How to Analyze TikTok Competitors With Exported Data

To analyze TikTok competitors, export each rival's last 100 videos with the InsightSocial Chrome extension (views, likes, comments, shares, caption, music, date), then compare three numbers per account in a spreadsheet: median views per video, engagement rate ((likes + comments + shares) ÷ views), and videos per week. Read the captions and sounds of each account's top 10 videos to see what drives the outliers.

Introduction

Your competitors are on TikTok. They're posting content, building audiences, and engaging with potential customers. The question is: do you know what's working for them?

TikTok competitor analysis isn't about copying. It's about understanding:

• What content resonates in your niche
• How often successful accounts post
• Which trends they're leveraging
• Where the gaps are that you can fill

In this guide, you'll learn how to systematically analyze TikTok competitors using data extraction tools.

Why Competitor Analysis on TikTok Matters

The TikTok Opportunity

TikTok's algorithm gives every video a chance to go viral, regardless of follower count. This means:

• New accounts can compete with established ones
• Content quality matters more than audience size
• Understanding what works is crucial for growth

What You'll Learn from Competitors

Analyzing competitor accounts reveals:

How to Run a TikTok Competitor Analysis

Step 1: Identify Your Competitors

List 5-10 accounts to analyze:

• Direct competitors: Same product/service
• Indirect competitors: Same audience, different offering
• Aspirational accounts: Where you want to be
• Niche leaders: Top performers in your space

Step 2: Extract Their Data

Open each competitor's profile, click the InsightSocial icon, choose Videos, pick 50, 100 or 250 and Latest or Popular, and click Scrape. InsightSocial's TikTok scrapers give you:

1. Video data (views, likes, comments, shares per video)
2. Content details (captions with their hashtags, music, duration, upload date)

Note each account's follower count from its profile page by hand; the video export doesn't include it.

Export each competitor's data to separate spreadsheets.

Step 3: Calculate Key Metrics

For each competitor, calculate:

Engagement Rate:

(Likes + Comments + Shares) / Views x 100

Average Views:

Total Views / Number of Videos

Posting Frequency:

Videos per Week = Videos in Last 30 Days / 4

Step 4: Analyze Content Patterns

Look for patterns in top-performing videos:

• What topics get the most engagement?
• Are certain video lengths more successful?
• Which hashtags appear in viral content?
• What sounds/music correlate with views?

Step 5: Identify Gaps and Opportunities

Compare competitors to find:

• Topics they're missing
• Formats no one is using
• Hashtags with low competition
• Audience questions not being answered

Building Your Competitor Dashboard

Create a spreadsheet with these columns (the rows below are an illustration, not real accounts):

Update monthly to track changes.

Turning Insights into Action

Content Strategy

Based on competitor analysis:

1. Double down on what works: If educational content performs well across competitors, create your version
2. Fill the gaps: Topics competitors miss are opportunities
3. Improve on weakness: Where competitors have low engagement, you can do better

Posting Schedule

If top competitors post 5x per week, aim for similar frequency. Consistency matters on TikTok.

Hashtag Strategy

Build a hashtag list from competitor data:

• High-volume hashtags for reach
• Niche hashtags for targeting
• Branded hashtags for recognition

Tools You'll Need

1. TikTok Profile Scraper: Extract competitor profiles
2. TikTok Video Scraper: Get video-level data
3. TikTok Comments Scraper: See how audiences react to competitor content
4. TikTok Analytics Scraper: Pull engagement metrics for benchmarking
5. Spreadsheet: Google Sheets or Excel for analysis
6. Optional: Data visualization · Charts for presentations

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Copying Instead of Learning

Don't recreate competitor videos. Understand why they work and apply principles to original content.

Analyzing Too Few Competitors

5-10 accounts give you patterns. 1-2 accounts give you bias.

One-Time Analysis

TikTok moves fast. Update your analysis monthly to stay current.

Ignoring Small Accounts

High-engagement small accounts often have the best content strategies. Don't only look at follower counts.

Case Study: Finding Your Content Edge

Here is a hypothetical example of how the analysis plays out:

Scenario: A fitness brand wants to grow on TikTok.

Analysis:

1. Scraped 10 fitness competitor accounts
2. Found that workout tutorials had high views but low engagement
3. Found that "day in the life" content had a clearly higher engagement rate
4. Noticed a gap: no competitors were doing "nutrition myth-busting"

Result: The brand focused on lifestyle content and myth-busting, differentiating from competitors while targeting proven engagement patterns.

Conclusion

TikTok competitor analysis is your shortcut to understanding what works. By extracting data, calculating metrics, and identifying patterns, you can build a content strategy based on evidence, not guesswork.

Start with InsightSocial's TikTok scrapers to extract your first competitor's data today.

---

Ready to analyze competitors? Install InsightSocial free.