What is considered video viewing? What do we pay money for?

Large social networks do not agree with how to view video views.

According to eMarketer, last year advertisers allocated a quarter of all spending on digital advertising - $ 27.8 billion - to video advertising. Video has become a big business for social platforms. Twitter links more than half of its advertising revenue with video advertising, the fastest growing ad format. EMarketer estimates that video advertising also accounts for half of Snapchat's revenue and 30 percent of Facebook’s advertising revenue.

However, video ad bids and viewing measurements and reports can vary greatly depending on the platform. As the video ad market grows, many social platforms have expanded betting options and reporting metrics for video ads. All of this can make analyzing and comparing results across platforms difficult.

For Facebook and Instagram, viewing just 3 seconds of video of any length is considered viewing. For YouTube ads, it's about 30 seconds. Others have adopted the MRC standard or its variant. Advertisers need to know how each platform calculates and charges for viewing video ads.

Methodology for viewing video ads by platform

The Media Rating Council (MRC) and IAB define a video ad as visible, "when at least 50 percent of the ad pixels are visible on the screen for at least two consecutive seconds." Some platforms have adopted this standard, but many have not.

Here is a summary of how the big players count the number of video views:

Google / YouTube. TrueView video ads on YouTube and on the Google Display Network count as viewing if a user is busy advertising or watching a video for at least 30 seconds.

Facebook and Instagram: Facebook and its family of applications look at watching videos for streaming ads and stories in 3 seconds. However, advertisers may purchase CPM or ThuruPlay video ads. When purchased on a CPM basis, the impression is counted when one pixel of a video ad is displayed. With ThruPlay, advertisers pay when a video ad plays up to 97% or up to 15 seconds, whichever comes first.

LinkedIn: For sponsored content, LinkedIn video views are counted when 50 percent of ads are viewed for 1 second on a desktop computer and 300 milliseconds (one third of a second) on a mobile device.

Pinterest: Pinterest has adopted the MRC standard for 50 percent ad serving for 2 seconds or more in a row.

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Reddit: Reddit defines viewing videos as 2 continuous seconds with 50 percent visibility, according to the MRC standard. A full video view is counted after a video ad is shown for 3 continuous seconds at 100 percent visibility. Advertisers can bid on a per-per-view (CPV) or CPM basis.

Snapchat: Snap Ads viewing criteria is 2 seconds for watching videos. Video advertising platform works in full screen mode with the sound.

Twitter: Twitter has adopted the MRC standard and considers the viewing of a video ad, when 50% of the ads are shown for 2 seconds or more, or when the user launches a video ad, pressing it to expand or enable it.

Other metrics to consider

Many platforms show additional indicators of engagement and number of views. For example, Google offers viewing time metrics, along with an extensive list of video ad metrics, which include click effectiveness, attraction efficiency, and reach and frequency.

Facebook reports 2 seconds, 3 seconds, 10 seconds and ThruPlays, regardless of which betting option you choose. He also reports on viewing time metrics, showing how often 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of video ads were viewed.

Reddit reports views with 25, 50, 75, 95, and 100 percent of the video length for all appearances, as well as the number of video ad views in a total of 3, 5, and 10 seconds in aggregate for all appearances.

In October 2018, YouTube began counting Activity for TrueView for action advertising every time a user clicks or watches for 10 or more seconds when using conversion maximization or CPA target rates. However, these ads are still calculated based on cost per thousand impressions using maximum conversion strategies or CPA bidding.

All of this, in fact, makes it difficult for PPC analysts and targeters to work. However, we hope that this information will be useful to you.

Futureinapps company is engaged in the promotion of business in social networks and setting up contextual advertising on Google and Yandex.

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