Does Facebook count multiple views from the same person

Creators get excited about their high view count on Facebook videos, but often fail to realize that YouTube and Facebook count views very differently. In fact, if you think your Facebook video views are the same as your YouTube views, you may feel a bit misled when you realize Facebook views and YouTube views are not the same thing. Let’s talk about Facebook views vs. YouTube views and how each platform counts a “view.”

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Tim Schmoyer

Today we are going to talk about Facebook views versus YouTube views. Are they really the same thing? And can you compare them? No you can’t, and we’re going to talk about why.

Video views on YouTube

So, first of all, let’s talk about what a view is on YouTube. A view on YouTube is generally defined as a user-initiated playback. That means someone intentionally clicked on a video, on a thumbnail, or a title and wanted to watch that video. They prompted the playback of that video themselves.

Now how long someone has to watch that video on YouTube for it to be considered a view seems to vary. So if it’s like 301 views or less, you can almost refresh on the page and get a new view. But then after a certain period of views, YouTube seems to start counting them, taking them more seriously. Some people say at that point, watching at least 30 seconds will get you a view.

So YouTube actually takes view counts very seriously, and they are somewhat strict about how they count them. Let’s go over to my Facebook page and look at how Facebook counts a view. So I’m going to go to my Pages Insights, and I am going to scroll down here a little bit look for a recent video. Here’s one. Let’s look at this one.

Video views on Facebook

So Facebook says, hey, you got 587 views. That’s awesome. Where do they count this? This is the number of times your video is viewed for three seconds or more. OK, well that’s not telling me a whole lot. I can see that I got a big drop off right here– the first couple seconds.

30 second views– this is the number of times your video is viewed for 30 seconds. And if the video is less than 30 seconds, this just refers to the number of times people have viewed 97% of your videos. So almost all of it. So there’s a considerable drop off here between a number of views I’m getting versus the number of people who watch for 30 seconds– 242.

But when you start taking autoplay into consideration, this starts to change a little bit. So we’re going to change this to autoplayed versus click to play. And you can see now here, autoplay is still 587 views and 30 second views is still the same. But look at the difference here of people who actually clicked to play to watch this video. That’s this upper line.

Find True Fiews on Facebook Videos

The audience retention is far greater than people who are just watching without the audio. But this still doesn’t tell me how many people actually clicked to play. To find that, you have to go here to Post, and then you are going to find that right here– 90 clicks to play. This is the number of times your video started playing after a person clicked to play it.

So this is the more accurate number, 90, of comparing a Facebook view to a YouTube view. So you can see how this gets a little tricky when Facebook says, hey, you got 587 views, and everyone’s ranting, oh that’s awesome! That’s more views than I get on YouTube.

Well actually come down here and look at how many clicks to play did you actually get, which this is a number that’s more comparable to a user-initiated playback, which is how YouTube defines a view. And then you go over here and you can see exactly then how those people who actually click the play actually performed.

Now how do you actually get people who are watching a video on Facebook to be more likely to click to play that video? We actually talked about that last week, and at the end of this video here on Facebook, you will see a Watch More button. Just click that and you’ll be able to find that video and watch how to do that.

But in the meantime, if you haven’t yet liked our Video Creators page, definitely make sure you do that. Make sure you also click that down arrow to get notifications, so you actually get notified when I publish new videos here about Facebook video.

And I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. Which one of these numbers on Facebook do you use to evaluate the success of your videos that you are posting to Facebook? I look forward to learning from all of you down there below. And now make sure you click that Watch More button that’s about to appear to find out how you can set up your videos to attract more clicks to play on Facebook.

Advertising through Instagram is easy to get into, but very hard to master. One of the most important things to learn is how to track the performance of your posts and scan your audience. Not just for businesses, creators can gain helpful insights into their successes and failures with a better understanding of Instagram views and algorithms.

For those trying to grow their business or the number of followers they have, Instagram will help you along the way. If you would like to know whether Instagram counts multiple views from your followers or not, read on.

Instagram tracks the views of all content posted on the platform – stories, videos, photos, Boomerangs, you name it. While the precise view count might not be of great importance to some casual users, they are essential to business users. The number of views is one of the key metrics advertisers on Instagram use to determine the success of their marketing campaigns.

Instagram has its own way of counting post views. The criteria are rather simple, easy to understand, and they apply to all posts. Here’s how it works. For a view to be counted, a post has to be seen in the user’s news feed. If it is a video, a Boomerang, it will play automatically while video stories have to be user-initiated. Keep in mind that videos have to play for at least three seconds for a view to be counted. On the other hand, a story view is counted immediately upon opening.

Instagram does not count loops as video views. Next, all posts have to be seen from within the app. Instagram does not count the views of the embedded posts. Consequently, only the views from mobile devices (phones/tablets) count.

There has been much contention about whether Instagram counts multiple views from the same user or not. The answer to this dilemma is, yes, Instagram counts multiple views from the same user. Instagram counts every view, but it separates them into two categories – reach and impressions. Again, while this division might seem unimportant to casual users, this is a fantastic tool for marketers to gain a deeper insight into their campaign’s performance.

The first category, reach, is the number of users your post reached. In other words, reach is the number of unique views of your post. The impression metric is the total number of views of your post. If, for example, your video reached one person and they viewed it three times, you would have 1 in the reach column and 3 in the impressions.

How to Check Your Views

Let’s say you have posted a video of your dog performing the latest trick you taught it and you would like to see how many people viewed it. Just go to the video and look at the bottom of the post. There will be a number of views. If you tap the number, you will also see the number of likes and who liked it. However, you won’t be able to see how many times a particular follower played the video.

If you want to be more in tune with your page’s traffic, you can switch over to a personal account. Whether you want to become Instagram’s next top influencer, or you want to advertise your business, switching to a business account is pretty simple. Just keep in mind, there are some verification steps that Instagram will take you through after you’ve switched.

1. Open the Instagram app and tap on the three horizontal bars in the upper right-hand corner of your profile page.
   
2. Tap on ‘Settings‘
   
3. Scroll to the bottom and tap on ‘Switch to Professional Account’ which is highlighted in blue
   
4. Choose a ‘Creator,’ or ‘Business’ account as per the screenshot below.
   

Tracking Your Analytics With Hootsuite

Whether you have a business account or personal account, there are third-party websites and applications that can help you to manage your social media content. One of the more notable sites is Hootsuite.

Not only does the site act as a social media of sorts, but it also lets you track your engagements on Instagram, so you can see what your followers enjoy most.

How the Others Do It

With the meteoric rise in popularity over the last ten years, social platforms have become the number one place for businesses to reach their potential customers directly. This, in turn, prompted the social platforms to introduce hard and fast rules about how post views are counted. Here’s how some other social platforms do it. The focus will be on video posts.

1. Facebook’s criteria for counting views are similar to Instagram’s in some regards. A Facebook video plays automatically in the news feed and has to play for at least three seconds for a view to be counted. Facebook, however, counts all views. Embedded posts on other sites and views on all platforms are included.
2. Twitter videos play automatically and have to play for three seconds to qualify for a view. Like Facebook, Twitter includes views from embedded posts. Unlike Instagram, Twitter counts views from all devices.
3. YouTube has the harshest rules. For a view to be counted, an undisclosed percentage of the video must be viewed for it to qualify as a view. Also, multiple views from the same IP address under 6 to 8 hours do not count. If you are advertising through Google TrueView, your video has to be played for at least 30 seconds to gain a view.
4. Snapchat story rules are similar to the Instagram story rules. The user has to initiate the story for a view to be counted. Also, it is counted upon opening. Snapchat only counts in-app views and is viewable exclusively on mobile devices.

In order to provide its users with thorough data on their posts’ performance, Instagram has split the unique and repeated views into reach and impressions. That makes it easier to gauge the audience’s engagement and plan for the next campaign.