What to know
- Facebook is adopting ‘views’ as its main metric to measure content performance across all formats including videos, photos, and text posts.
- A view counts each time content appears on a user’s screen, with multiple views from the same user counted separately.
- This change aligns Facebook’s metrics with Instagram and Threads, creating a unified measurement system across Meta’s platforms.
Meta has announced a significant shift in how it measures content performance on Facebook. The platform will now use ‘views’ as its primary metric for all types of content, moving away from different metrics for different formats.
As Facebook mentions, for video content, a view represents each time a video plays. For photos and text posts, the platform counts a view whenever the content appears on someone’s screen. If a user sees the same post three times in one day, Facebook will count that as three separate views.
The change streamlines content measurement across Meta’s platforms, making it easier for creators to understand how their content performs. Instagram head Adam Mosseri emphasized that this unified approach will simplify performance tracking for content creators.
Meta is also updating its video metrics terminology. ‘Watch Time’ will become ‘Minutes Viewed,’ and ‘Average Watch Time’ will change to ‘Average Minutes Viewed.’ Other engagement metrics like Reach, Reactions, Comments, and Shares will remain unchanged.
This move mirrors similar changes across social media platforms, particularly X (formerly Twitter), which has also emphasized view counts. While the new metric provides more insight into content visibility, it may not fully explain why certain content reaches specific users.
These changes will roll out gradually through Meta Business Suite and Professional Dashboard over the coming weeks, affecting both regular posts and advertising measurement across all formats.
