The 'post 3× a day' era is over. Algorithm pushes have been re-weighted toward search intent and dwell time. Here's what actually performs in 2026 — and what quietly stopped working.
The 1.2-second hook
Faces, motion, text overlay in the first 1.2 seconds. If the algorithm doesn't see a stop-scroll signal by then, everything else is wasted. Reshoot your hooks weekly — the same hook decays in 3–4 weeks.
Native beats polished
Phone-shot, one-take content outperforms studio work in every vertical we've tested — including luxury. The audience penalizes anything that reads as an ad in the first two seconds.
TikTok is now a search engine
Gen Z searches TikTok before Google for products, restaurants, and how-tos. Write captions like YouTube titles: a keyword, a promise, a payoff. Add on-screen text with the same phrasing — TikTok reads it.
Comments are the second algorithm
Reply to your first 20 comments with videos, not text. Every comment reply is a new distribution surface. This is the single highest-ROI hour of the week for a small brand on TikTok.
Spark Ads > new ad accounts
Turn organic winners into Spark Ads. They inherit the video's social proof, cost 40–60% less than cold-created ads, and keep the comment section — which converts.
Post cadence
3–5 videos per week, consistently, beats 15/week for a month and then silence. The algorithm rewards consistent creators — inconsistent ones get throttled fast.