What is ThruPlay?

The definition in Meta's own terms

Meta uses the word in two places. As a metric, it is the number of times a video was played to completion when it is 15 seconds or shorter, or for at least 15 seconds when it is longer. As an optimisation and billing option in a campaign aimed at video views, it tells the delivery system to find people likely to reach that point and, when chosen for billing, to charge only when they do. The two uses share one threshold, which is why the word turns up both in reports and in campaign setup. For a video that counts as complete, Meta treats 97 percent of the length as the end, because viewers routinely drop off in the final frames as a logo or credit fades out.

How the count is made

Meta describes the 15 seconds as unique seconds of the video rather than elapsed viewing time, so going back over the same few seconds does not add up to a ThruPlay. For the related three second play count, Meta says plainly that time spent replaying within a single impression is not included. That makes ThruPlay harder to inflate than total plays, and a fairer basis for billing. Cost per ThruPlay is the division that follows: the amount spent divided by the number of ThruPlays. Placed next to the three second play count, it also shows how many of the people stopped by the opening stayed for the next twelve seconds, which is the part of the video where the offer or the explanation usually lives.

When ThruPlay is the metric to watch

It matters most when the value of an ad sits after the opening. A product demonstration, an explained offer or a creator talking through an experience needs time, and paying for three second plays buys attention that ends before the point arrives. It matters less for a pure reach message, where the brand and the offer are on screen from the first frame and a longer watch adds little. Length changes its meaning too. On a 12 second video a ThruPlay is a complete view. On a 60 second video it is a quarter of the story, and everything after second 15 is unpaid, unmeasured by this metric and easy to forget when the report looks healthy. A useful check is to set the ThruPlay count beside the share of people who reached the final quarter of the video. If the first is strong and the second is thin, the opening and the middle are working and the ending is where the budget leaks.

Common mistakes

Treating ThruPlays as completions is the first. For any video longer than 15 seconds they are not, and a report showing 10,000 ThruPlays says nothing about how many people saw the closing offer. The second is optimising for ThruPlay and then judging the campaign on sales; the system was asked for watchers and delivered them. The third is padding a short video past 15 seconds, which turns an easy complete view into a harder threshold with nothing added to the message. The fourth is comparing cost per ThruPlay across videos of different lengths as if the unit were identical. Under 15 seconds it buys an ending; over 15 seconds it buys a middle.

Where it shows up in the product

ThruPlay is counted and billed by Meta after the MP4 is uploaded, and the video builder here reports no views of any kind. What the builder decides is where the 15 second mark falls in the story. A UGC video is capped under 30 seconds with at most three talking scenes, and the proof scenes between them are held to 2.5 to 3 seconds, so by second 15 a viewer has usually heard the hook and the first experience line. The short length setting targets about 10 seconds, and any video that finishes under 15 seconds turns every ThruPlay on it into a finished watch. On a longer promo, put the offer before second 15 rather than saving it for the closing scene.

Questions people ask