Facebook Video Ad Metrics to Watch in 2022

With social media marketing, you can target specific audiences and curate your content to their interests and needs. Given the reach of these platforms, when a marketing campaign is executed successfully, it can yield impressive results. 

But how do you track the efficacy of your video campaign and content? 

Thankfully, Facebook video ad metrics are relatively straightforward. They’re quantifiable, accessible, and organized. To that end, we’ve built this guide to help you discern whether or not your Facebook video campaign is  hitting its  key performance indicators (KPIs). 

If your campaigns are  falling short, this will also serve as a waypoint for you to identify areas of improvement. Ready to hone in on six Facebook video ad metrics to monitor? 

Facebook Videos 101: What Do People Watch?

Before we dive into the specific metrics you should keep an eye on, let’s look at some details about Facebook video ads and create perspective:¹

• Daily video views are in the billions – Facebook is still the most popular social media platform in the world. People view over 4 billion videos on Facebook every single day. 
• Millions of hours are watched per day – All video content adds up to about 100 million hours of video watched via Facebook per day. This includes everything from short, teaser clips, to longer, narrated stories. 
• Videos drive results for your business – Audiences engage with a Facebook video post  at a higher rate than they do with static posts. When you want your Facebook ads  to have an impact, videos as well as video thumbnails are  far more likely to do so.
• Most viewers watch videos without sound – Think the sound on your video ad is a key feature? That’s not usually the case. In fact, research shows that up to 85% of Facebook video is viewed without sound.² This could be the result of where people watch video on their mobile device (often in a public place). Or, it could be because people don’t like to hear loud advertisements.
• People spend more time looking at videos than static content – When you utilize videos for your ads, people engage more with this medium than its written counterpart. Static content tends to “fade out” in the feed, meaning many potential customers may miss your ad entirely.
• Certain video types garner a better hook rate  – An engaging opening is nearly paramount for a successful video post. What is hook rate? If you can keep a user’s attention for three seconds, the chances they’ll view the entire piece increases. 

So, Facebook video ads are a powerful tool for your business. Furthermore, Facebook makes it fairly easy to assess the performance of your ads using its  own built-in metrics. 

What Can You Learn from Facebook Video Ad Metrics?

Facebook videometrics tell a holistic story of your advertisement’s performance. The flagship metrics to track include but are not limited to: 

• Video impressions
• Reach
• Engagement
• Click-through rate
• Conversion rate
• Costs

When it comes to how to create successful Facebook video ads, these six metrics should come together to form the overall “health” of your video ad, no matter where it is in its maturity. 

Where Can You Find This Data?

To access this information, you need to go to the Ad Manager screen of your business Facebook account.³ From there, select the Columns tab. Choose the Video Engagement button. In this section, you can select the specific metric data you wish to view.

Metric #1: Video Impressions

One of the first Facebook metrics you’ll want to review is Facebook video impressions. This measurement provides you with information regarding how many times your ad reached a target audience member, based on:⁴ 

• The first time it appeared on their screen
• Second and third appearances on separate occasions
• The fact that it appeared on a real person’s screen, not a bot

The video doesn’t need to start playing to count as an impression—it just needs to appear in an individual’s feed.

Video impressions are important because they showcase how many times your ads are appearing on screens, which segues into our next metric—reach. 

Metric #2: Reach

Reach differs from impressions because it doesn’t measure how many times your video ad appears. Instead, it counts the number of unique users who encounter your content on their feed. Thus, it won’t measure repeats like impressions do. .

Reach isn’t just a passive metric. 

You can choose the reach objective when you’re setting up your video ads.⁵ This will instruct Facebook to try to reach as many individuals as possible as it runs your ad campaign. 

Reach is a powerful metric for:

• Growing your brand awareness
• Changing brand perception
• Increasing sales within a certain population

You can structure your ad to prioritize reach and then monitor the metric to ensure that it’s performing to your standards.

Metric #3: Engagement

Once your ad is live and (hopefully) reaching your target user count, it’s time to identify whether or not each viewer is  actually engaging with the content. Facebook uses the ranking of social media engagement to demonstrate:⁶

• How your ad is performing compared to others competing for the same audience
• The likelihood that people will click on, comment on, or react to your ad
• Where your ad ranks from below to above average with other similar ads

Armed with these insights, you can develop expectations about your ad and adjust your target audience or objectives as necessary.

Metric #4: Click-Through Rates (CTR)

Click-through rate is another extremely helpful Facebook ad metric you can use to evaluate how many people clicked on your ad. For example, if 500 people saw your ad and, of those, 50 clicked on it, your click-through rate would be 10%. 

Essentially, this metric showcases whether or not your ad generates enough interest to lead a user past your content and to your brand. If your ad is performing well in other categories but viewers aren’t diving deeper down the funnel, you might need to tweak your call to action or overall incentive. 

Metric #5: Conversion Rate

The next rung on the advertising ladder is conversion rate. This tells you how many people went through all of the above steps:

• Your ad reached their feed
• They watched your video
• Then they clicked on the ad 
• Finally, they performed the desired action

The desired action doesn’t always have to be a purchase. It might include providing contact information, completing a survey, or responding to a question. 

For example, if your ad’s objective was to collect contact information from potential customers and 10 of the 500 people who saw your ad in their feed submitted their email address, then your click-through rate is 2%.

Metric #6: Costs

Lastly, you should always monitor how much your ads cost to determine if your return on ad spend is being maximized. If you’re paying for an underperforming ad, you need to ensure that your budget isn’t compromised as you begin optimizing your campaign. 

In which case, you need to track the following: 

• Costs per click – Cost per click shows you how much it costs for every click your video ad earns. For example, if you pay $20 to run an ad and it reaches 1000 people, 40 of whom click on it, then your cost per click is $0.50.
• Costs per conversion – Cost per conversion shows you how much it costs for every purchase or other desired outcome your ad generates. So, if you pay $15 to run an ad and you end up with 20 total conversions, your cost per is $0.75.

Every company has a different budget for digital marketing and therefore, has a unique qualifier for what constitutes a successful or cost-effective ad. 

How Can You Improve Your Video Ad Metrics?

If your Facebook video ad metrics are returning less than favorable results, know that there are always areas you can optimize. A few improvements you can take include:  

• Study your competition and see how they craft their videos
• Improve the opening of your ads—the first three seconds are crucial
• Keep your ads short to avoid losing the audience’s attention
• Use numbers in the titles of your videos to attract more viewers
• Know your audience—Facebook users skew older than other social media platforms
• Create value by telling your audience why your product or service is important to them

However, if you want your Facebook video ads to yield results across every metric, you can always turn to expert social media management that understands the platform intimately. 

Boost Your Video Ad Performance with Power Digital Marketing

Video advertising on Facebook can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool. However, the creativity that champions your content needs to parallel the meticulousness you apply to your tracking metrics. 

Here at Power Digital, our digital marketing agency helps businesses reach their full potential with our marketing and technology solutions. When it comes to Facebook video ads, we create content that sings, monitor every metric, and optimize when results are falling short. 

If you’re in need of a Facebook ad partner, our internet marketing service can help craft a memorable campaign that converts. If you’re ready to get started, so are we. 

Sources: 

1. Statista. Facebook-Statistics and Facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/751/facebook/
2. Nieman Lab. Publishers Say 85 Percent of Facebook Video is Watched Without Sound. https://www.niemanlab.org/reading/publishers-say-85-percent-of-facebook-video-is-watched-without-sound/
3. Facebook. About Video Ad Metrics. https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1792720544284355?id=603833089963720
4. Facebook. Impressions. https://www.facebook.com/business/help/675615482516035
5. Facebook. About the Reach Objective. https://www.facebook.com/business/help/218841515201583?id=816009278750214
6. Facebook. About Engagement Rate Ranking. https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2351270371824148?helpref=search&sr=1&query=ad%20engagement