Reference library · Inventory pricing
CPV (Cost Per View)
CPV (Cost Per View) is the price paid per completed or counted video view, calculated as total spend divided by the number of qualifying views. It lets a buyer price video inventory against actual viewing behavior instead of raw impressions, since a served impression and a counted view are not the same thing. The counting rule (e.g. 30-second watch, full completion, or a platform-specific autoplay threshold) is set by the platform, not the buyer.
Formula
Worked example
A campaign runs YouTube TrueView in-stream ads with an €18,000 budget and delivers 450,000 completed views (30-second or full-view threshold, whichever comes first). CPV = €18,000 / 450,000 = €0.04. At €0.04 per view the buyer checks this against the platform benchmark for the vertical (roughly €0.03-€0.06 in most European markets) to confirm the buy is running efficiently before committing the rest of the budget.
How it is used
Buyers set CPV as a maximum bid in auction-based video platforms (YouTube TrueView, programmatic video marketplaces) and let the algorithm optimize delivery within that ceiling, then track actual CPV against the target through the flight to catch drift early. CPV is also used to rank creative variants or vendors on efficiency when reach is held roughly constant. The recurring mistake is treating CPV as a universal currency and comparing it across platforms without checking each one's view-counting definition first.
The common mistake
Don't compare CPV across platforms without matching their view-counting definitions, since a 2-second autoplay view and a 30-second TrueView view are priced on different events.