Facebook is making 'views' as primary content performance metric

Facebook has recently announced to shift its focus to "views" as the primary metric for measuring content performance, aligning its approach with Instagram's existing system. 

Unlike traditional video-centric views, Facebook will apply this metric across all content types, including photos, text posts, and more. For video content like Reels, a view will be counted every time a video is played. For other content, a view will represent how many times it appears on a user's screen, even if the same user views it multiple times.

Alongside the views metric, Facebook is also updating their video metrics. 'Minutes Viewed' and 'Average Minutes Viewed' will replace 'Watch Time' (the total amount of time the reel or video was played) and 'Average Watch Time.' Other metrics like Reach, 3-second views, 1-minute views, Reactions, Comments and Shares will remain unchanged. According to Facebook, the changes can be seen from 'Meta Business Suite' and 'Professional Dashboard' over the next few weeks.

This unified metric mirrors changes Instagram implemented earlier this year. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, explained at the time that using a single metric helps creators better understand how their content is performing across different formats.

The transition extends beyond Facebook and Instagram to Threads where posts now include view counts. According to Meta, this addition provides creators with greater transparency about their audience engagement. However, some argue that raw view counts may not offer meaningful insights for most users, as they do not explain why content is performing the way it is.

The focus on "views" echoes a similar push by Elon Musk since his acquisition of Twitter, now rebranded as X as he has prioritised visibility metrics like "views" and "impressions."