Cost per view (CPV) is a pricing model for your video ad campaign. In this model, you only pay when someone views your video ad. This approach is great for marketers who want to make the most of their video advertising campaign. So, what exactly is cost per view, CPV, and how do we calculate it? Let us find out.
What is Cost Per View?
Cost-per-view is an advertising pricing model in which the advertiser pays each time a user views their ad. In this approach, you only pay when the user watches thirty seconds of the ad or the complete ad if it is shorter than thirty seconds. Moreover, as an advertiser, you also need to pay if and when the user interacts with the ad. For instance, if they click on the ad to visit your website, view more information, or make a purchase.
Cost per view is a great strategy for making the most of your advertising budget and ensuring the maximum effectiveness of your video ad campaigns. The following sections will show why it is important and how you can calculate it.
Why Do You Need to Know Cost Per View
As mentioned earlier, cost per view is a great video ad pricing model because it helps you maximize your ad budget.
If you have previously had a cost-per-click video ads campaign, you must have noticed that it is not very effective. In this price model, you have to pay the advertising platform each time a user clicks on the ad. Sometimes, users mistakenly click on your ad, which increases the number of clicks but has no benefits.
However, this is not the case with the cost-per-view model. Here, you only pay when the user watches or interacts with your video. For instance, if you display your ad on Google, you pay only when the user views 30 seconds of your ad, and in the case of X, you pay when the user views 15 seconds of your ad.
In this video advertising pricing model, you don’t have to pay when someone unintentionally clicks on your ad.
Why is the Cost Per View Important
Cost per view (CPV) is important in digital advertising because it helps measure the efficiency and profitability of your campaign. CPV ensures budget efficiency, which means that you reach the right audience without overspending.
Another thing is the amazing return on investment that the CPV pricing model brings to your ad campaign. Your investments yield a satisfactory return on investment in terms of views, leads, and sales.
CPV also clearly shows advertisers how their advertisements are impacting their business, which is why it is a very important pricing model.
Overall, CPV is a great approach if you want to increase the efficiency of your ad campaign.
How Cost Per View Affects Ad Rank
The bid you set for your cost per view affects the position of your video ad rank. The bid also determines your chance of winning an auction and ensures that your ad appears in front of the right audience.
Along with other factors, CPV is also important in determining your position in comparison with other ads on the search results page. If you have a higher CPV, your ad has a better chance of appearing at the top position.
How to Calculate CPV(cost per view)
To calculate CPV, divide your total ad spend by the total number of views on your video ad. The result is the cost per video ad view.
How to Optimize and Increase Your Cost Per View
Enhance Video Quality
Firstly, if you want to optimize and increase your cost per view, you must focus on enhancing the quality of your video ads.
To enhance the video quality, you must focus on the minute details, such as sticking to short, crisp, engaging, and informational videos. You must also choose a vertical video format for a vertical screen instead of a horizontal format and vice versa. All these may look like small details, but they greatly impact the overall quality of your video ads.
If you don’t want to enhance the quality manually, the Google Ads platform offers video ad enhancement options. This automated process allows you to achieve your campaign goals and increase your conversion rate.
Target High-Value Audiences
Targeting a high-value audience means a higher conversion rate. A high-value audience is a group of potential customers who have already shown a great interest in your products and services. Hence, targeting them will help you make the most out of your cost per view ad campaign. This also means that you don’t have to spend a lot on your video ad campaign and yet generate a lot of revenue from it.
Improve Ad Relevance
Ad relevance is how well the ad displayed matches the content on the landing page. It is one of Google’s most important factors when displaying your ads. Improving ad relevance is worth the effort because it helps achieve a higher quality score, better ad position, and low cost per view.
Use Effective Keywords and Targeting
Effective keyword usage and the right targeting also help marketers gain the right traction for their video ads and make the most out of their advertising budget.
Firstly, you must conduct thorough keyword research to find relevant keywords for your video advertising campaign. When finding keywords for your ad campaign, be as specific as possible to increase the chances of targeting the right audience. For instance, instead of targeting the keyword “men’s clothing” for your t-shirt video campaigns, you can target the keyword “men’s cotton t-shirt” to target the audience that is most likely to convert into paying customers.
Optimize Ad Placement
Ad placement is the specific area where your ads will appear. The ideal ad placement can greatly affect your cost per view video ad campaign. For example, you are browsing through an online article about healthy eating. On the website, you see an ad about this new fast food joint that has recently opened near your locality. Will you be interested in the ad? But if there is an ad about a supplement that helps curb cravings, you will most likely be interested in it. You may click on the ad to learn more or even make a purchase. This is why optimization of ad placement is important.
Monitor and Adjust Campaigns
Constant monitoring and adjusting of your video ads campaign is one of the most essential steps to ensure that your ad campaign is on the right track.
If you are using the Google Ads platform to display your video ads, you must check the number of views your ads are getting. If your other ad campaigns are performing better than your video ads campaign, it is important to check and adjust the campaign for better views.
Tips for Increasing Your Cost Per View
Create Engaging Content
Content engagement means that your video ads are getting the expected views and click-through rates. Creating engaging content has numerous benefits for your video ads.
Since advertisers pay only for the views, it is great if they focus on creating ad content that gains the maximum views. For this, you must first understand what your target audience will be most interested in viewing. Once you have a fair idea of this, the rest becomes easy.
Based on the likes and dislikes of your target audience, you can craft compelling visuals and storytelling that intrigue them to view your ad and click on it to make a purchase.
Optimize Ad Placement
We all know that being present in the right place and at the right time can do wonders. The same goes for our video ads as well. Placing them in the right place will greatly impact the success of your video ad campaigns.
So, how do you optimize ad placement? First, you must ensure that the ad is contextually relevant. If you are a fitness brand, placing the right ad format on a website with content related to a healthy lifestyle will benefit you the most. This way, you can also maximize your cost-per-view pricing model.
Contextually relevant placement means that users who are genuinely interested in your services will view that ad, making your campaign cost-effective and successful.
Target the Right Audience
Targeting the right audience will greatly improve the effectiveness of your cost per view video ads campaign.
You need to determine your ideal customer’s demography for the right targeting. Doing so will help you ensure that your ads reach the audience with the maximum conversion chances.
Refine Call-to-Actions (CTAs)
Your CTAs must have a sense of urgency to encourage your viewers to click on the ad and make a purchase.
A golden rule for crafting effective CTAs is that they must be clean, crisp, and concise. This means that the user must know exactly what they are going to find once they click on the ad.
When you craft CTAs keeping this rule in mind, you send the message that your ads are not meant to deceive your audience. Hence, you build credibility among your target audience for your brand.
Use Catchy Thumbnails
Catchy thumbnails can really enhance the performance of your cost per view video ad campaign. Your target audience is most likely flooded with digital content, which can lead to a point of saturation, where they feel overwhelmed by the same old type of content online.
However, you can change it by adding catchy thumbnails that set your video ad apart from the rest. This will make your audience want to view your ad, which means more conversions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why choose CPV as a metric for advertising?
CPV is one of the most effective advertising metrics. This metric helps you measure the performance of your video ads and optimize the budget.
Firstly, in the cost per view model, you pay only for the engagement. This means that you pay when someone actually watches your video ad. Secondly, you can target specific audience groups based on their demography. Moreover, there is a lot of budget flexibility, and you can set the budget of your ad based on your needs.
What’s the difference between CPV and CPCV?
Cost per view, CPV is the format where the advertiser pays when the user watches the video ad for a given time. For instance, for Google, it is 30 seconds, and for X, it is 15 seconds.
In CPCV or cost per completed view, advertisers pay when the user watches the video ad completely.
CPCV is a more precise pricing model with a higher investment return. However, both models are great for different video campaigns based on the goal and budget.
What’s the difference between CPV and CPM?
As mentioned earlier, cost per view is a pricing model in which you pay only when the user views your video ad. In cost per mile, the advertiser pays for every thousand impressions on the ad.
Both CPV and CPM have different goals. While CPV focuses on engagement, CPM focuses on exposure.
So, logically, CPV is great if your goal is to enhance user engagement, and CPM is great if your goal is to enhance exposure.
How is YouTube CPV calculated?
YouTube CPV is calculated by dividing the total cost of the ad campaign by the total views received by the ad.
How can I lower my CPV?
There are numerous ways to lower your cost per view.
- Refine the targeting option: Look at the demography and your targeting option to identify wasted views.
- Adjust Bidding strategies: Adjusting the bidding strategies for your video ads can also help lower the CPV cost. Moreover, you can also choose the smart bidding strategy for optimized bidding.
- Improve your ad creatives: Choosing an optimized ad creative can also help lower the cost per view.
What defines a “view” in CPV?
A “view” has a different definition for different platforms:
In terms of in-stream ads, when a viewer watches the ad for at least 30 seconds or till the end of the ad, if it is shorter.
For in-feed ads, if the viewer watches 10 seconds of the ad in autoplay mode or clicks on the thumbnail to watch the ad,
For YouTube short ads, the viewer watches 10 seconds of the ad or the complete ad if it is short.
For X, if the viewer watches 15 seconds of the ad.