CPV (cost per view)

Cost per view is mostly used for video. Rather than paying for every time the video player loads the ad, the advertiser pays when it counts as a "view". The catch is that each platform defines a view differently. On YouTube, for example, a view for skippable in-stream ads has historically meant watching 30 seconds (or the whole ad if shorter) or interacting with it.

The metric version is CPV = total spend ÷ views. It is often compared with CPM for video and with completion rate: if you pay per completed view, the model is sometimes called CPCV (cost per completed view).

Because definitions vary, CPV numbers from different platforms are not directly comparable. A "view" in a social feed that autoplays silently for two seconds is very different from a full 30-second Pre-roll on a TV screen. Buyers therefore check the view definition, whether sound was on, and whether the view was measured and verified as human.

Think of it like this

CPV is like paying a street performer only if you stopped long enough to watch the trick, not just for walking past.

An example

A cosmetics brand in Japan spends ¥1,500,000 on a skippable video campaign and gets 300,000 paid views. CPV = ¥5 per view.