Myth: The number of video views represents the number of people that watched 100% of the video.

This Myth is Busted! The most important aspect of the video view metrics is the unique video view. For most social platforms a view equals any view of 3 seconds or more. This DOES NOT mean that a subscriber watched 100% of a video and it does not mean the view metric displayed represents a unique subscriber.

To avoid falling into the video viewing “vanity metrics” vortex you should review insight and analytical data of each video, per platform to assist you with learning how many subscribers are watching and how much of your video these subscribers are actually seeing.

 Counting the Views

Here is a visual overview of what counts as a view per major social media channel:

 A View By Social Media Channel

Facebook

• Minutes viewed
• Unique viewers
• Video views
• 10-Second views
• Video average watch time
• Audience and engagement (People Reached, Post Engagement, Top Audience, and Top Location)
• Facebook also provides a bunch of other metrics for the Facebook post with the video such as reactions, comments, shares, and post clicks, under “Post”.

Instagram

• Views
• Likes (and who liked the video)

If you are using an Instagram business profile, you’ll get the following metrics as well:

• Impressions
• Reach
• Engagement

Twitter

• Impressions
• Media views
• Total engagements (e.g. media engagements, likes, detail expanded, etc.)
• Video views
• Completion rate (i.e. Total number of completed views divided by the total number of video starts)

YouTube

• Watch time
• Views
• Average view duration
• Likes and dislikes
• Comments
• Shares
• Videos in playlists
• Subscribers
• Audience Retention
• Demographics (Age, gender, and geography)
• Traffic sources
• Playback locations

SnapChat (Ads Only)

• Video Views: The total number of impressions that meet the qualifying video view criteria of at least 2 seconds of consecutive watch time or a swipe up action on the Top Snap
• Quartiles:
  1. 25% Quartile: The number of Snaps watched to 25% of duration
  2. 50% Quartile: The number of Snaps watched to 50% of duration
  3. 75% Quartile: The number of Snaps watched to 75% of duration
• Completions: The number of Snaps watched to 97% of duration
  1. Avg Screen Time: The average number of seconds spent watching your Ad across all paid impressions
  2. Screen time starts recording as soon as the media is fully rendered on the device and the autoplay video starts.

Linkedin (Ads Only)

• Views: At least two continuous seconds of playback while the video is at least 50% on screen, or a click on the CTA, whichever comes first
• Views at 25%: The number of times your video was watched at 25% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point
• Views at 50%: The number of times your video was watched at 50% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point
• Views at 75%: The number of times your video was watched at 75% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point
• Complete: The number of times your video was watched at 97-100% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point
• Completion Rate: Number of completions divided by number of views, multiplied by 100
• Avg CPV: Average cost per view
• Full Screen Plays: Total number of clicks to view video in full screen

Myth Case Studies

Video views, on all channels, is closer to impression counting than unique view count. Unique views, per video, can be found in metrics such as reach, subscribers, and anything that is clearly defined as pulling unique attributes.

Example 1

Here is a snapshot from Instagram Insights:

Video Views = 3370

The video views of this post, on Instagram, was viewed 3370 times by 632 (unique) accounts. IG does not provide video viewing data therefore we don’t know how long each person viewed the video.

We can make some assumptions about the viewing times by reviewing the data provided through Instagram Insights. On average the video was viewed 5.33 times by the 632 subscribers. Of the 632 subscribers 12% (or 76 accounts) are not following the brands account. Of the 76 non-followers 2 new followers were created. With the repeated view count being as high as it is, we conclude the video must have a high view rate.

Hint: If the subscribers reach above 1000 we can utilize Facebook’s audience manager to build an audience of everyone that watch 95% of the video. Again, the count needs to be above 1000 or Facebook’s total result will read: “Below 1000”