ThruPlay — how not to overpay for video advertising

2 min read
28 May 2019

So, now when the F8 has been held, and it has been announced that Facebook will also be using the Stories functionality actively, the idea of introducing ThruPlay that first appeared as long ago as 2018, is finally clear.

The ThruPlay option means that you pay for not less than the 15-second advertising video when customizing ad according to the Reach and Frequency parameters. The additional advantage of the ThruPlay algorithm is protection from spending money on useless clicks (including ones made by competitors).

ThruPlay has been used by default for video advertising and billing optimization since May 2, 2019.

Facebook will stop advertising campaigns, which are set up according to the previously used parameters based on the 10-second length video.

ThruPlay Metrics

The metrics are currently (May 2019) being developed actively. Things we already know about them:

Price of ThruPlay views

The price will be calculated by dividing the amount you have paid by the number of ThruPlay videos.

Number of ThruPlay videos

When calculating the number of videos, the metric takes into account the following parameters:

  1. Videos less than 15 seconds — are taken into account if viewed to the end.
  2. Videos more than 15 seconds — are taken into account if viewed during not less than 15 unique seconds. If 97% of the video is viewed, the whole video is considered viewed to the end. The remaining 3% usually consists of titles and blackouts.

And the above-mentioned information is very important for content makers because they should edit videos taking into account this aspect. Otherwise, the main idea of the video will not be delivered to the target audience, meanwhile the money will be paid in vain.

The ThruPlay billing and optimization settings are configured directly via Ads Manager when setting up an advertising campaign.

Currently the ThruPlay product is not tested well yet, but we hope that ThruPlay will really help to lower the price of the lead at the expense of paying for targeted views.

Sources: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2051461368219124