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TikTok leads the way in Endurance Social Analytics (ESA) March 2025 dataset

  • Gary Roethenbaugh
  • May 7
  • 3 min read

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(Article originally published on our sister site endurance.biz in April 2025.)


The Endurance Social Analytics (ESA) dataset, as part of the newly launched members.endurance.biz website, takes a sample of 600+ endurance sport brands and tracks their impact on social media.


The new members.endurance.biz site provides a regular flow of insights, tracking the top performing posts and showing key metrics for subscribers each month.


Summary ESA highlights for March 2025:

  • The majority of endurance sport brands tracked in the dataset have a Facebook profile (643), with a number of Instagram profiles (598) also established.

  • However, despite the importance of video as an engagement tool, there is a much lower number of brands with YouTube (453) or TikTok (277) profiles.

  • Across the ESA dataset, brands categorised as ‘Gear’, e.g. bikes, apparel, shoes, nutrition, accessories, etc., are the most likely to have a TikTok account (61%). For brands classified as ‘Events’ or ‘Training/coaching/media’ only around one-third have a TikTok profile.

  • Given the importance of TikTok for generating interactions, it is expected that an uplift for TikTok usage may be on the horizon. However, there remains some uncertainty over the status of TikTok politically, i.e., for brands predominantly active in the USA where a TikTok ban has been threatened by the government.

  • Dormant social media profiles are where there are no posts in the reporting period. This may be applicable for a number of endurance sport brands. Here, for brands needing inspiration for what to post, the ESA dataset provides rankings of the top-performing posts as examples.

  • In terms of the preferred social platforms for brands to leverage, Instagram is the most active. Here, only 11% of endurance sport brands made no posts in March 2025. For Facebook a slightly larger 18% of profiles had no posts last month.

  • Continuing with the dormant social profiles theme, it is clear that TikTok and YouTube present an opportunity for brands to do (post) more. Tracking all brands with a TikTok profile, in March 2025, 48% of these saw no posts last month. Meanwhile, for YouTube, 51% of profiles were dormant last month.

  • For brands making use of TikTok and YouTube, these tend to have lower than average ‘fanbase’. In other words, the number of followers / subscribers will typically be lower than that achieved on Instagram or Facebook. However, TikTok and YouTube channels can still yield high views – particularly if impactful videos are used.

  • Post interaction (where someone likes or comments on a post) is a key social media metric for drawing brand comparisons. Although the average post interaction rates may appear low, some brands with particularly impactive posts will far exceed the average.

  • In March 2025, the average post interaction on Instagram (1.26%) outperformed Facebook (0.19%) by some margin. Instagram’s average post interaction for endurance sport brands is 6.5x greater than that achieved via Facebook.

  • Illustrating the importance of video-based platforms, in March 2025, TikTok saw 3.7% interactions per video impression on average for endurance sport brands; while YouTube stood at 1.1%.

  • Last month, TikTok had higher average views per post (118K) than YouTube (22K). Although it is worth noting that a single post with millions of views will significantly skew the average.

  • If we explore the average reactions/comments/shares per post, it is clear that TikTok leads the way. Last month, TikTok averages were 2.5x greater than that of nearest rival Instagram. In March 2025, the per post engagement averages were: TikTok (4402), Instagram (1720), YouTube (247), and Facebook (138).

  • While coming from a lower base, TikTok also leads in terms of average follower growth in March 2025. Last month, follower growth on average was: TikTok (+1.2%), Instagram (+0.33%), YouTube (+0.19%), and Facebook (+0.05%).


The new Endurance Social Analytics (ESA) data helps brands to see how they stack up against: (1) the endurance sport industry overall; (2) specific endurance sport market sectors; and (3) key competitors. The monthly data is used to help brands monitor, adapt and refine their activation in each social media channel.


In addition to the data, brands can explore the top performing posts to see what resonates with audiences worldwide. This helps with planning future campaigns and building brand engagement & impact.


 
 
 

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