In August, Instagram announced a shift in its primary performance metric, replacing variable content measures like “plays,” “impressions,” and “accounts reached” with a more streamlined “views” count. Meta has now confirmed that Facebook will adopt this same approach, alongside guidance for brands on how this change may impact their performance data.

The move reflects Instagram’s push towards prioritizing video content while simplifying its complex array of metrics, which previously varied across posts, Stories, Reels, and other formats. With “views” as the central metric for both video and image content, Facebook will now follow suit in moving away from similarly diverse measurements.

What This Means for Brands

Meta explains:

“Creators will now have a single distribution metric for all content types that’s calculated the same way across Facebook and Instagram. The new metric – called Views – tells you the number of times a reel or video was played or the number of times photo or text posts were on screen, aligning with Instagram’s recently updated metrics.”

This update aims to provide a consistent, more intuitive way to evaluate content performance across the two platforms, consolidating how different types of consumption behaviors are tracked.

Key Changes to Metrics

Meta emphasizes that the method for calculating views remains unchanged, so creators shouldn’t notice significant differences in the underlying data—only in the metric names. However, there are some adjustments to note:

• For Stories, photo, or text posts, “Views” will now replace “Impressions.” Unlike impressions, which counted a piece of content appearing once on a person’s screen, views will include repeat views. For example, if someone views a photo three times in a day, it will now count as three views instead of one impression. This could lead to a noticeable increase in your view counts.

• Metrics like Watch Time and Average Watch Time are being replaced by Minutes Viewed and Average Minutes Viewed, which round viewing time to the nearest minute. Other familiar metrics such as Reach, 3-second views, 1-minute views, Reactions, Comments, and Shares will remain unchanged.

What to Expect

As Meta implements these updates in the Meta Business Suite and Professional Dashboard over the coming weeks, you may see some variances in your data. While the new metrics are intended to simplify performance tracking, inflated numbers—particularly for views—might require a closer look to ensure the insights align with your content strategy.

This change underscores Meta’s focus on video content while reducing complexity in performance measurement. For creators and brands, it offers a more cohesive understanding of content impact across Facebook and Instagram, though it may require some initial adjustment.

Keep an eye on your analytics for any unexpected trends, but remember: a sudden spike in numbers might not always signal a breakthrough—it could simply reflect the new metrics at work.