As part of the platform’s ongoing effort to maximize video ad spend, Facebook has announced some changes to its video metrics which aim to better align with evolving video consumption behaviors. Show First off, Facebook's updating the way it measures 3-second and 10-second video views by discounting those views that may come as an accumulation of re-watched time. “When people watch video ads on Facebook, they’re able to rewind the video just as they can with video posts from friends and family in News Feed. This is a different experience from most pre or mid-roll ads on other platforms, where people are not able to pause or rewatch parts of a video ad. We offer metrics such as 3-Second Video Views and 10-Second Video Views, and these metrics previously included the seconds people might rewind or rewatch a video when they see it in News Feed.” Given that this can skew the data (i.e. a person watching the first three seconds several times would then count as a 10-second view), Facebook will now only count unrepeated seconds watched. It’s a minor change, but it can be significant – having a lot of 10-second views would suggest you’re on the right track, but if there’s something eye-catching in that first couple of seconds which a heap of users are re-watching, they may not even be seeing your full message as intended. Providing a more accurate measure of what your audience is seeing will enable brands to better plan their ad sequences in line. Facebook’s also adding a more specific Video Plays metric to better reflect viewer actions. “Last year, we shared how videos may not always play when an impression is reported due to someone’s settings, network or behavior. For example, if a person has autoplay turned off, their phone has low battery or they're in an area of low connectivity, videos -including video ads - would not autoplay.” Facebook notes that News Feed videos do play 70% of the time, so the vast majority of users who are seeing your video ads are also seeing them play, but there are occasions where this is not the case. It can be helpful to know how many people within your audience are affected by this as you go about your planning. The Video Plays metric will provide that transparency, and will be particularly helpful for advertisers looking to reach people in low connectivity regions or reach audiences with restrictive data plans, which could impact their experience. And the last change Facebook has announced is the removal of 30-Second Video Views and Video Percentage Watched, because, as Facebook says: "...they are redundant with other metrics we offer and are used infrequently” The most significant change here is the switch to ‘Milestone Metrics’ exclusively – rather than telling you what specific percentage of your video each user has viewed, Milestone Metrics cluster viewers based key points in your content. This simplified reporting can help you better understand the impact of your efforts. The changes, as noted, are intended to provide more transparency in your Facebook video metrics, and for the most part, they seem to make fairly logical sense. If you're looking for more info on the changes, Facebook provides a full overview of their video metrics here which will help to clarify the key elements. Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.
Snapchat and Facebook are racing to rack up video views, and if you’ve watched their respective video view counts climb over the past six months, it seems as though they’re doing a pretty bang-up job. The most recent totals: Facebook gets eight billion video views per day compared with Snapchat’s seven billion, which was reported this week by Bloomberg. Those numbers are up from four billion and two billion, respectively, last spring, and the two companies are starting to draw some comparisons. But before you draft the bar charts, it’s worth noting that not all video views are created equal. It’s easy to compare daily totals, but each company has different criteria for what counts as a “view.” That makes it tough to discern whether Facebook or Snapchat is actually in the lead. Here’s the way views are currently measured: A Facebook video view is logged when a video plays for at least three seconds, a criteria that’s aided by the fact that Facebook videos autoplay in News Feed. On desktop, the video has to be 100 percent on the screen before it starts playing. On mobile, it has to be at least 50 percent on the screen. The eight billion video view total includes News Feed videos as well as videos consumed outside the News Feed, like in a private group or on a brand’s Page. Snapchat views are measured differently. A view is counted as soon as the video is rendered on the screen — that means it could play for a half second and still count as a view. Unlike Facebook videos, which play alongside other content, Snapchat videos are always full screen. It’s one of the company’s arguments for why it doesn’t require a three-second limit (or any limit, for that matter). Snapchat’s total view count includes videos from Stories, its publisher section Discover and private messages. So both companies have different ways to measure the same thing. Why does that matter? Because you’ll likely hear a lot more about Facebook and Snapchat and how the two companies are competing in video moving forward. (We haven’t even mentioned YouTube.) That’s important since that matters to advertisers. They’re used to buying media efficiently — that is, a whole lot of people (the right people) all at once. Mass, simultaneous audiences — you know, like TV. Right now, that benefit to having more video views is primarily tied to getting more video content from both users and publishers. People will bring their content where it will be seen, and a healthy view count can serve as quality bait. Eventually, though, the competition between Facebook and Snapchat will be over video ad dollars, which is when these view counts and audience totals will carry a lot more meaning. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
Last updated on 3rd February 2022 The idea of a social media video view sounds simple enough: someone clicks play and you’ve got a view, right? Not necessarily. What counts as a view on YouTube isn’t the same as what counts as a view on Facebook or Instagram. Here’s a clear explanation of what YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram each considers to be a “view” on their respective sites: What counts as a view on YouTube?The count of YouTube video views is meant to show how many times a video has been watched, but the company admits the number isn’t always accurate. Why? YouTube wants to make sure the views are coming from real people. When a video is first uploaded, the count only reflects views the YouTube algorithm deems valid, which might not actually include all valid views. Views the algorithm deems valid are those it can verify come from actual humans rather than bots or other computer programs. The algorithm then gains traction and begins to validate views more quickly, but the more popular the video is, the longer the validation takes. Occasionally, the view count freezes (typically at 301). When the views are stuck on 301, YouTube employees are manually checking to see whether the views are valid. The simple explanation for this is YouTube doesn’t care much about videos with less than 300 views. Once a video passes that threshold, though, it has a chance to rank among the most popular videos, and its validity needs to be double-checked to protect YouTube’s reputation. Aside from the points above, no one really knows how YouTube’s algorithm works. It may or may not take the length of time a viewer spends watching into account. However, this is highly likely. It’s generally accepted that a YouTube view isn’t recorded until the viewer has been watching for 30 seconds, but no one knows for sure. What counts as a view on Facebook?In general, the standard number of views for both Facebook and Facebook Live is the number of times someone watched your video for three seconds or more. However, Facebook tracks several video view metrics including two-second continuous views; three- and 10-second views; plays; watches at 25, 50, 75, 95, and 100%; and average watch time. The three-second and 10-second views also include the number of times someone watched 97% of the video if it’s shorter than three or 10 seconds. Facebook may track more metrics than YouTube, but it’s not as diligent about ensuring their accuracy. What counts as a view on Instagram?Instagram’s video view metrics are probably the most straightforward of them all. The company lays it out clearly, “A video’s view count doesn’t include video loops, and a view is counted when a video is watched for 3 seconds or more.” These metrics only apply, however, to videos posted after November 19, 2015. Instagram Stories are a little different. Their “views” are really just impressions, meaning the number of times they were viewed at all, even if they were just swiped right past. Swipe-aways are tracked too, though. So, if you want to do some math, you could subtract the swipe-aways from the impressions to get a more accurate view count. Just like Facebook is a little less stringent with its definition of a video view than YouTube, Instagram is a little less stringent than Facebook. What counts as a view on YouTube is clearly stricter than what counts as a view on Facebook or Instagram, but all have their own unique parameters. The keys to upping your views are knowing what defines them, how important they are, and how to format them. We’ve discussed what defines a view and how important videos are, so now let’s talk about how to format them. According to one study, the optimal video length is 30 seconds or less. If you don’t optimise your videos for mobile, you’ll be in the minority, because 81% of marketers do. And they’re on the right track, because 51% of video plays are on mobile devices. So if your videos are longer than 30 seconds and are not responsive, your views are likely lower than where they could be. However, as mentioned earlier videos tend to perform better if they are longer on YouTube. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using videos in your social media marketing. But at the end of the day you need to be aware that views are not consistently defined across platforms. Related Posts |