Precision User Discovery: How to Use the TikTok API to Search for Users by Keyword

2025-04-11

In today’s social media landscape, “finding the right people” is often more valuable than simply reaching a large audience. Especially on TikTok, a platform centered around creative short videos, identifying representative or influential users is often the starting point for branding campaigns, influencer collaborations, content research, or trend analysis.

This article explores how to use the TikTok API provided by LuckData to search for users based on keywords — helping you build your data pipeline, identify creators, and unlock meaningful insights from the TikTok ecosystem.

1. Why Use the “Search User” API?

While TikTok’s value lies in its viral content, it’s the creator accounts that drive lasting impact. Here are a few scenarios where searching for users by keyword is especially useful:

Find Influencers for Brand Collaborations
Input keywords like product names or niche terms (e.g., “skincare,” “fitness”) to retrieve a targeted list of creators for outreach.
Build a Topic-Based Account Database
Use keywords like “AI,” “fashion,” or “gaming” to compile users related to specific content verticals.
Create a Personalized Recommendation System
Use interests as input to fetch creators aligned with a user’s preferences.
Monitor Campaign Participation
Search users related to your campaign or event using branded hashtags or names to track participants.

2. Introduction to LuckData’s TikTok User Search API

LuckData provides a powerful and flexible endpoint called search user, which allows you to input a keyword and retrieve structured data for TikTok accounts that match.

Python Example

import requests
headers = {
'X-Luckdata-Api-Key': 'your_luckdata_key'
}
response = requests.get(
'https://luckdata.io/api/tiktok-api/99jd6YK55W8Q?count=10&cursor=0&keywords=tiktok',
headers=headers,
)
print(response.json())

Parameter Explanation

keywords: The keyword to search, such as "travel", "fashion", "food"
count: The number of users to return (recommended: 10–50)
cursor: Pagination index, starting from 0
headers: Your API key (required)

3. Response Structure & Data Applications

A typical API response includes structured information for each user:

{ "user_id": "1234567890", "unique_id": "@cooluser", "nickname": "Cool User", "signature": "Digital creator. Sharing tips on design & branding.", "follower_count": 58300, "following_count": 128, "aweme_count": 132, "total_likes": 728000, "avatar": "https://cdn.tiktok.com/avatar.jpg" }

These fields can be used to:

Filter users by influence using metrics like follower_count, aweme_count, and total_likes
Evaluate thematic relevance from nickname and signature
Build user profile cards using avatar, unique_id, and key stats

4. Advanced Use Cases & Workflow Suggestions

The search user API is not just for lookup — it can be integrated into your larger data strategy.

a. Pair with Post Video API for Content Audits

Once you find a user, use get user post videos to extract their content, enabling engagement rate analysis, hashtag trends, or content classification.

b. Build a Creator-Keyword Mapping Database

Use multiple keywords in batch mode to generate a user-topic map for recommendation engines or influencer categorization.

c. Analyze Follower Structures

Use get user follower list to understand the reach and follower patterns of discovered users — useful for community mapping and lookalike modeling.

d. Build a Collaboration Scoring System

Combine metrics like follower count, content frequency, and engagement rate to assign a “partnership score” to each user, streamlining influencer marketing efforts.

5. Related APIs and How to Combine Them

API Name	Description	Usage with `search user`
`get user post videos`	Get list of user’s published videos	Analyze content style, consistency, and topics
`get user info`	Get detailed profile data	Enrich keyword search with more user metadata
`get user follower list`	Get list of user followers	Analyze audience structure or lookalikes
`get play list by userid`	Get user’s saved playlists	Understand interests and platform behavior

6. Implementation Ideas

Build a multi-keyword batch search system for large-scale user discovery
Create a visual user explorer UI with avatar, name, and follower stats
Develop a smart user recommender using keyword intent and profile matching
Use NLP to analyze the signature field for topic tagging or sentiment scoring

7. Conclusion: Discovering Creators Starts with a Search

The search user API is a powerful entry point in your TikTok data workflow. When you don’t know the exact user ID but know what kind of person you're looking for — a travel vlogger, a beauty creator, or someone making viral AI content — this is your best tool.

Pair it with other APIs like content fetching, audience analysis, or playlist exploration, and you’ll have a complete user discovery and evaluation toolkit.

Start with a keyword, and let the insights unfold.