TikTok's limitation on organic reach - did you know this? (9)
TikTok's limitation on organic reach - did you know this?
TikTok's limitation on organic reach by GEO.
So, for the organic traffic cooking project of mine that you can read more about here, I' exploring all the social media options out there.
TikTok is obviously one of them. So I went ahead and took some of the videos that we have and posted these on the platform.
Got some views, got some likes... but very low, definitely not what I was expecting. Even if I got some views, the engagement was VERY low.
So I went over all the videos I have posted and noticed that those that had no voiceover or even subtitles were doing better.
I was wondering why, so I started to analyze stats in more detail and this is what I found in there.
VIDEO #1
VIDEO #2
Now it started to make sense.
My videos are in English and my goal is to reach EN speaking audience. And obviously, since TikTok was serving the videos to people from my country (Slovakia) they were not engaging the ones with and EN voiceover at all.
But why the hell would TikTok serve and "English" video to my countrymen?
I started to do some research and bang, it's how TT actually works. They look at where the account was created from and target that LOCAL audience.
Now this can be handy for those creators who make content with the goal to target their local audience, but it's definitely a problem for me.
And based on the research I've made, this doesn't affect just content creators as such.
Even if you are running paid campaigns by promoting videos that have been posted by some other TikTok account, the same should apply. As for the paid clicks, those will match the audience you target with the Ads, but any additional organic reach will be affected by this.
Because of this, you need to pay attention to what influencer you are working with when promoting videos posted on their channels. This is called Spark Ads and many brands are using this option.
Are there any solutions to this problem?
I have searched for a solution to this organic reach problem and looks there is a way, but quite a complicated one that could pose problems down the road.
This is what I was able to find out :
I can either try to teach TT that I target EN audience by doing this:
- following accounts from the right GEOs
- engaging with content in matching GEOs.... likes, comments
- using EN hashtags, titles, subtitles/captions, voiceover etc... I'm already doing this though
This approach may or may not work, some people claim it helped, some say it did not... and it takes a good while.
Or I can try to start a new account:
- it would have to be created from a phone physically located in USA (preferably)
- the phone must have a US sim card, location must be set to US, correct language settings...
- any access to the account must either come from USA (or the target GEO) and maybe using a VPN would allow me to upload content myself.
Possible problems: some people claim TT can detect a VPN and that could pose a problem. I'm not sure how TT views this, maybe they would ban the account at some point. And I'm not sure what happens if I put a link to my website in the profile, since it was already added to the old account.
I'd like to hear from the TT experts, maybe there is some other way... @cassshy @ScottyG ?
This is only what I've heard, so make of it what you will.
It isn't so much that TikTok will ban you if you try a VPN, but that they will push you back to where you "belong". There seems to be a real preference for local audiences for content.
That said, I'm in the US and routinely see videos for this British guy that has humor directed at the differences between the UK and the US.
Originally Posted by iwanttofly
And yes, I see content from US people on my "Slovak" TikTok account all the time, but it only makes up for a minor part of what TT serves me.
Anyways, I already started the test with "telling TT" I'm after US/EN content... so liking EN videos, following channels in EN etc... let's see what kind of impact it will have on what it serves me and what happens when I post a few more videos.
I'm plugged into ecom conversations & people outside the US have figured out how to reach the USA organic "For You" page.
Involves having a burner phone/sim setup.
If you'd be interested in hearing more lemme know and I'll point you in the right direction.
Originally Posted by jjlundy
How can I reach you?
Ok just looked it back up -- and it seems even easier than originally imagined.
As of 04/28/22:
1. Factory reset phone & set Apple ID to US
2. Turn on airplane mode (don't have a sim card in the phone)
3. VPN/Proxy to a US location
4. Download TikTok
Information from here -- group of ~5k tiktok'ers (mostly ecom)
and edit: I can't speak to @iwanttofly 's comment as I've not tried this myself
Originally Posted by jjlundy
Will find some old iphone somewhere and give it a try
I have never heard about this, really. Since I am focused only paid ads in the US
Originally Posted by cassshy
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