The ways in which people consume video is changing and so Facebook is updating its video ad metrics to reflect this.
The ways in which people consume video and interact with it online is changing very rapidly, and Facebook knows this. For example, stated in a recent Facebook Business blog post “people can shop from videos, watch together with their friends or chat with a business directly from a video, all on mobile.”
And that’s why Facebook offers different solutions for advertisers that are “designed to fit the ways people are consuming video.”
However, understanding the impact of video in ad campaigns can be a challenge. So, Facebook is updating some of its video ad metrics evolving reporting of duration “to focus more on consumption, the number of unrepeated seconds people watch” and not just “the total amount of time a video was viewed.” It is also introducing new reporting for video plays and removing some metrics to simplify its reporting.
Measuring Unrepeated Seconds
Unlike on other platforms, people on Facebook are able to rewind video ads. Up until now, Facebook metrics included the “repeated” time from rewinding, in its 3-Second Video Views and 10-Second Video Views. Following feedback from businesses, Facebook will now only be including unrepeated seconds in those metrics. Facebook says that this will “more accurately measure consumption.”
As such, “these two metrics across all video reporting in Ads Manager and Page Insights [will] no longer incorporate watch seconds from rewinding.”
Introducing Video Plays
Marketers have told Facebook that they want “a better way to measure when someone sees a video playing.” Facebook says that this happens “on average 70% of the time for videos in News Feed.” Due to individual user settings videos may not always actually play when Facebook reports an impression. Autoplay simply doesn’t work 100% or the time. Because of this, Facebook allows advertisers to add a “custom thumbnail to maximize the impact of their video ads by controlling what people see when their ad does not play.”
Facebook says that its research shows that every part of a video view actually drives value, yet it wants to help advertisers better understand the difference between “impression” and “play.”
So, it’s introducing a new Video Plays metric in Ads Manager and the Ads API. Also, businesses will be able to work with Oracle Data Cloud’s Moat Measurement products to run third-party measurement verification of video plays. Facebook also says that it will “continue working with other partners to enable more third-party verification.”
Removing Redundant and Infrequently-used Video Metrics
As part of its effort to simplify its ad metrics and make it easier for advertisers to understand how their ads perform, Facebook is removing the 30-Second Video View and Video Percentage Watched metrics. Facebook says that this is “because they are redundant with other metrics [it offers] and are used infrequently.” So, if you actually used these metrics, tough luck.
You can find out more about which metrics to use instead, here.
The updates are rolling out to all advertisers in the next few weeks globally. If you are interested in finding more details about them, you can check out this one-sheeter or the Advertiser Help Center.
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