Hashtags on TikTok are not the growth lever they were on Instagram in 2018, but they are not useless either. On a slideshow they do two jobs: they tell TikTok's search and recommendation systems what the post is about, and they tell a human skimming the caption whether the post is for them. Both jobs are done with a small number of specific tags.
How many
Three to five. More than that reads as spam to viewers and adds nothing for ranking. The caption text itself is indexed, so the words that matter most should be in the caption sentence, with hashtags reinforcing them.
The three-layer formula
Use one or two tags from each layer:
- Niche layer. What the content is about, in the words your audience uses. For a nail app: #nailinspo, #nailart. For a budgeting app: #budgeting, #moneytok. These tags carry the community.
- Intent layer. What the viewer is trying to do. #nailideas, #savemoney, #learnspanish, #mealprep. Intent tags match TikTok search queries, which is where slideshows quietly pick up views for months.
- Format or app layer. One tag that names the format or category so TikTok can group you with similar posts: #apptok, #appsyouneed, #phonetips. Skip your brand name as a hashtag until the brand has an audience; an empty tag page helps no one.
Tags to skip
- #fyp, #foryou, #viral. They carry no topic information. TikTok does not need to be told you want distribution.
- Broad single words like #app, #tips, #life. Too many posts, no shared intent.
- Instagram-only communities such as #nailsofinstagram. They mark the post as cross-posted. ViralSlides swaps these automatically when it builds the TikTok pack.
- Tag stuffing in comments. It does not work and it looks desperate.
Match the hashtags to the slides
TikTok reads the text on your slides. When your slide one says "Nail appointment tomorrow, no idea what to get" and your tags say #nailideas and #nailinspo, the signals agree and the post is easier to classify. When the slides talk about manicures and the tags talk about #productivity because you borrowed a set from another post, the signals fight.
Location tags: use with care
Adding a city or country tag only helps if the content is genuinely local. A US-focused app gains nothing from #usa on every post, and viewers notice the padding. If your app serves one region, put the region in the caption sentence where it reads naturally.
Rotate, do not repeat
Using the exact same five tags on every post is a weak pattern signal. Keep a bank of ten to fifteen tags across the three layers and pull three to five per post based on what that deck is about. Your caption should change every time anyway; the tags should follow it.
A worked example
A budgeting app posts a comparison deck: "Two ways to handle the paycheck that always disappears."
- Caption sentence: "The envelope method finally made my paycheck last. Which side are you?"
- Tags: #budgeting #paycheck #moneytips #personalfinance #apptok
Five tags, three layers, every one of them a word someone might type into search.
ViralSlides generates a caption and separate TikTok and Instagram hashtag packs for every slideshow, built from the deck's actual copy rather than a fixed list. If you want to see the packs it writes for your app, generate a slideshow and open the marketing assets tab.