Popularity Index FAQ
Introducing Spate's new Popularity Index, a proprietary metric that combines Google searches, TikTok views, and Instagram posts to provide comprehensive insights into trends. It provides a unified view of trends, clarifies their origins, and predicts their direction independently of platform-specific changes.
The Index emphasizes Google and TikTok, where consumer signals most often translate into sales, while still capturing Instagram’s influence on culture and conversation.
It means we’re ensuring fair comparisons of trends, even as the popularity of different platforms shifts over time. It allows brands to analyze categories holistically to stay ahead of evolving consumer preferences.
What is the Popularity Index?
The Popularity Index combines data from Google, TikTok, and Instagram to show how popular a category or trend is.
Toner shows a decline of -16.6% on Google, a growth of +36.5% on TikTok, and a decline of 37.6% on Instagram, but when adjusted using the Popularity Index to account for platform behaviors, we see that Toner is actually growing by +6.4% on Google, declining -2.9% on TikTok and declining -16.1% on Instagram.
The index measures how “Toner” compares to all other beauty trends on TikTok, Instagram and Google.
It adjusts for growth differences on each platform to accurately reflect the increase in popularity.
 “Toner” is growing at -16.6% when looking at Google Searches; however when comparing it to ALL Beauty Trends on Google it’s relative Popularity is actually increasing by +6.4% |  “Toner” is growing at +36.5% when looking at TikTok view; however when comparing it to ALL Beauty Trends on TikTok it’s relative Popularity is decreasing by -2.9% |
 “Toner” is growing at -37.6% when looking at Instagram Posts; however when comparing it to ALL Beauty Trends on Instagram it’s relative Popularity is decreasing by -16.1% |
Why does it matter?
Which trends drive the Discover the beauty trends gaining the most traction and shaping consumer preferences. |  |
How do trends differ on Google vs. TikTok vs. Instagram? Understand which categories and brands are more prominent on Google search versus TikTok versus Instagram. In this example, “Gourmand Fragrances” is driven by TikTok that captures 84.4% Popularity Share. |  |
What’s the overall trend health across platforms? Get a holistic view of trends across platforms, empowering better strategic decisions. Spate’s proprietary prediction model is now calculated on the Popularity Index that looks at Google, TikTok, and Instagram. |  |
Where can I find Popularity Index?
The Popularity Index is now available in the Overview tab for both US and Global markets. You can find it on:
- All category pages
- All brand pages
- Trends by category explore pages
- Brands by category explore pages
Notes:
- The Popularity Index is only available in markets where we offer TikTok coverage.
- The Popularity Index with Instagram is only available in markets where we offer Instagram coverage.
You can still access unindexed Google search data, TikTok views data, and Instagram posts data in their dedicated platform tabs.
What metrics are included?
To help identify opportunities, we've added several key metrics to the Popularity Index:
- Cluster analysis to group trends
- Health stats showing current trend performance:
- How big is this trend?
- Which platform is most popular?
- How similar is this trend across platforms?
- Will it last?
These metrics work together to provide a comprehensive view of trend opportunities and help inform strategic decisions.