TikTok consumer insights: what buyers search, ask and say
TokConnect turns TikTok into evidence an insights team can cite: what consumers type into search, how that demand moves, who is asking, what they say in comments and how a brand compares with its rival.
Every figure below comes from one category, whole-body deodorant, pulled from public TikTok on 8 October 2026. Native, Lume, Dove and Secret are the brands in it.
- 01What they type292,570searches for "limes as deodorant", 0 videos
- 02How demand moves12 Julythe day that search peaked at 2,715,835
- 03Who is asking62.3%of "all body deodorant" searchers are women
- 04What they say776likes on a comment that says regular deodorant will do
- 05How brands compare3.3×Lume's median views over Native's, on half the followers
What consumers type into TikTok
A search is a consumer asking in their own words. These are typed searches from one week on TikTok, coded the way an insights team would code open answers. Six of the eleven have no videos at all.
| Search and code | 7-day searches | Videos |
|---|---|---|
| natural deodorant lime Remedy | 298,429 | 449 |
| dove mens deodorant Brand | 297,729 | 0 |
| limes as deodorant Remedy | 292,570 | 0 |
| how to make your own deodorant DIY | 280,915 | 0 |
| 72 hour deodorant Claim | 280,484 | 760 |
| is dove deodorant good Brand | 263,568 | 502 |
| fall deodorant Season | 234,076 | 0 |
| all body deodorant Format | 209,395 | 1,113 |
| too much deodorant Worry | 207,320 | 0 |
| musty deodorant Worry | 177,517 | 0 |
| intimate body deodorant Format | 150,254 | 558 |
Searches in 7 days to 8 October 2026, global, TikTok Creator Search Insights. Peach 0 means no matching videos.
List the typed TikTok searches about [your category] with 7-day searches and video counts. Leave out TikTok's topic labels and flag the searches with no videos.
Map your categoryHow the demand moves
A week's count is a snapshot. The 180-day curve shows when people went looking. "limes as deodorant" came in waves: a burst in April, a peak reading of 2,715,835 on 12 July 2026, then lower readings through September.
On 89 of the 181 days the chart read zero. Then it climbed again, to 292,569 on 8 October. For a brand team, that is a home remedy that returns. For a research plan, it is the date to field a survey: right after a spike, while people still remember why they searched.
Show the 180-day TikTok search popularity curve for [search phrase]. When did it peak, how high, and is it rising now?
Chart a search"limes as deodorant": highest daily reading each month
- 485KAprApr 2026: highest reading 484,572 on 2026-04-14
- 145KMayMay 2026: highest reading 145,032 on 2026-05-09
- 97KJunJun 2026: highest reading 96,526 on 2026-06-16
- 2.72MJulJul 2026: highest reading 2,715,835 on 2026-07-12
- 242KAugAug 2026: highest reading 242,043 on 2026-08-12
- 145KSepSep 2026: highest reading 145,032 on 2026-09-09
- 293KOctOct 2026: highest reading 292,569 on 2026-10-08
Who is asking
TikTok shares the make-up of its panel of searchers for each topic. For "all body deodorant", 62.3% were women and 12.0% men, about five to one. 43.4% were 18 to 24.
The most-viewed video in our "whole body deodorant" pull, at 17.5 million views, was a paid post for a men's whole-body deodorant. The people searching are mostly women, and the largest age group is 18 to 24. That gap is a finding you can put in a deck, with the source and date under it.
Who searches TikTok for [your category]? Show the age, gender and country shares for its top typed search.
See who asksAge
- 18 to 24 43.4%
- 25 to 34 18.9%
- 16 to 17 7.5%
- 35 and over 7.5%
- Under 16 1.9%
- Not known 20.8%
Gender
- Women 62.3%
- Men 12.0%
- Not known 25.8%
Country
- United States 59.2%
- Malaysia 5.0%
- Canada 4.4%
- Philippines 3.8%
- Australia 3.1%
- Elsewhere 24.5%
Shares of TikTok's panel of searchers for "all body deodorant", last 30 days to 8 October 2026. Top five countries shown.
What they say in the comments
"I just put my regular deodorant in all those places."
The most-viewed "whole body deodorant" video with no partnership tag reached 589,000 views. An account with 9,961 followers posted it, tagged #plussize. It drew 7,249 likes and 1,487 saves, and TikTok returned 43 of its 71 comments.
We coded all 43. The loudest theme was not about any brand. It was people saying they already use something else.
Regular deodorant, corn starch, witch hazel, Gold Bond, a home-made mix.
Lume, Arm & Hammer, Old Spice, Dove and Suave, named unprompted.
"yeah but does it work", plus doubts that a deodorant stops sweat or stays off clothes.
"one overpriced deodorant for another", and a commenter who won't pay more for it.
Top comments on one public "whole body deodorant" video (posted 23 May 2026), pulled 8 October 2026. Like counts at the time of the pull.
Read together, the comments give a brief its first line: the rival is the stick already in the cabinet, not another brand. One more commenter asked where to find the full ingredient list. For how to pull comments at scale, see the TikTok comments API guide.
Pull the top comments on the most-viewed TikTok videos about [your category] and group them by theme, with the like count for each theme.
Read the commentsHow a brand compares with its rival
Two whole-body brands, side by side: the searches that name each one, and what a normal post on each account does. A median of the last 20 posts says more than a follower count.
"native deodorants" 225,332
"native whole body deodorant" 56,016
"lume whole body deodorant for privates" 99,609, with no matching videos
| Measure | Native | Lume |
|---|---|---|
| Followers | 156,953 | 78,584 |
| Videos on the account | 452 | 1,515 |
| Median views, last 20 posts | 1,015 | 3,388 |
| Median views ÷ followers | 0.65% | 4.31% |
| Best of the 20 | 8,132 | 12,300 |
| Named in the top 20 "whole body deodorant" videos | 1 | 0 |
What the table says
Lume has half Native's followers and a median 3.3 times higher. Its 20 posts ran from 23 September to 8 October 2026; Native's took from 14 September to 6 October.
Neither owns the category's video results. Dove or Secret is named in 13 of the top 20, and 8 of the 20 carry a partnership tag, including the two biggest at 17.5 million and 7.8 million views.
Dove draws the biggest brand searches in our pull. "dove mens deodorant" drew 297,729 in a week with no matching videos.
Public TikTok profiles and posts and 7-day searches, pulled 8 October 2026. Medians rounded to whole views.
Compare [your brand] and [competitor brand] on TikTok: searches that name each brand, followers, and median views on each account's last 20 posts.
Compare two brandsWhere TikTok consumer insights fit next to listening suites
Keep your listening suite for mentions across networks, alerts and dashboards over time. Add TokConnect for the TikTok questions a mention count can't answer, pulled when you need them.
- What people post about a brand, across networks
- Mention volume and sentiment over time
- Alerts when a mention spikes
- TikTok's own 7-day search counts for a whole list of phrases at once, with video counts
- 30- or 180-day search curves, and who searches each topic
- Comments on any public video with like counts, and brand accounts' recent posts
- Asked from its chat, or from ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor once connected; it reads public TikTok on demand, with no alerts
The TikTok social listening guide covers tracking brand mentions on TikTok. For sizing a market from the same search counts, see TikTok for market research.
Deciding what to launch? TikTok for product teams turns the same data into product ideas. Feeding it into a model or a research pipeline? See TikTok as alternative data.
Questions insights teams ask
How do consumer insights teams use TikTok?
As a record of what consumers type, watch and say before they buy. TokConnect pulls TikTok's own 7-day search counts, 180-day search curves, searcher demographics and top comments for a category in one sitting. In our deodorant sample, "limes as deodorant" drew 292,570 searches in a week with no matching videos.
Can TikTok search data replace a consumer survey?
It works best as the step before one. Searches show what people asked and how often; a survey tells you why. In our sample, 62.3% of searchers for "all body deodorant" were women and 43.4% were 18 to 24, which tells you whom to recruit and which questions to ask.
What does TikTok search data add to a social listening tool?
Listening tools count what people post. Search counts show what people ask for, including questions nobody has filmed yet. TokConnect returns those counts for a whole list of phrases at once, with video counts, so a gap such as "musty deodorant" (177,517 searches, 0 videos) sits next to your mention data.
How do you compare two brands on TikTok with public data?
Line up the searches that name each brand, then compare each brand account's median views on its last 20 posts rather than its best post. In our pull, Lume had 78,584 followers and a median of 3,388 views; Native had 156,953 followers and a median of 1,015.
How we got these numbers
We pulled public TikTok data through TokConnect on 8 October 2026:
search_topicsfor "deodorant", "whole body deodorant", "native deodorant", "dove deodorant" and "lume deodorant" (20 records each);search_popularityover 180 days for "limes as deodorant" and "all body deodorant", andaudience_demographicsover 30 days for "all body deodorant";search_videosfor "whole body deodorant" (20 videos), andvideo_commentson the most-viewed one without a partnership tag (TikTok returned 43 of 71);user_profilefor Native and Lume Deodorant, andcreator_postsfor each account's last 20 posts.
Search counts are TikTok's global 7-day search popularity from Creator Search Insights. Every phrase quoted is under 1 million searches and treated as a typed search; TikTok's descriptive topic labels are left out. Curve values are single daily readings with their dates. A partnership tag means #ad, a brand partner hashtag or a gifted tag in the caption. Comment themes are our coding of the 43 comments. Individual creators are described, not named. Open the data.