TikTok vs. TikTok Business API

When integrating TikTok into your application with Post for Me, you have two distinct connection options: TikTok (Consumer) and TikTok Business. While both connection types support the ability to connect both Personal and Business accounts, they utilize different underlying APIs that offer varying levels of data depth and feature sets.

Here is a breakdown of the differences to help you choose the right integration for your users.

Standard TikTok Connection

The standard TikTok connection utilizes the platform's consumer API. This is the default choice for general social posting applications.

How it works:

You initiate the connection using the tiktok platform enum via the create-upload-url endpoint.

The Capabilities

• Posting: Full support for video publishing.

• Feeds: Retrieve the user's video feed.

• Analytics: Provides a lightweight data set limited to the four core metrics: like_count, comment_count, share_count, and view_count.

TikTok Business Connection

The TikTok Business connection utilizes the platform's Marketing and Business API. Despite the name, this connection type can still be used to connect both Personal and Business accounts, provided the user grants the expanded permission scopes.

How it works

You must specify the tiktok_business platform enum when generating the auth URL. This requests a much larger set of permissions, including user.insights and video.insights,.

The Capabilities

• Posting: Full support for video publishing.

  • Custom Thumbnails: Unlike the standard connection, the Business API allows you to upload and set custom thumbnails for video posts.

• Feeds: Retrieve the user's video feed.

• Advanced Analytics: Access detailed performance data including total_time_watched, average_time_watched, video_view_retention graphs, and audience demographics (gender, country, city),,.

Choosing the Right Connection

While the TikTok Business connection offers superior features, it requests significantly more data permissions from the user which might be intimidating.

Recommendation:

• Use Standard TikTok if your application only requires basic posting and simple view counts.

• Use TikTok Business if you are building an analytics dashboard, a marketing tool requiring deep insights, or if your users need control over video thumbnails.