Guide

How to get more views, by the platforms’ own rules

What TikTok, Instagram and YouTube say about reach, and the popular tips they contradict.

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First brand read free. No filming.

On this page
  1. The short answer
  2. Get more views, step by step
  3. What the platforms actually say
  4. The sources
  5. Popular tips, checked
  6. Read next
  7. Questions

The short answer

Make people watch: TikTok, Instagram and YouTube all say recommendations depend mostly on how viewers react, above all whether they watch and share. So hook people in the first seconds, make the whole video worth finishing, post original work rather than reposts or watermarked copies, and post regularly. None of the three publishes a magic posting time or a required number of posts a day.

Updated

Illustration: short videos rising and multiplying above a phone, with view and heart icons and a megaphone

Get more views, step by step

  1. 01

    Open with the payoff

    Say or show why the video is worth watching in the first two or three seconds. A slow intro is the most common reason people swipe.

  2. 02

    Earn the full watch

    Cut every second that does not move the story. Length is whatever the story needs; Instagram recommends reels up to 3 minutes to non-followers.

  3. 03

    Post originals

    Make a new video rather than reposting, and never cross-post with another app’s watermark. Reuse a format, not the footage.

  4. 04

    Ask, never bribe

    Asking people to follow or comment is fine; promising something in return for likes or comments costs reach.

  5. 05

    Keep hashtags few and relevant

    TikTok suggests 2 to 3. They help the platform file the video; they are not what spreads it.

  6. 06

    Judge by watching, then repeat

    Look at watch time and the share of viewers who kept watching, not only views. Make more of the formats that held people.

What the platforms actually say

  • Viewers decide, not followers

    TikTok weighs user interactions “more heavily”; Instagram first shows every eligible reel to a small audience “regardless of whether they follow”.

  • Watching beats everything you add

    TikTok counts whether people “watch in full or skip”, Instagram whether they watch “all the way through”, YouTube counts watch time.

  • The first seconds matter

    TikTok: hook “ideally within the first 5 seconds”. Instagram: the “first 3 seconds”. YouTube: grabbing people “in the first few seconds tends to be important”.

  • Copies lose reach

    Reused or unoriginal videos and other people’s watermarks are ineligible for TikTok’s For You feed; on Instagram the original replaces the copy; YouTube bans scraped content.

  • Shares and likes are signals; bribes are not

    All three count shares and likes. “Like-for-like” and engagement bait make a video ineligible or limit it.

  • No magic time or quota

    YouTube has no threshold of Shorts per day; Instagram says the “first 30 minutes” rule “isn’t true”; TikTok asks only for posting “on a regular basis”.

The sources

Only the platforms’ own pages and their executives on the record, read on 1 October 2026. Where a source is old, its date is given. Percify is not affiliated with any of them.

  1. TikTok

    Help Center, Creator Academy and the For You feed eligibility standards (updated August 2026).

    Source: support.tiktok.com; quote: For You feed standards, read Invalid Date

    What it weighs most
    User interactions, “generally weighted more heavily”, including time spent watching
    On copies and reposts
    Unoriginal or reused material and someone else’s watermark are ineligible for the For You feed
    On time and frequency
    Post “on a regular basis”; no number given

  2. Instagram

    Adam Mosseri’s ranking explainer (31 May 2023) and the originality update (30 April 2024).

    Source: about.instagram.com; quote: Originality update, read Invalid Date

    What it weighs most
    Whether people reshare, watch all the way through, like and open the audio page
    On copies and reposts
    The original replaces copies; accounts that repost others’ content 10 or more times in 30 days lose recommendations
    On time and frequency
    The “first 30 minutes” rule: “No, we can confirm this isn’t true!”

  3. YouTube

    The recommendation system explainer (15 September 2021), the spam policy and the Shorts Q&A with its product lead.

    Source: blog.youtube; quote: Spam policy, read Invalid Date

    What it weighs most
    Clicks, watch time, survey responses, sharing, likes and dislikes
    On copies and reposts
    Spam policy bans scraped content and automated or synthetic mass-production
    On time and frequency
    No threshold of Shorts per day; time of day is not optimised for
FAQs

Your questions, answered

Short answers to what people ask next.

Hook people within the first seconds, make videos worth watching to the end, post originals without other apps’ watermarks, use 2 to 3 relevant hashtags and post regularly. TikTok weighs how viewers interact, including watch time, more than anything else.

Instagram looks at whether people reshare, watch all the way through and like a reel. Keep reels original, without watermarks or borders, under 3 minutes if you want them shown to non-followers, and avoid engagement bait.

Grab people in the first few seconds and make the Short worth finishing. YouTube says there is no daily quota and no best time it optimises for, and that deleting and reposting is treated as spam.

Less than the video. YouTube says time of day is not something it optimises for and Instagram calls the “first 30 minutes” rule untrue. Posting when your audience is online still helps the first views; see where the studies agree.

Mass-produced, repetitive AI videos are against YouTube’s and TikTok’s rules. Realistic AI video of a person must be labelled on all three platforms. An original video presented by your own AI avatar, labelled as the platform asks, is treated like any other original post.

Instagram counts each time a reel starts to play or replay; YouTube counts a view when any video starts to play (since 24 August 2026). TikTok publishes no public definition; its creator rewards count a “qualified view” at 5 seconds.

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