u/BurntToASinder

Hello!

I've been putting out content for around six months under the alias Vapyr, and over those six months, I've garnered about 1,300 followers. The same content goes up on both TikTok and YouTube Shorts (the latter at about 1,100 subscribers with comparable views and catastrophically worse engagement), but I'm going to be referencing TikTok analytics here since that's where the bulk of my data lives. I put all of the numbers into an Airtable spreadsheet for personal analysis, but so as not to overhwelm anyone, I'll simply provide the link to my profile and summaries of the data.

I want to be transparent: a significant chunk of my views are paid using TikTok's Promote function. I'll break that down.

Promoted videos (9 videos, always less than $80 per campaign with specific targeted demographics):

• Average views: ~17,100 | Median: ~9,900
• Average like rate: ~7.1%
• Average "watched full video": ~15%
• Average FYP traffic: ~87%
• Average new followers per video: ~53
• Total new followers from promoted content: 477

Non-promoted videos (62 videos):

• Average views: ~880 | Median: ~909
• Average like rate: ~5.2%
• Average "watched full video": ~31.5%
• Average FYP traffic: ~90.8%
• Average new followers per video: ~2
• Total new followers from non-promoted content: 95

(NOTE: The additional followers this data does not account for is, in all honesty, a mystery to me.)

The most important thing to note here: not a single non-promoted video has broken 3,000 views. Every number that looks good on paper was paid for.

My content falls into four categories: caption trends (short 5-9 second sound-caption lip sync clips; shortform's bread and butter), dance challenges, and, most recently (with not enough data to go off of due to newness) talking heads and sketch comedy. A lyric video for my music is uploaded once every 2-3 months.

Caption Trends (53 videos):

• Avg views: ~921 | Avg like rate: ~4.7%
• Avg full video: ~34.8% | Avg FYP: ~92.6%
• Avg new followers: ~1 per video

This is the bulk of my content. It's getting served by the FYP consistently—most are 90%+ FYP traffic—so it's reaching new people. They're just not sticking.

Dance Challenges (7 videos):

• Avg views: ~634 | Avg like rate: ~8.5%
• Avg full video: ~10.9% | Avg FYP: ~80.9%
• Avg new followers: ~5 per video

Higher like rate, but very low completion. Makes sense for dance content; people bounce once they've seen the move. Better follower conversion than caption trends, though.

Lyric Videos (1 non-promoted):

• 455 views, 2.86% like rate, 0.6% full video completion, 1 new follower

Brutal, but unsurprising given its difference from my niche, as well as how much the platform seems to suppress independent music. I only have one non-promoted data point, so I'm not reading too far into it. Promoted lyric videos have done 25K-46K views with 4-10% like rates, so the content itself seems fine when pushed.

Sketch Comedy (1 video, most recent)

• 907 views, 8.05% like rate, 26.6% full video, 5 new followers

Only one data point, but relative to my caption trends, this already looks more promising per view.

The FYP is clearly distributing my content. My non-promoted videos are hitting 90%+ FYP rates consistently. But the views flatline around 800-1,000 and nothing compounds. A few specific questions:

1. Is ~900 views with 90%+ FYP just the algorithm giving up on me, or is it a normal ceiling for a small account? Is 900 the "you failed the first audience test" number?
2. My "watched full video" rate on caption trends is solid relative to my other content (~35%), but my like rates are low (~4.7%). The content is being watched, but people aren't engaging past that. What is the problem here?
3. My promoted videos convert followers at a much higher rate (53 per video avg) but non-promoted barely moves the needle (~1.5 per video). The promoted content is clearly reaching people who like what they see, but that's not translating into organic momentum, and TikTok doesn't push the content to those who engaged. Why would a paid push not teach the algorithm anything useful about the demographic that clearly enjoys my content? (NOTE: The successful demographic is women, 18-34, usually from Europe, South America, and East Asia.)
4. My caption trends get the most reps but the worst follower conversion. Dance and sketch have higher conversion per view but way fewer reps. Should I be shifting the ratio? Both of these verticals have coexisted on accounts since back in the Musical.ly days, so I assume doing them side-by-side isn't the issue.

I'm not looking for "just keep posting, it takes time" type answers. I've been tracking this closely and I want actual diagnostic feedback, because these numbers seem particularly odd compared to most other small creators I've found here on Reddit.

Happy to share more specifics if useful. Thanks in advance!

(Pre-emptive defense: No, this was not written by ChatGPT. I have two degrees and writing award nominations, so forgive me for being verbose and a tad over-organized.)