Facebook is switching to “Views” as its primary metric, following Instagram’s move in August to do the same. On reels and videos, Plays will now be called Views, and Facebook is removing the separate Replays metric. For Stories, photo or text posts, Views will replace Impressions.
Views will also include repeat views. So for example, if the girl you met once at an airport who became obsessed with you on Facebook views your photo fifteen separate times in the same day, that would count as fifteen Views for that photo instead of one Impression. So maybe she’s not so annoying after all.
In addition to the new Views metric, Facebook is updating its video metrics. Minutes Viewed and Average Minutes Viewed will replace Watch Time and Average Watch Time. Other metrics like Reach, 3-second views, 1-minute views, Reactions, Comments, and Shares will remain unchanged.
Meta wrote:
“Creators will now have a single distribution metric for all content types that’s calculated the same way across Facebook and Instagram. The new metric – called Views – tells you the number of times a reel or video was played or the number of times photo or text posts were on screen, and aligns with Instagram’s recently updated metrics.
Views streamlines the various unique content distribution metrics into one, helping you understand how well your content is resonating regardless of format or Meta platform. Views also capture when people look at your content multiple times, telling you more about how interesting or entertaining it is.”
Makes sense!
