Digital marketing term
View
A video or ad counted as watched or seen once it clears the platform’s threshold — not the same as an impression. YouTube, Meta, and programmatic clocks differ, so do not treat the totals as identical.
Detailed explanation
The content was seen for a defined time or percentage, not merely served. An impression can mean the creative was booked into inventory; a view is an attention threshold. Video campaigns often pay CPV against that threshold.
Thresholds vary: a few seconds, 50% completion, in-view pixels. A million views is not comparable across channels. Autoplay can inflate interest; completion rate corrects it.
Read views with completion, clicks, and conversions. High views and low completion point at a weak opening. Optimizing for impressions is a different bid strategy than optimizing for views.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a view different from an impression?
- An impression is that the ad was served. A view means the platform’s time or in-view rule was met.
- Do platforms share one threshold?
- No. Seconds, percentages, and viewability rules differ. Do not compare raw view counts until you align the definition.
Related terms
Internal links for the topic cluster — read these concepts together.
- ImpressionAn impression is a single instance of an online ad being displayed to a user.
- CPVWhat you pay when a platform counts a video as viewed. It is not a click or a complete watch, and the “viewed” threshold changes by network, so compare vendors carefully.
- ClickA tap or press on an ad or link; opening the page and converting are separate events. Click-through rate is this count divided by impressions.
- Display AdvertisingBanners, native units, and other visual formats on sites and apps. Unlike search text ads, they show up before someone has typed a query into the box.
- CTRCTR (Click-Through Rate) is the percentage of impressions that result in a click on an ad or link.
- Floating AdA creative that overlays or sticks to the page instead of sitting in the grid. It can raise viewability; if it cannot be closed, it taxes UX and the brand.