How to Conduct TikTok Competitor Analysis in 6 Simple Ways

Finding fresh TikTok video ideas can feel like a race against the clock. You’re on track to go viral one minute, and you’re old news the next. Stale, outdated news, that is. You’re not just competing with other users for attention on the app; you’re also competing against their followers and the millions of videos uploaded daily. So, how can you get ahead? Analyzing what’s working for your competitors will help you develop new content ideas and trends to follow to get back on track. This guide will help you do just that. Virlo's virality analysis tool helps you uncover TikTok trends and understand what's working for your competitors so you can create your viral videos.

Table of Contents

• Importance of TikTok Competitor Analysis

• How to Conduct TikTok Competitor Analysis in 6 Simple Ways

• How to Leverage TikTok Competitor Analysis

• 10 Best TikTok Competitor Analysis Tools

• Go Viral with Virlo's Virality Analysis Tool

Importance of TikTok Competitor Analysis

Discovering Your Rivals on TikTok

TikTok’s audience grew at a staggering rate of 1250% during 2020. As the app gets more crowded, it’s become even more crucial to identify your direct rivals to stand out. Of course, there is no shortage of similar brands on TikTok. However, you can filter out the top rival businesses in your industry with competitor analysis. By identifying your competitors, you get a deeper insight into their strengths and weaknesses. You learn more about customer habits and how the top brands appeal to their viewers by creating high-value TikToks. This way, you can frame your upcoming course of action, considering what works for your competitors on TikTok. 

Performance Benchmarking

You must understand your brand’s performance to thrive on platforms like TikTok. Benchmarking your progress with that of your contenders reflects areas in your strategy that need improvement. By analyzing their TikTok profiles, you can set performance benchmarks for your brand. TikTok competitor analysis reflects your position on the platform against your rival brands. The benefits of benchmarking are not limited to marketing campaigns. The comparative insights also help you enhance your services to accommodate the evolving needs of your target market. 

Spotting Opportunities to Pursue

The best way to reach your audience is through piggybacking on something current and relevant. But figuring out which TikTok trends would bring the best results can be tricky. If you go wrong with an irrelevant trend, it will portray your brand incorrectly. However, you can check trends through TikTok competitor analysis and identify which ones are worth joining the bandwagon. Besides, competitor analysis will show you what makes the TikTok audience click. All this adds to potential opportunities to bring tangible change in strategy and grow your brand on the platform. 

Forms a Baseline for Your TikTok Marketing Strategy

For many brands, TikTok is still a relatively new platform for marketing. To make sure everything goes well, you need a strong marketing baseline. This creates opportunities to observe those who already excel at TikTok marketing. The insights from TikTok competitor analysis are the foundation here for successful campaigns. You see where your rivals go wrong and avoid those mistakes yourself. Their successes on the platform also provide you with a set of learnings about what you need to do to stay on top of the game. 

A Cost-Effective Solution

TikTok competitor analysis is more than comparison reports. Here’s how: 

• The process tracks relevant audience interactions

• Bridges gaps in marketing

• And reflects what your target market demands

People often reach out to agencies to conduct a TikTok competitor analysis. But this could be a costly affair.

How to Conduct TikTok Competitor Analysis in 6 Simple Ways

1. Use Virlo to Analyze Your Competitors on TikTok

Virlo helps short-form content creators crack the code of virality through AI-powered trend analysis. Our platform combines creator insights with advanced analytics to identify winning content patterns, optimal posting times, and successful audio/video combinations that help your content stand out in today’s fast-moving social landscape. Perfect for independent creators looking to build a sustainable side business, Virlo takes the guesswork out of content strategy. We analyze the latest viral trends and help you understand when to post and what combinations of elements drive engagement. Whether you’re just starting or looking to optimize your existing content, Virlo enables you to navigate the ever-changing algorithms to increase your chances of going viral. Go viral with Virlo’s virality analysis tool. 

2. Identify Competitors on TikTok

The competitors online differ from the contenders of your regular business operations. You must know who you are analyzing to make a powerful presence on TikTok. You will have two types of competitors on TikTok or any other social media platform — direct and indirect. Those who offer products and services similar to your brand are your direct competitors. But brands with products and services capable of replacing yours are indirect competitors. Outperforming them needs different approaches. You must show consistent improvements to get better traction than your direct competitors.

Be it customer services or product design; your brand must reflect why your product is the best in your niche. However, you may face challenges that surpass indirect competition. Here, the manual analysis doesn’t deliver much accuracy. Here, you can consider an automated competitor analysis tool to stand out among the TikTok crowd. If you’re new to TikTok, first figure out your direct competitors. Start by looking for businesses in my industry. Skim through their profiles and determine if their company addresses and solves the same issues as mine. Also, search for relevant keywords and hashtags to find competitors that might be unknown. Add them to your competitor list if they are active on the platform. Otherwise, skip them.

3. Track Basic Metrics to Measure Progress

Once you identify your rival brands on this Gen-Z favorite platform, figure out what metrics to track. The goal of competitor analysis is to benchmark progress. For that, you must set up important KPIs so that you can collect information that is useful to you. Here are some of the metrics you need to keep in mind for practical competitor analysis. Top posts Follower count Reach Views Comments Likes Shares Engagement rates TikTok allows businesses to monitor their analytics on TikTok itself. However, you can look for social media analytics tools for competitor analysis.

4. Examine Their Audience on TikTok

Creating targeted content is key to establishing brand value on media platforms like TikTok. So, examining your competitors' audience base for TikTok is essential. Hence, your competitor analysis's next focus should be evaluating what your target audience likes. You and your competition have a similar core audience. So, while you monitor their performance, see their target audience segment. You need to see what type of TikTok users interact with your rival brand’s content the most. Thoroughly evaluate how they interact with the audience. Then, determine what kind of online conversations and topics interest them. Here, social listening methods can come in very handy. Tracking what they say about your competition’s products will help you improve your services. It will also accommodate their demands.

5. Check Their Content on TikTok

This step is the most crucial one while conducting a competitor analysis. You can keep track of the posting frequency of your competitors, video duration, the information they provide, the timing of their posts, and their target group. Once you understand their content type and messaging, figuring out what could interest your audience with your competitor’s content becomes more effortless. Your strategically planned content can help your business get an edge on TikTok. So, ensure you already have a plan of action to make your brand present and thriving here. To create a fitting content strategy, you must: 

• Set goals

• Examine how other brands in my niche are crafting the content. 

• See what the latest trends and hashtags my competitors are using 

• Prioritize gauging engagement patterns and determine if the audience responds well. 

• If yes, you can follow suit to increase audience engagement. 

• Make sure you monitor the competitor’s post frequency and content tonality.

6. Observe Their Engagement Strategy on TikTok

The driving force behind every brand’s social media visibility is the content they post. Thus, going beyond the likes and comments and evaluating your competitor’s Facebook marketing strategy is essential. See what kind of content brings them the most attention. Are they leveraging Facebook reels? Or are you contenders hosting live sessions with industry experts? 

Related Reading

• Does TikTok Have Robust Analytics?
• How Many Videos Should I Post a Day on TikTok?
• How Do I Get More Views on TikTok?
• How to Find Your Niche on TikTok

How to Leverage TikTok Competitor Analysis

Find Content Ideas That Work

Analyzing competitor performance on TikTok helps you discover winning content ideas. By seeing what resonates with your niche audience, you can skip the trial-and-error phase and create content based on proven strategies. This competitive research will save you time and effort. 

Benefit

You increase your chances of creating viral content and avoid wasting time on ineffective ideas.

Improve Engagement by Learning from Competitors

Another way to leverage TikTok competitor analysis is to improve your engagement rates. Look at the type of videos, challenges, and trends that get high engagement (likes, comments, shares). Identify patterns in their tone, music, visuals, and captions. 

Benefit

You can replicate successful elements while adding your twist, improving audience engagement and interaction.

Optimize Hashtag and Posting Strategy

Researching your competitors on TikTok can also help you optimize your hashtag and posting strategy. By tracking competitor hashtags and posting schedules, you can learn which hashtags boost visibility and what time frames work best for reaching your audience. 

Benefit

You can increase your reach and discoverability without experimenting too much.

Identify Content Gaps to Stand Out

While competitors may succeed in some areas, there could be content gaps they are missing. You can fill these gaps by covering topics they ignore or improving their approach. 

Benefit

You differentiate yourself and attract audiences looking for fresh, unique content. 

Stay Ahead of Trends & Audience Preferences

Monitoring competitors helps you spot new trends and audience behaviors early. This allows you to adapt quickly and position yourself as a trend leader. 

Benefit

You stay ahead of the competition and maintain relevance on TikTok. 

Strengthen Your Marketing & Monetization Strategy

Analyzing competitors’ partnerships, influencer collaborations, and brand deals helps you understand how they monetize their TikTok presence. 

Benefit

You can attract sponsorships, sell products/services, or optimize TikTok ads more effectively. Virlo helps short-form content creators crack the code of virality through AI-powered trend analysis. Our platform combines creator insights with advanced analytics to identify winning content patterns, optimal posting times, and successful audio/video combinations that help your content stand out in today’s fast-moving social landscape.

Perfect for independent creators looking to build a sustainable side business, Virlo takes the guesswork out of content strategy. We analyze the latest viral trends and help you understand when to post and what combinations of elements drive engagement. Whether you’re just starting or looking to optimize your existing content, Virlo enables you to navigate the ever-changing algorithms to increase your chances of going viral. Go viral with Virlo’s virality analysis tool. 

10 Best TikTok Competitor Analysis Tools

1. Virlo: Your Guide to Going Viral on TikTok

Virlo helps short-form content creators crack the code of virality through AI-powered trend analysis. Our platform combines creator insights with advanced analytics to identify winning content patterns, optimal posting times, and successful audio/video combinations that help your content stand out in today’s fast-moving social landscape. Perfect for independent creators looking to build a sustainable side business, Virlo takes the guesswork out of content strategy. We analyze the latest viral trends and help you understand when to post and what combinations of elements drive engagement. Whether you’re just starting or looking to optimize your existing content, Virlo enables you to navigate the ever-changing algorithms to increase your chances of going viral. Go viral with Virlo’s virality analysis tool. 

2. Sprout Social: The All-in-One Social Media Tool

Sprout Social is an all-in-one tool that monitors and reports on your marketing campaigns across numerous social platforms, including TikTok. With Sprout’s analytics, you can easily track basic video engagement metrics – such as views, likes, and shares – plus more in-depth custom reports. For instance, you can track individual post performance to measure ROI more effectively. Sprout Social's best features include a “Smart Inbox," where you can manage TikTok comments and interactions from other platforms all in one place. The tool automates content planning and your social media posting schedule, automatically identifying the best time to post on TikTok based on your followers' behavior. If you have multiple people involved with your TikTok marketing, this tool offers content approval workflows and detailed reporting so you can share insights with teams and stakeholders. 

3. Phlanx: A Free Engagement Calculator

Phlanx is a free Instagram and TikTok engagement calculator that clues you in on how active any given account’s followers are. Phlanx is a good resource for high-level analysis of your competitor’s audience interactions compared to your account and industry. For Instagram, this competitor analysis tool’s engagement ratio is calculated based on the number of followers an account has versus the rate at which followers interact with content (likes, comments, etc). Meanwhile, Phlanx’s TikTok engagement rate calculator measures video views relative to how many interactions it earns. These scores aren’t the be-all or end-all of a brand’s social presence, but they offer some helpful perspective, especially when comparing a more extensive brand account to a smaller one. This speaks to a more significant point about competitive analysis on social media—context matters. Getting caught up in follower counts is easy, but engagement is critical. 

4. Brand24: Social Listening for TikTok

Brand24 takes a different tact to TikTok analytics. This AI-powered tool focuses on social listening and sentiment analysis, making it ideal if you need data on your brand perception and audience sentiment. For instance, it offers hashtag tracking and monitoring of keywords and TikTok mentions so you can gauge how your TikTok content and brand discussions impact broader conversations. This is a strong fit if you need to understand engagement at a granular level and track historical and real-time shifts in brand reputation. Brand24's best features include a sentiment analysis tool that uses AI to categorize your mentions as positive, neutral, or negative. There’s also sentiment-based competitor analysis to compare reach and visibility with your competitors. 

5. HypeAuditor: Competitive Analysis Tool for Influencer Marketing

HypeAuditor offers competitive analysis tools for social media specific to influencer marketing campaigns. Brands can analyze their competitors’ creator campaigns, including budgets and content performance across social media. The tool also allows brands to compare the demographics of different influencers’ audiences. This lets brands put their influencer campaigns into context, offering a way to benchmark campaigns that are traditionally tough to track. Brands can assess metrics, including campaign reach, EMV, and total mentions versus competitors.

6. Socialinsider: Engagement Insights for TikTok

Socialinsider's TikTok analytics is a versatile toolset focusing on engagement insights and competitor analysis. For a relatively budget-friendly monthly price, you can access crucial metrics, such as video views, engagement rates, and follower demographics, alongside specialized insights like engagement journey data. Socialinsider's best features include competitor benchmarking to monitor competitors and how their TikTok content is performing so you can optimize market positioning and adjust your TikTok strategies based on what other brands are doing. You can enter relevant TikTok hashtags to track hashtags and identify trending or effective ones that you can use to boost your content visibility and engagement. While hardly the most robust TikTok analytics tool, options like seeing total playtime and viewer demographics will help you pinpoint which posts resonate most with your TikTok followers. 

7. Rival IQ: Free Competitor Tracking

One immediate standout feature for Rival IQ is the ability to track and export advanced competitor analysis for free, including insights about a competitor's engagement, viral videos, other top-performing content, and audience demographics. The rest of the tool offers all the essential features you need for TikTok analytics. Rival IQ best features content performance tracking to see metrics such as views, likes, shares, and comments. Automated benchmarking tools allow you to measure your TikTok performance against industry standards, giving a more holistic overview of your historical data. You can identify TikTok trends within your niche to optimize future content strategies. 

8. Kompyte: Real-time Competitive Intelligence

Kompyte is a competitive intelligence tool that automatically pulls competitor updates into a single, easy-to-monitor dashboard. This includes updates from their website, review sites, content, social media, ads, job openings, and more. You can create side-by-side comparison reports in Kompyte alongside real-time feeds that inform you of website changes your competitors make. AI features via Kompyte GPT automate competitive analysis tasks like creating battle cards for sales teams. These battle cards include daily competitor updates and instant summaries of your brand’s wins and losses against specific features. Kompyte’s AI summary tools also provide quick takeaways so businesses can stay ahead of the competition and make data-driven decisions without waiting days to react. 

9. Iconosquare: Cross-Platform Analytics

While it has limited TikTok-specific analytics and reporting, focusing on fundamental metrics such as views, likes, shares, comments, and follower growth, Iconosquare offers cross-platform analytics to give you a bird's-eye view of your social media campaigns. Iconosquare best features a robust content calendar that lets you schedule posts, track performance, and plan future content. The tool is known for its intuitive and visually appealing interface, making it easy to onboard yourself or others on your team. Iconosquare also supports Meta properties on Instagram and Facebook, so you can take a unified approach to social media management. 

10. Crayon: An AI Tool for Competitor Analysis

Crayon is an artificial intelligence tool that can help with competitor analysis and competitive intelligence. It allows users to create a dashboard of automatically compiled and organized competitor updates so brands can always know what their competitors are doing. Crayon also has collaboration features, ensuring teams can manage and monitor competitive insights. Like Kompyte, Crayon can create sales battle cards, customizable reports, and dashboards. Their AI features include anomaly detection, which clues you on significant marketing performance or messaging updates that seem out of the ordinary.

Related Reading

• How to Check TikTok Analytics
• How to Gain More Followers on TikTok
• How to Make a Video Go Viral on TikTok
• TikTok Audience Insights
• How to Find TikTok Trends Early
• Hottest TikTok Trends

Go Viral with Virlo's Virality Analysis Tool

Not every TikTok creator wants to go viral. Some simply want to build an audience within their niche. For example, a creator who makes videos about aquarium maintenance might not want to reach a broad audience. They want to attract fellow aquarium hobbyists and help them learn something new. The best way to achieve this goal is to go viral within this niche. TikTok has a video for every interest, no matter how obscure. Virlo’s analysis tools can help creators find their specific audience. Using our tools, you can identify the particular trends and patterns that appeal to aquarium enthusiasts and help your content reach them instead of the general TikTok audience.

Related Reading

• Best TikTok Niches
• Best Faceless TikTok Niches
• How to See Trending Sounds on TikTok
• TikTok Analytics Tools
• TrendTok Alternatives