AI Search Summary
This video reports a self-run tally of TikTok For You page content to compare ads, TikTok Shop posts, sponsored posts, normal videos, and political content across a main account and a mostly unused alt account. The creator then compares those results with Instagram, where they saw far fewer sponsored or political videos in the same sample size.
- Main question: How does TikTok’s algorithm influence the type of content shown to users?
- Short answer / core takeaway: The creator’s small observational experiment suggests TikTok showed many more sales-oriented and political posts than Instagram, and that account history may affect ad/shop targeting and political content mix.
- Evidence type: Personal platform audit / informal social-media algorithm experiment.
- Search topics: TikTok algorithm, TikTok Shop frequency, sponsored posts, For You page ads, political content TikTok, Instagram reels comparison, social media platform audit.
Common Search Questions
How many TikTok posts were sales-oriented on the main account?
In the creator’s 100-video main-account tally, 19 were sponsored, 19 were TikTok Shop, and 62 were normal, meaning more than one in three were trying to sell something.
How did the alt TikTok account differ?
On a barely used alt account, the creator counted 8 TikTok Shop posts, 22 sponsored posts, and 85 normal posts out of 115 videos, or about 26% sales-oriented content.
How did Instagram compare?
The creator says 100 videos on the main Instagram account included two sponsored posts and one political post, while a brand-new Instagram account showed two sponsored posts and zero political posts.
Key Takeaways
- The creator started with an 11-post screen grab where 5 were TikTok Shop, 4 were sponsored, and 2 were normal.
- In a 100-video main-account TikTok sample, 38% were either sponsored or TikTok Shop.
- In a 115-video alt-account TikTok sample, 30 posts were sponsored or TikTok Shop.
- The creator speculates that better targeting on the main account may explain more sales attempts.
- The main TikTok account showed no political posts in the sample, while the alt account showed 31 political posts.
- Instagram showed far fewer sponsored and political posts in the creator’s quick comparison.
- This is an informal experiment, not a controlled platform study.
Transcript
Initial For You page sample
This was a screen grab of me scrolling through 11 posts on my For You page.
Five were TikTok Shop, four were sponsored, and two were normal.
And as someone who studied probability in grad school, I know that for any truly random distribution, you will get clumping.
But nothing about TikTok is truly random. Not even the odds that you’re on the toilet right now.
Main-account TikTok tally
So I continued scrolling and tallied the results.
Out of 100 videos, 19 were sponsored, 19 were TikTok Shop, and the other 62 were normal.
That’s more than one in three videos trying to sell us something.
But that’s on my main account, which I’ve been using for years, and the algorithm probably thinks that it’s got a better shot of trying to sell me something: better targeting.
Alt-account TikTok tally
So I went to my alt account, which I’ve barely ever scrolled, and out of 115 videos, eight were TikTok Shop, 22 were sponsored, and 85 were normal.
Totally different breakdown. Only 26% were trying to sell me something, maybe because they think that conversion rates would be lower because they know less about that account.
Political content difference
But here’s something else I noticed.
On my main account, not one of those posts were political. They know I hate politics.
On the alt account, 31 were political, 23 of which either showed or mentioned the new New York City mayor.
And I get that that’s a big deal right now, but 31 videos for an account that has never once watched through anything political?
It’s almost like they’re trying to make new-user me care more about politics. And I bet that analyzing the average sentiment there would be interesting.
Instagram comparison
But then I wanted to compare this to Instagram.
Scrolling through 100 videos on my main gave me two sponsored posts and one about politics, which was about the mayor.
And on a brand-new Instagram account: 100 videos, two sponsored, zero politics.
Who else misses the old TikTok?
Additional Notes
The caption gives viewers homework: run the same experiment for themselves and report what percentage of each category they get.
References
- No study references or source links listed in workbook.