms want users to consume as much content as possible. On TikTok, that's around 10-15 seconds. It might take hours and hours on YouTube.

Let's take a look at five additional important factors that impact the TikTok algorithm.

TikTok looks for loops first, which indicate the number of times your video has been repeated.

Check your TikTok Analytics to see how often this happens with your content. You must have a business or creator account to access analytics. You may alter your settings if you don't currently have one of these account types.

Click the three dots in the top right corner of your profile to check your metrics. Select Business Suite > Analytics or Creator Tools > Analytics when the Settings and Privacy page appears, depending on your account type.

Then, on the Content tab, look at the average view time for your videos to see whether people are viewing them again. If your TikTok video is 8 seconds long and has an average view duration of 11 seconds, you know that people are watching it again and again, which gives the algorithm a strong signal.

Video Completions

You also want people to watch your TikTok videos all the way through. If viewers move on to the next video in the stream before watching yours, the algorithm interprets this as a negative signal.

Shares

It's also crucial to get others to share your videos. A TikTok share occurs when someone clicks the share button on your video to share it with their friends on whichever platform they're using.

Comments

You'll notice that popular TikTok videos contain a lot of comments and responses. The algorithm judges the video more positively if the comments are more active.

Likes

Finally, never underestimate the value of a like. Despite the fact that likes are one of the final criteria TikTok evaluates in its algorithm, they are the sole social evidence on your video apart from comments. Likes are likely to be the first thing people see when scrolling through the For You page searching for clues about which videos are popular.

2. Create TikTok videos that keep people watching.

To generate signals the TikTok algorithm is looking for, you need to design your content to draw viewers through to the end of the video. You can do this with a series of teases and then a payoff.

This is why some of the most popular TikTok trends have a reveal.

Reveals work on TikTok because humans are hardwired to need resolution and that keeps us watching to the end. This in turn sends a message to the algorithm that people aren't only completing the video but also replaying it.

Think about when you play a minor key on a piano. You always feel the need to hear a major key too, right? We're hardwired that way. The same thing goes for a reveal in a video—people need to see it so they'll keep watching.

When you create a TikTok video, set up the reveal right at the beginning. Text on the screen is the best way to do it but don't give away the game. The text could be something as simple as, “You won't believe what happened when I went to the gym today.”

When you have a reveal or plot twist in your video—and don't give it all away—it ticks the two biggest boxes on the algorithm optimization chart: getting people to watch the entire video and replay it.

Optimizing your TikTok video for likes, comments, and shares, on the other hand, is difficult. I've never advocated for asking for people to “comment below” or “like this video.” Generally, just understanding what your TikTok audience cares about, developing that audience, and creating a community within your comments is the way to get consistent engagement.

Certainly there are tactics you can use to get this engagement such as asking direct questions and prompting users to share their opinion on something. But you'll get the most comments and shares when you've built a community within your TikTok audience. Then the comments and likes will come naturally.

3. Make a list of popular sounds for future TikTok videos.

To generate ideas for this kind of material, go through your For You page and search for sounds with distinct plot twists that you may be able to personalize.