Low views are rarely bad luck. Usually a video breaks one of the platforms’ rules for recommendations, or gives a stranger no reason to keep watching. Both can be fixed.
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Why a video gets no views
A video gets no views when the platform shows it to almost nobody beyond your followers. On TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Shorts, a short video reaches people who don’t follow you through recommendations: the For You feed, the Reels tab, Explore, the Shorts feed. A post that isn’t recommended stays with the people who already follow you. For Icon Auto Centre, a Toronto garage, that meant a few hundred views at a time. Two broad things can be behind it, and they need different fixes:
- The platform may be holding it back, because the video or the account goes against a rule for recommendations.
- The video may give strangers no reason to stay, from the first second on.
Checking the first takes a few minutes, so start there.
Check whether a platform is holding you back
Instagram. A professional account can see in Account Status whether its content may be eligible to be recommended to people who don’t follow it, “in places like Explore, Reels and Feed Recommendations”. Instagram’s path is Settings, then Account, then Account Status. If something is in the way, it shows a sample of the posts, or the parts of the profile, that may go against its Recommendations Guidelines, and you can edit or delete them (Instagram for Creators, updated 25 April 2023). Instagram also says that content against those guidelines “can still be distributed normally to your followers, but we try not to recommend it to non-followers”.
TikTok. TikTok’s For You feed standards say: “If a video isn’t getting many views, it also doesn’t necessarily mean it broke a rule. Creators can check TikTok’s analytics to see how their videos are performing, including if there were any made ineligible for recommendation” (TikTok, For You feed eligibility standards, released 25 August 2026). TikTok’s help page adds that analytics “may take 1 to 2 days to update” (TikTok Support), so judge a post after that, not in its first hour.
If both are clear, the video itself is the likelier place to look, though TikTok’s own words are a reminder that low views don’t have a single cause.
Recommendation rules and advice a business runs into
Recommendation rules are separate from the rules that get a post removed. Instagram says its Recommendations Guidelines “are designed to maintain a higher standard than our Community Standards, because recommended content and connections are from accounts you haven’t chosen to follow”. Some rows below are its guidelines, some are its advice to creators, and one is TikTok’s; each is in the platform’s own words.
| Rule | What the platform says | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No other app’s watermark | Instagram: eligible content “has no visible watermarks”; “Avoid visibly recycled content” | Upload your own file to each app, never a download from another |
| Originals first | Instagram: when it finds identical copies, “we will only recommend the original one”. TikTok: “We also don’t recommend duplicated content” | Don’t repost the same video on the same account to fill a week |
| Nothing largely repurposed | Instagram: “Unoriginal content that is largely repurposed from another source with only minor, immaterial edits” may not be recommended | Film your own; a trend is fine if the film is yours |
| Made for a phone | Instagram: “9 x 16 vertical videos with no borders, where text does not cover the majority of the screen”, and “3 minutes or less” to be recommended | Film upright, keep words to a line or two |
| Captions about the video | Instagram lists “Long captions unrelated to the underlying content” as low-quality | Write a caption about what’s in the film |
| A public account | Instagram: “We only recommend content from public accounts” | Business and creator accounts are public automatically |
Source: Instagram for Creators, 30 April 2024; Instagram Recommendations Guidelines; Instagram for Creators, updated 25 April 2023; TikTok Newsroom, 18 June 2020.
Two more apply to the whole account. Instagram says that if you repeatedly post content against its Recommendations Guidelines, or your profile photo or bio goes against them, “your entire account may become ineligible for recommendation, and none of your content will be recommended for a period of time”. And it tries not to recommend accounts that have “Repeatedly engaged in misleading practices to build followings, such as purchasing ‘likes’” (Instagram Recommendations Guidelines). Bought likes and followers can cost you the very reach they were meant to buy.
A bar or a licensed restaurant should know one more: Instagram hides some alcohol content from teenagers, giving as examples “A post offering to sell tobacco, nicotine products, alcohol, or firearms when shared by a legitimate brick-and-mortar business” and “Images with recipes for alcoholic drinks”. Those posts can reach fewer people by design.
Look at the first second
Da.Si.Mar Shawarma, on Yonge Street in Toronto, kept posting, steady and small, until it posted a reel with a sigh for a caption: “The algorithm doesn’t reward effort.” The film that changed it had no words on screen at all: one beef wrap, start to finish, the bread warmed against the spit before anything else. From the first frame there was something to watch. It went viral, and our films for the shop reached 3.88 million views in under four weeks, more than all its earlier videos together.
The platforms say the same in their own words. Instagram’s advice is to “Pull the viewer in within the first 3 seconds, and keep them interested the whole time” (Instagram for Creators). TikTok gives watching to the end as its example of a strong signal: “whether a user finishes watching a longer video from beginning to end, would receive greater weight than a weak indicator” (TikTok Newsroom). A logo, a slow pan across an empty room or a greeting to camera gives a stranger nothing to stay for.
Make it for strangers
Icon Auto Centre’s videos showed beautiful paint jobs, to a few hundred views at a time. They were made for people who already cared about the car. Our first film for the garage was made for everyone who has ever been a customer: one mechanic, four costumes, every question he hears at the counter. Not a drop of paint in it.
A small following doesn’t stop that from working. TikTok says that “neither follower count nor whether the account has had previous high-performing videos are direct factors in the recommendation system” (TikTok Newsroom). Instagram describes showing every eligible post “to a small audience that we think will enjoy it, regardless of whether they follow the account that posted it or not”, then the best performers to a wider group, and so on (Instagram for Creators). On Instagram, each post gets its own small test, and what strangers do with it decides how far it goes.
Give it a reason to be sent
A video that gets sent travels further than one that gets liked. Give people a reason: a dare (“comment your favourite bowl”), a joke about someone they know, or an offer that only works if they pass it on, like Da.Si.Mar’s film that said send this to someone, so they owe you a free shawarma. Instagram lists “clickbait or engagement bait” among content it may not recommend, without drawing the line between a dare and bait, so let the film itself carry the reason (Instagram for Creators).
Read your numbers before you change everything
Instagram’s reel insights show views (“The number of times your reel starts to play or replay”), watch time, viewers, average watch time and follows. Average watch time is Instagram’s own sum:
Average watch time = watch time ÷ initial views
For example, round numbers: a 20-second reel with 1,000 initial views and 5,000 seconds of watch time averages 5,000 ÷ 1,000 = 5 seconds. On average, people watched a quarter of it, so the opening is the place to look first (Instagram Help Center).
- Low views and low watch time: the people who saw it moved on early. Change the opening.
- Low views, good watch time: the few who saw it stayed. Check Account Status, then post the same kind of film again.
- Good views, no follows or visits: the film travelled but said nothing about you. Show the business in it.
Post again
For both shops, the viral film wasn’t the first. Icon Auto Centre’s first viral films were posted the day after our first, and Da.Si.Mar’s was our third, six days in. One video is one chance; a month of them is many. “How often should a business post?” explains the rhythm.
Common mistakes
- Downloading from TikTok to post on Instagram, watermark and all.
- Reposting last month’s best video on the same account.
- Buying likes or followers, which Instagram names as a reason not to recommend an account.
- A caption longer than the film, or a block of hashtags with nothing to do with it.
- Judging a post in its first hour, when TikTok’s numbers can take a day or two.
- Opening on the logo instead of the food, the work or the joke.
A checklist before the next post
- Account Status on Instagram is clear, and TikTok’s analytics show no ineligible videos.
- The file is your own, uploaded to each app, with no other app’s mark.
- It’s upright, full-screen, and words cover a line or two, not the picture.
- The first second shows the thing itself.
- Someone who has never heard of you would get it.
- The caption is about the video.
- The next post is already planned.
When you want views you can count on
Every one of our plans guarantees its views: 250,000 a month on Base, 500,000 on Growth and 1 million on Premium. We count every post, on each platform’s own numbers, until a month after the month ends. See the plans.
Questions owners ask
Why does my TikTok have no views?
Check TikTok’s analytics first: they show whether any video was made ineligible for the For You feed. TikTok says low views don’t necessarily mean a rule was broken. If nothing is ineligible, look at the first second, and at whether the film was made for people who don’t know you yet.
Why don’t my Instagram Reels get recommended?
Check Account Status, which shows professional accounts whether their content may be recommended to non-followers. Then the usual causes: another app’s watermark, a repost of something already on Instagram, or content that is largely repurposed from elsewhere.
Is my account shadowbanned?
Instagram doesn’t use the word. It says content against its Recommendations Guidelines can still be distributed normally to followers, but it tries not to recommend it to non-followers. Account Status shows a professional account whether its content may be recommended, with a sample of what may be in the way. On TikTok, the analytics show any video made ineligible for the For You feed.
Will buying followers help my videos get views?
No. Instagram tries not to recommend accounts that have repeatedly engaged in misleading practices to build followings, such as buying likes, and TikTok says follower count isn’t a direct factor in its recommendations.
Does posting more often help?
Each post is another chance to be recommended. For Icon Auto Centre and Da.Si.Mar Shawarma, the films that went viral were posted after the first.
How do I start?
Apply to work with us: a few quick questions about your business. We read every application, and if we can help, we write back to set up a free thirty-minute video call. Apply to work with us
Keep reading
- ViewsHow many views is good on TikTok and Reels?
- ViewsHow to go viral on TikTok and Reels as a business
- Auto repairAuto repair shop social media: videos that work
- Making videosPost the same video on TikTok, Reels and Shorts?
Sources
- Instagram for Creators, What creators need to know about Instagram recommendations, 30 August 2022, updated 25 April 2023, read
- Instagram Help Center, Recommendations Guidelines, read
- Instagram for Creators, Recommendations and originality, 30 April 2024, read
- TikTok Community Guidelines, For You feed eligibility standards, released 25 August 2026, read
- TikTok Newsroom, How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou, 18 June 2020, read
- TikTok Support, My posts aren’t getting views, read
- Instagram Help Center, View insights on your Instagram reels, read
Updates
- : Lengthened: how to check Instagram’s Account Status and TikTok’s analytics, the rules that keep a business’s posts out of recommendations (Instagram’s Recommendations Guidelines, its creators’ pages and TikTok’s For You feed standards and recommendation post read), what to read in your numbers, common mistakes and a checklist.