In this paper, the fourth-order time fractional Burgers equation has been investigated, which can be used to describe gas dynamics and traffic flow. By employing the Lie group analysis method, the invariance properties of the equation are provided. With the aid of the sub-equation method, a new type of explicit solutions are well constructed with a detailed derivation. Furthermore, based on the power series theory, we investigate its approximate analytical solutions. Finally, its conservation laws with two kinds of independent variables are performed by making use of the nonlinear self-adjointness method.