TikTok's Algorithm: Entertainment vs Commerce
Entertainment content wins attention; commerce content wins sales. They are different jobs, and the algorithm measures them differently.
TikTok's algorithm does not treat all content the same. A video built to be watched and a video built to sell are measured against different outcomes, and a creator strong at one is not automatically strong at the other. That gap is the whole reason follower count misleads.
What each kind of content optimizes
Entertainment content optimizes for watch time and shares: keep people on the app. Commerce content optimizes for a click and a purchase: move someone out of the feed and into a checkout. The first rewards attention. The second rewards intent. A creator tuned to the first can be excellent at it and still sell nothing.
Why it matters for who you pick
A creator with a huge entertainment audience has proven they can hold attention. They have not proven they can convert it. Read the commerce posts in the mix, not the popular ones. The video that did best by the algorithm is often not the one that sold.
What this means when you vet
Stop reading the metric the algorithm rewards and start reading the one the sale rewards. Does this creator post products that convert? A smaller account that converts beats a bigger one that merely entertains, because only one of them pays for the sample.