60% of businesses use video as a marketing tool today. As the whole world pivots to video, viewing metrics are becoming more important than ever. Marketers are competing against each other to get customers to watch their videos. In this environment, having a lot of views is one of the main goals of some video campaigns.
This content type reigns supreme on social media platforms where views are also a big thing. Brands have a chance to increase the reach of their videos by sharing them on these networks. And many of them have embraced social media in order to get more eyeballs. In fact, social media posts with video have 48% more views.
We’re sure that the whole concept of a social media video view sounds simple to you. But, do you get a view every time someone clicks play? Not necessarily. This is more complex than people think. What counts as a video view on Facebook isn’t a view at all on YouTube. That’s why it’s important for you to know how popular platforms measure views, especially because most of them autoplay videos in feeds.
So, what is a video view? We’ll answer this question by taking a look at how five social networks measure views!
Let’s start!
How Does YouTube Count a Video View?
If you’re new to YouTube, you may think that this platform counts video views in a pretty straightforward way. However, this isn’t really true. It can be difficult to figure out what counts as a view on YouTube in some cases. Even the company admits that it takes time to display accurate information about video views.
Why is this the case?
Well, YouTube wants to ensure that all views are coming from real people. The YouTube algorithm analyzes every view to determine whether or not it is valid. It might not include all valid views at first. So, you might be confused to see the number increasing in a short period in your YouTube analytics.
But generally speaking, what is a video view on YouTube?
For a YouTube view to be counted, it needs to meet the following two criteria:
- A user intentionally watches a video.
- They watch it for at least 30 seconds.
Once these two criteria are satisfied, YouTube will count the views.
How Does Facebook Count a Video View?
More than 4 billion views take place on Facebook every day. It’s impossible to scroll down your feed without seeing a video whose view count is increasing by every minute. This platform is perfect for content creators looking to expand the reach of their videos.
What’s more, short, subtitled, and eye-catching videos attract the attention of Facebook users nowadays. And we’ve seen a lot of publishers trying to deliver what their customers are looking for on this app.
Although there was some controversy regarding the video view metric on Facebook, the platform has clarified how it measures views a few years ago.
What is a video view on Facebook? According to this network, a view is calculated when users watch three seconds of a clip, or 97 percent of its total length. This rule also includes autoplays, meaning that you don’t need to unmute a video in order for Facebook to mark this as a view.
Additionally, a view is counted in the same way for live videos. The total number of views of live streams includes customers who watched the content live, plus those who watched the saved version.
How Does Instagram Count a Video View?
Video creators have been focusing on Instagram a lot lately because users love watching videos on the app. Indeed, 5.2 million users watched branded Instagram videos during Q1 2017. With such a large audience present on the network, marketers need to track video metrics to determine how they can keep customers engaged.
Although Instagram offers a range of insights, we’re currently keen on answering one question — what is a video view on Instagram? Watching three seconds of a video counts as a view on this app. However, bear in mind that a video’s view count does not include repeated loops.
In addition to that, Instagram offers IGTV — live broadcasts within the app. How is a view measured in this case? Well, a new view is counted as soon as someone joins the stream.
How Does Twitter Count a Video View?
Video is quite popular on Twitter. In fact, some of the videos that have gone viral in the past were posted on this network. Twitter users like seeing videos from accounts they follow, with 45% of them wanting to watch more videos from celebrities. In the past, however, the popularity of social videos on Twitter was measured in terms of retweets and likes. But the network introduced views a few years ago.
So, what is a video view on Twitter?
According to the network, the view metric is calculated when a user watches a video for at least 2 seconds and has 50 percent of the video player in-view. This rule applies to uploaded videos and live streaming.
So, as far as Twitter is concerned, at least half of your video needs to be visible on users’ feeds and playing for at least 2 seconds.
How Does TikTok Count a Video View?
TikTok is the social media platform of the hour, with more than 600 million active users worldwide. Its growth is showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. As a result, we’ve seen many brands join TikTok to post short and engaging videos. Most of this content is quite educational, which is one of the reasons users are flocking to TikTok.
Compared to other social media platforms in our article, TikTok’s method of counting views differs a bit. So, what is a video view on TikTok? A view is counted when the video starts playing in users’ feeds. As you saw in our article, a user needs to play the video for a specified amount of time for the view to be counted on other networks.
This method is straightforward, and we’re sure content creators are grateful for that. With users being able to create 15-second long videos, it’s great to see that their content doesn’t need to be watched for two or three seconds in order for the app to count a view.
Take What You’ve Learned and Dominate Social Media!
What is a video view? As you saw in our article, the answer to this question differs from platform to platform. We hope that we’ve cleared some confusion you might have had and that you are now able to better measure the performance of your videos with this information!
