Facebook announced this week that new video metrics in Page Insights and Ads Reporting are coming soon. Facebook’s goal is to help users better understand how people respond to videos.
Currently, Page owners are limited to seeing how many people started watching their videos. Facebook’s new new video metrics, which will be rolled out over the coming weeks, will display more detailed information like video views, unique video views, the average duration of the video view and audience retention.
These new video metrics are designed to help Page owners understand which of their videos are clicking with people so they can better determine what kind of video content to create for their audience.
Detailed View Counts
Facebook’s metrics will show both the total number of video views and the number of individual people people who watched a video. A “video view” is defined as a view of three seconds or more and will appear for all videos, including those that automatically play as people scroll through News Feed. If a person clicks on the video while scrolling through the News Feed, that will be counted as “clicks to play video.”
Audience Retention
The audience retention metrics will gauge the level of interest in various sections of videos. An increase in the percentage of views at a certain point may indicate that people are re-playing specific sections, while a decrease in the percentage of views may indicate where people lost interest and stopped watching.
You will be able to precisely determine how many people watched your whole video, or just some of it. The new video metrics will count the number of views that reached certain points in a video — 25%, 50%, 75%, 95% and 100%. This information is useful in helping you determine how a video is performing and give you an idea as to where to place key messages.
Demographics
If you’re running a video in an ad you will be able to take advantage of the the “data breakdowns” feature in Ads Reporting, where you will get access to demographic information about people who viewed your video, such as age, gender, location, etc.
Coming Soon
Facebook’s announcement states that the new video metrics will be available for all paid and organic videos uploaded directly to Facebook Pages and will roll out gradually over the coming weeks.
