Paid Media News & Opinion #103

Meta’s ‘Views’ metric updates & changes: explained

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> What’s happening

Meta have announced that “views will now be the primary metric on Facebook for reels, videos, posts and stories.”, which means that any impression for organic or paid activity on Facebook is now measured in the same way as Instagram.

For reels and videos, ‘plays’ are being renamed ‘views’. For non-video formats, like posts, ‘views’ are effectively impressions (and therefore can be repeated). The measurement across these different metrics are staying the same though.

Similar metrics, such as ThruPlay and 3-second Views, will still exist and the new ‘Views’ metric will be available for everyone in the coming weeks.

Additionally, Meta is also updating the ‘watch time’ metrics to be ‘minutes viewed’, which will round up total view/play time to the nearest minute.

> Why we care

The truth is, this update is actually far more superficial and cosmetic than you might initially think. If you are already measuring total impressions across all organic and paid campaigns, as most do, you will see no change. We see this as a naming update and advertisers should not be worried about the impact on historical data.

However, if you are tracking watch time metrics, be aware of the new rounding (to the nearest minute) that will take place soon. This is obviously an unfavourable update given that data will be less accurate, even misleading in some cases. Keep this in mind for your next monthly report.

We would encourage all advertisers to double-check definitions for Meta’s metrics, both existing and new, to ensure you are actually measuring what you think you are.

Google introduces new “Conversation Started” conversion action

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> What’s happening

Google has released a new conversion action called “Conversation Started”, which will be especially interesting for lead generation, service provider and ecommerce based businesses who use live chat features such as WhatsApp Message Assets.

Having an online chat facility is commonplace now, and without that facility - or a poor version of it - there’s a risk of losing potential customers unable to clarify a question they need answering to consider moving forward. Currently the closest action you could get would be a form submission or a phone call, which is to miss out a potentially crucial step in the customer journey.

> Why we care

To be able to accurately track how many customers are initiating those conversions, and how many then result in a higher value action such as a sale or a form submission, will give marketers a lot more information to improve and enhance their campaigns.

It will help highlight if there are certain products or areas that have more of a requirement for an online interaction before proceeding, and how effective that step currently is in moving those customers a step closer to taking a commercial action. Marketers can then track a custom “conversion rate” between ‘initiating conversation’ and ‘purchase’ or ‘submit lead form’ to monitor and understand how effectively they are serving their customers, and can measure improvements to that service.

TikTok launches AI video generation tool

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> What’s happening

TikTok have now fully-launched Symphony Creative Studio, “an AI-powered video-generation tool that can generate a video in minutes from minimal user input.” designed to help users easily generate high-quality branded content.

To create a video, users enter their website, some key details around the brand and products, any assets they wish to include. Licensed assets, cleared for commercial use, are used in the video generation, meaning they are available for use on ads too.

Once the asset is generated, tweaks and edits can be made, and the video will also be translated into several languages if you require that. Content produced is marked with ‘AI-generated’ for transparency.

Alongside this tool, Symphony Digital Avatars generates a realistic person to be the face of your video from a combination of your preferences, such as their gender, clothing style, scene, and even body gesture (e.g. sitting upright). You can follow the steps here to get started.

> Why we care

Only a year ago, AI-generated video was exciting but lacked consistency and quality, particularly for people (and their hands!). Now, through the ease of TikTok’s own platform, users can generate high-quality, hyper-realistic videos in a matter of minutes. This presents a huge opportunity for many brands and advertisers, particularly those with constrained budgets and limited time.

The question of authenticity still stands, and AI-generated content may put off sharp-eyed users. Therefore, we’d recommend using these tools if you want to test the waters with TikTok, perhaps to prove it’s value, but are struggling to commit budget and time to it.

What else we've been talking about:

• AI Overview ads seen in mobile search in the US

• DOJ pushing Google to sell Chrome to reshape their market dominance

• Perplexity launches AI powered Shopping Search

• Google Lens for in-store and local shopping

• Google outlines 2025 ads API roadmap

• Bluesky user count hits 20m and counting

• 4 Google Ads custom solumns I use everyday