Why Your TikTok Math is Probably Wrong (Followers vs. Views)
By: Alex, Marketing Agency Director
I had a meeting with a client yesterday who asked me, “Why is this influencers engagement rate 300%?” I had to explain that their intern was using the wrong math.
If you come from the Instagram world like me, you are used to dividing everything by Followers. But TikTok is different. The algorithm is a beast.
Here is the truth: If you are still calculating TikTok Engagement Rate (ER) based on follower count, you’re looking at useless data. Let me explain why, and how to fix it without spending your whole life in Excel.
The “Old” Way (And Why It Fails)
The traditional formula is: (Likes + Comments) / Followers.
This works for Instagram. But on TikTok, thanks to the FYP (For You Page), a video can get 1 million views even if the creator only has 1,000 followers.
If you use the old formula, the math breaks. You get a fake, super-high percentage that tells you nothing about the actual content quality. It’s misleading.
The “Right” Way: ER by Views
In 2025, smart agencies (us included) switched to Engagement Rate by Views. This measures the “compulsiveness” of the content. It asks: “Of the people who saw this video, how many actually cared enough to interact?”
Here is the formula we respect:
ER (Views) = ((Likes + Comments + Shares) / Total Views) * 100%This removes the “luck” factor of the algorithm. If a video has 1M views but a low interaction rate, it means the video was “clickbait” or just low quality. This is the only way to spot if a creator is actually good at holding attention.
Why You Shouldn’t Calculate This Manually
Okay, so the formula is simple. But here is the problem.
To really vet an influencer, you cant just check one video. You need the Average Engagement Rate of their last 30 videos. Why? Because anyone can get lucky once.
Plus, manual calculation has huge blind spots:
- No Benchmarks: You calculate 5%. Is that good? Bad? Without a database to compare, you are guessing.
- Fake Data: Manual math can’t tell if the likes are from bots.
- Time Lag: By the time you finish your spreadsheet, the views have already changed.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
This is why I just use engagementratecalculator.net. It automatically scrapes the last 30 days of data and applies the ER by Views logic.
It saves me hours of work. I just copy the link, check the score, and tell the client “Yes” or “No.”
Don’t overcomplicate it. Use the tool, get the right numbers, and go focus on your creative strategy instead.