Brand Focus Guide 2025 Sotrender Blog

This blog will help you decide whether to invest in Instagram or TikTok analytics. Or both.

Why the TikTok vs. Instagram Debate Still Matters

By 2025, short-form video isn’t just a trend—it’s the heartbeat of social media. Everywhere you look, brands are using concise clips to grab attention. But here’s the thing: you can’t just wing it and hope for the best.

Savvy marketers are making data-driven decisions based on numbers from their analytics dashboard. They’re tracking key engagement metrics. These include watch time, video length, shares, and comments. This helps them determine which content resonates most with their audience and what drives results. Analytics tools on both platforms also help brands understand user interests, so they can tailor content to match what their audience wants to see.

Think about it: a Reel might get more eyeballs on Instagram. But a TikTok loop could drive higher completion rates. Does your audience binge short videos on the For You Page? Or do they click through carousel posts and Stories on Instagram? These insights matter. They tell you exactly where to double down your content creation efforts.

It’s not about which platform feels trendier. It’s about which one delivers the strongest return on investment (ROI) for your brand. Keep a close eye on the analytics, and let the numbers guide your strategy.

Instagram Analytics – What You Really Get

Instagram has come a long way from simple square photos. Today, it’s a full-blown analytics powerhouse, especially if you know where to look. Regardless of whether you’re posting Reels, Stories, or feed updates, Instagram Insights provides a wealth of data, including detailed audience demographics such as age, gender, and location, enabling you to refine your content targeting and optimize your content in real-time. These analytics tools are essential for effective Instagram marketing, helping brands refine their strategies and maximize audience engagement.

Overview of Instagram Insights

Think of Instagram Insights as your behind-the-scenes pass to every post’s performance. These built-in analytics let you see what’s clicking with your audience at a glance. There’s no guesswork. Just real data you can act on.

• Reels, Stories, and Feed breakdown: See how many people watched your Reels start to finish. Also, check how many people tapped through your Stories and how far your feed posts reached.
• Advanced metrics: Beyond likes and comments, Insights tracks saves, shares, and profile actions. This can happen when someone visits your bio or clicks your website link. You also get a clear snapshot of your follower demographics. These include age ranges, gender splits, and top locations.
• Explore page analytics: Track how your content performs on the Instagram Explore page, which is essential for content discovery and reaching new audiences interested in trending or niche topics.

Here are two bonus tools for you:

• Meta Business Suite: Allows you to  schedule posts, run ads, and pull cross-platform reports. All in one place.
• Sotrender-powered enhancements: Dive deeper into your metrics. Track hashtag strategy, ideal posting schedule, and video formats driving the most engagement. Third-party tools can provide even more advanced analytics and insights beyond Instagram’s native features.

Strengths of Instagram Analytics

Instagram’s analytics suite doesn’t just provide numbers. It offers actionable insights that help you fine-tune every aspect of your strategy. Brands can also seamlessly integrate Instagram analytics with their broader marketing strategies, ensuring a cohesive and data-driven approach. Here are its standout strengths:

• Polished audience insights: Detailed breakdown of follower age, gender, and location.
• Strong ad targeting: Clear view of paid vs. organic reach for smarter ad spend.
• Multichannel performance: Unified metrics across Facebook and Instagram to see the full picture.
• Shopping tags, Instagram Shop, and influencer tracking: Monitor brand partnerships, product tags, Instagram Shop performance, and Influencer marketing ROI seamlessly.

TikTok Analytics – Raw, Real, and Rapid

TikTok’s analytics dashboard is designed for speed. It provides a no-frills view of how your short videos are performing in real-time. For advertisers, TikTok Ads Manager offers additional analytics specifically for creating, managing, and monitoring ad campaigns, making it essential for tracking ad performance and optimizing campaigns. TikTok supports a variety of ad formats, such as in-feed ads and branded effects, and its analytics tools help track the effectiveness of each ad format to inform your marketing strategy.

Breakdown of TikTok’s Native Dashboard

Head over to the analytics hub, and you’ll find these tabs:

Overview

The Overview tab is a summary of your content’s metrics. These include total views, profile views, and any comments your followers have left.

Content

This section offers insights into your posts’ performance. Here, you can track watch time and traffic sources. TikTok analytics also allow you to monitor user participation in challenges, duets, and other interactive content formats, helping you understand how your audience engages with your content.

Viewers

Here, you’ll see an overview of the number of viewers you’ve gained as well as their demographics, like age and gender.

Followers

The Followers analytics tab provides an overview of your TikTok’s followers. This includes demographics like age and location. It also helps you track follower growth over time and analyze audience acquisition sources, so you can see how your content strategies impact audience development.

Key Metrics

Beyond raw view counts, these are the numbers that move the needle on TikTok:

The first is watch time, which is where the real story lies. It’s the ultimate ranking factor on the For You Page. The longer viewers stick around, the more the algorithm rewards them with a broader reach.

Trending sounds also play a key role in engagement. Track which audio clips are gaining popularity. And, you’re tapping into the cultural moment that leads to higher shares and comments. This could be a catchy sound effect or a popular hashtag.

TikTok live streams offer real-time engagement data and unique opportunities for interactive content, making them a powerful tool for community engagement and social commerce.

TikTok’s advanced editing tools also set it apart, allowing creators to produce highly engaging and polished content. These editing tools help videos stand out, increase user engagement, and often lead to better performance in analytics.

However, TikTok’s analytics are evolving with two game-changing metrics.

AI-based trend predictions leverage machine learning and collaborative filtering. These forecasts, which challenge or format, are about to blow up. This gives you a heads-up before everyone else gets into the loop.

Audience mood analysis also utilizes AI-driven insights. This is a great way to understand viewers’ sentiments about your videos. You can then fine-tune your tone and style to match their preferences.

Strengths of TikTok Analytics

TikTok analytics aren’t just for reporting performance. They’re a quick insights hub. Jump on trends, see what’s catching on, and understand how people interact with your videos, including actions like send virtual gifts during live streams.

• Fast feedback loop: Find out in hours—not days—what content is working.
• Viral potential: The For You Page can push any video into the spotlight. TikTok analytics help brands and creators identify viral content trends, making it easier to leverage these insights for greater reach and engagement.
• Detailed performance: Retention graphs, device info, loop counts, and tracking of send virtual gifts show you what viewers like most and how they engage and contribute to monetization.

Engagement Metrics Showdown

As of 2025, Instagram’s engagement rate is 2.2%, while TikTok’s is 17.5%.

If you’re focused on video retention, TikTok leads the pack. It features a looping format and a fast feedback loop, keeping viewers engaged. Its average completion rate (how much of a video viewers watch) is 60–70%, compared to Instagram Stories’ 82%. Vertical videos are the standard on both TikTok and Instagram Reels, and their popularity is a major factor in driving higher engagement and completion rates for short-form content. Instagram Reels also provide brands with the opportunity to reach a broader audience beyond their existing followers, increasing brand visibility.

When it comes to comments and shares, the number of followers an account has plays a significant role.

For example, if a TikTok profile has up to 5,000 followers, then it would get around 7 comments per post. These same profiles would also have 35 average shares. As for Instagram, Reels, carousels, and images get between 1-3 comments per post. Also, Instagram users reshare Reels more than 4.5 billion times on a daily basis.

Here’s a brief comparison between TikTok and Instagram’s engagement metrics, with both TikTok and Instagram Reels serving as key formats for short-form, high-engagement content. TikTok’s content style is more spontaneous and humorous, while Instagram’s content style tends to be more curated, aesthetic, and storytelling-focused.

Metric	Instagram	TikTok
Average Engagement Rate	2.2%	17.5 %
Average Completion Rate / Video Retention	Stories: 82 %	Main-feed videos: 60 – 70 %
Comments Per Post (≤ 5 K followers)	1-3	7
Shares Per Post / Day	Reels are re-shared 4.5 B times daily (platform-wide)	35 shares per post (≤ 5 K followers)

When evaluating platform performance, it’s crucial to understand the various approaches brands and content creators employ to boost their metrics. Utilizing diverse content formats—such as Reels, Stories, carousels, and images on Instagram, or different video types on TikTok—can help maximize engagement and cater to different audience preferences. While authentic engagement remains the gold standard for sustainable growth, the reality is that many creators explore different methods to increase TikTok likes and other engagement signals as part of their broader strategy. Viral videos are a hallmark of TikTok, fueling its high engagement rates and setting it apart from Instagram’s focus on visual storytelling.

However, the most successful long-term approaches focus on leveraging platform analytics to identify optimal posting times, trending hashtags, and content formats that naturally drive engagement. On Instagram, video ads are particularly effective for driving user engagement and promoting brands to a wider audience. Smart brands recognize that sustainable growth stems from understanding their audience through data-driven insights, rather than relying on quick fixes. They utilize analytics tools to track which organic strategies effectively convert followers into customers.

This analytical approach becomes even more critical when comparing cross-platform performance, as the engagement behaviors and algorithms between Instagram and TikTok operate on fundamentally different principles.

Pro tip:

While analyzing which platform offers better reach and engagement, consider how brands can visually present themselves. High-quality profile photos are key on both platforms. This is especially true for personal brands or professional services, such as law firms. Invest in attorney headshots to give your brand a polished, trustworthy image. This helps boost first impressions and engagement.

What Brands Should Consider Before Choosing Sides

Start with your goal. If you want fast brand awareness, TikTok’s For You page and short videos can help. However, if you’re looking for a polished presence that utilizes performance marketing funnels, Instagram’s carousel posts, Reels ads, and robust ad tools may make more sense. Instagram focuses on community building, gaining followers, and visual storytelling, which sets it apart from TikTok’s emphasis on viral videos and short-form entertainment. It’s important to align your marketing efforts with each platform’s strengths to maximize results.

Next, look at who’s watching. Gen Z and younger audiences hang out on TikTok. Instagram continues to attract late millennials and early Gen X viewers. There is a significant difference in both audience demographics and content formats between TikTok and Instagram, which should influence your marketing strategy. Ensure your content aligns with those content preferences.

Don’t forget production bandwidth. TikTok rewards quick clips powered by trending sounds and visual and verbal hooks. TikTok content is unique for its short-form, highly viral nature, often generating more comments, shares, and reach than other platforms. Instagram often asks for more refined video formats and high-quality images. So, plan extra editing time.

Finally, weigh paid versus organic reach. Instagram’s ad manager lets you laser-target audiences and retarget warm leads. TikTok can stretch your budget with organic viral formats. But only if you nail watch time and user interactions early.

Can’t Choose? Here’s How to Do Both

Can’t decide between TikTok and Instagram? You don’t actually have to pick one. Both Instagram and TikTok foster vibrant communities and high engagement, but while Instagram emphasizes curated authenticity and visual storytelling, TikTok is known for rapid trend dissemination and spontaneous content. Here’s how you can run both channels without doubling your workload.

Repurpose Smartly

Trim a 60-second Reel into a 15-second TikTok. Or, break a single Instagram carousel into multiple quick clips. Same footage, different pacing, perfectly matched to each feed. (And, to avoid posting the same captions on all platforms, consider using a paraphrase tool. This helps you rephrase existing captions for different channels.) Repurposing strategies like these can also be adapted for other social media platforms to maximize your content’s reach. Encourage users and influencers to create content for both platforms to foster community and authenticity around your brand.

When adapting content, take advantage of the editing features on both TikTok and Instagram, such as filters, effects, and music libraries, to easily customize and optimize your videos for each audience.

Tailor Your Soundtrack

TikTok thrives on trending sounds. So jump on the hottest audio for quick discoverability. When you upload to Instagram, swap in royalty-free music or branded voiceovers. These should align with your style guidelines. One edit session, two sound strategies. Both TikTok and Instagram offer a variety of creative tools—like effects, filters, and customization options—that help users enhance and personalize their content.

Track Everything in Sotrender

Stop guessing which platform is pulling its weight. Sotrender’s analytics dashboard consolidates your Reels, Stories, and TikToks into a single app. Compare watch time, engagement metrics, and hashtag strategy—no other tools required.

Plan Ahead

Set up a simple content calendar. List posting times, target video length, and trending sounds you’ll use on each platform. When every idea is mapped in advance, cross-posting feels fluent instead of frantic.

Pro Tips for 2025 Analytics Nerds

Want to turn raw numbers into real growth? Keep these bite-size habits in rotation and your data will start telling you exactly what to do next.

Quarterly Content Audits

Every three months, pull up your top-performing video content and trending topics. Spot the common hooks and double down; kill the formats that flop. Analyze the performance of user-generated content to inform future strategies and identify which UGC campaigns drive the most engagement.

Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Likes are nice, but conversion actions—profile clicks, sign-ups, and leads—pay the bills. Tie each metric to a business goal so every win shows up on the balance sheet. Also, monitor diverse revenue streams, such as memberships or product sales, to maximize your monetization potential. Pay attention to how your content appears in users’ feeds, as strategic placement can significantly impact both visibility and engagement.

A/B Test Everything

Run side-by-side experiments on post formats, posting schedule, and hashtags. Tiny tweaks reveal which combo kicks your engagement metrics into high gear.

Build Custom Dashboards

Set up a monthly performance view that rolls in machine learning trend forecasts. Tools like Sotrender let you plug these feeds together. This means you can spot shifts before competitors even notice.

Real-World Example

The Sculpt Society is a fitness company that shares workout videos on Instagram. Their content includes motivational check-ins and behind-the-scenes moments. These create a strong sense of community.

Take their postpartum workout program, for example. It’s just one part of a content strategy that benefits from Icarousel posts and pinned Reels.

The company may also benefit from TikTok. They may post quick choreography demos and trainer POV clips on TikTok. Many Gen Z users are on this platform. So, this could be a great way for the company to connect with a younger audience and encourage them to exercise. The company could also experiment with live streams on TikTok to boost real-time engagement and foster interactive community experiences. Additionally, they could leverage TikTok Shop to sell workout programs or merchandise directly to their audience.

Where Should Brands Focus in 2025?

Short answer: It depends on your audience and goals—but analytics will tell you the truth. Use Sotrender’s platform analytics to compare social media metrics. Track watch time, follower count, views, and user interaction in one dashboard.

Remember: Smart brands don’t pick sides—they play smart with data. Let analytics insights, including user interaction data, guide you in creating engaging content that resonates with your target audience and improves engagement.

Ready to let your metrics do the talking? Sign up for a 7-day free trial and track your TikTok and Instagram performance in one single platform.