Track TikTok slideshow performance: metrics and a sheet

Which numbers are worth logging for photo posts and carousels?

Log what the platforms say they use, as far as your analytics show it. As of November 2026, TikTok's Help Center (opens in a new tab) lists likes, shares, comments, watching to the end or skipping, and accounts followed as interactions, and says interactions are generally weighted more than other factors for most users. Instagram's ranking explainer (opens in a new tab) of May 2023 names likes, saves and shares as the key predicted actions in Explore, and lists how quickly people like, comment, share and save a post among the Feed signals.

Number	Why log it	Caveat
Views, or reach if your app shows it	The denominator for everything else	Views and reach are different measures. Write down which one you use
Likes	Named by both platforms as a signal	Easy to give, so read it with the others
Comments	Named by both platforms	A count says little about what people wrote, so skim the text too
Shares	Named by both platforms	Easy to express per 1,000 views, as shown below
Saves	Named by Instagram for Explore and Feed	TikTok's page names no saves, so leave it empty if your app shows none
Watching to the end or skipping	Named by TikTok	The page does not say how it applies to photo posts or whether your analytics show it

Choosing these is our judgment, not a TikTok instruction. An empty cell should mean "not measured", never zero.

One limit shapes how you read slides. As of November 2026, Instagram's Help Center (opens in a new tab) says likes and comments apply to the whole post rather than a single slide. So likes and comments cannot tell you how slide 3 did, and we found no statement that either platform reports numbers per slide. You learn about slide 1 by comparing posts that differ in slide 1.

What goes into a tracking sheet?

One row per post per reading. The first block is the context you fix before you post, the second block is what you read later.

Tracking sheet, one row per post per reading

Post link | Posted on | Platform | Topic | Format | Hook type | Slides | Variable changed | Read at (hours after posting) | Views | Likes | Comments | Shares | Saves | Note

Three habits make the sheet usable.

Read at fixed ages. We suggest 48 hours and 7 days. No source sets an age, so what matters is that every post gets the same ones.
Tag the hook before you post. Use a short list, such as question, number, bold claim, story and how-to. A tag you decide afterwards bends to the result. The hook formulas and curiosity hooks pages give types to choose from.
Log every post, flops included. A sheet of only the good ones tells you nothing about what usually happens.

How do you compare posts fairly?

Compare rates, not totals, and define the rate yourself. Vendors do it differently. Buffer's report (opens in a new tab) divides engagements by reach, while Socialinsider's benchmarks (opens in a new tab) divide likes plus comments by followers. A number from one is not comparable with a number from the other, or with yours.

A simple measure is shares per 1,000 views: shares ÷ views × 1,000. Pick one numerator, such as shares, and keep it. Do not compare your figure with a vendor's median, as the evidence overview explains.

How do you read a small sample?

Eight fictional posts, four with a question hook and four with a number hook. The numbers are invented to show the method.

Post	Hook type	Views	Shares	Shares per 1,000 views
1	Question	2,000	8	4.0
2	Question	2,000	13	6.5
3	Question	1,000	3	3.0
4	Question	2,000	11	5.5
5	Number	1,000	5	5.0
6	Number	1,000	7	7.0
7	Number	2,000	17	8.5
8	Number	2,000	9	4.5

The median is 4.75 for question hooks and 6.0 for number hooks. The ranges are 3.0 to 6.5 and 4.5 to 8.5, and they overlap. One number-hook post (4.5) sits below the question median, and one question-hook post (6.5) sits above the number median. The gap of 1.25 is a lead. It is not a finding. The sensible next step is more posts of each kind, not a rule that number hooks win.

Outliers are the second trap. Take six posts with 220, 240, 260, 280, 310 and 12,400 views. The mean is 2,285 views and the median is 270. One breakout post makes the mean useless as a description of a normal post. Keep the outlier in the sheet, add a note about what happened, and compare medians.

In our view, wait for at least five posts per variant before you read anything into a gap, and decide in advance how many you will collect.

Where can the numbers live?

A spreadsheet with the columns above is enough. Fyslide's analytics take the same manual route: you link a published post and type in its numbers yourself (analytics guide). Automatic analytics are Coming soon, included in your lifetime access as an update. Neither route reads your numbers for you today, so set a weekly time to enter them.

What should you check each week?

Every post from the week is in the sheet, with its hook tag.
Each post has a reading at both fixed ages.
Empty cells mean "not measured", not zero.
The variable you changed is written down, and only one thing changed.
Any outlier has a note.
You compare medians of at least five posts per variant (our rule of thumb above).

How long should I wait before reading a post's numbers?

We found no source that sets an age. Pick fixed ages, such as 48 hours and 7 days, and read every post at the same ones.

Can I see which slide people left on?

We found no statement that either platform reports that for photo posts or carousels. Instagram's Help Center says likes and comments apply to the whole post. Test slide one by comparing posts, as above.

How to track TikTok slideshow performance: metrics, a sheet and small samples