What is CPCV?

CPCV stands for “Cost Per Completed View”. It is a relatively new type of advertising that has gained popularity over the past few years.

As marketers, we’re all pretty familiar with cost per click (or CPC) and cost per thousand impressions (CPM) pricing. But what about CPCV?

What is it? And why should you care? This article will answer these questions and more to help you understand what CPCVs are all about.

When considering whether to buy online ads, be it display, native or mobile, you need to familiarise yourself with the various pricing models that are available in the paid media ecosystem. Most likely, you’ll need to use a mix in your marketing strategy to maximise the ROI of your digital marketing.

Shameless Agency Plug
If you’re an advertiser looking to get more completed views, more brand awareness and maximum impact with your marketing budget, reach out to our team. We run many CPCV programmatic campaigns for advertisers across the globe, helping our clients to purchase cost-effective video campaigns at the most competitive low CPVs in the industry globally!

CPCV Meaning: How Does CPCV Advertising Work?

In short, advertisers only get charged when the video creative is served to the target audience and watched by that target audience to 100% completion or 30 seconds, whichever comes first.

The advertiser must brief the agency with the following:

• Video Length
• Market
• Target Audience
• Other metrics, such as viewability required
• Budget
• Timeline

The programmatic agency will then respond with a price per completed view.

CPCV ads work differently via Google Ads. YouTube has many formats, but the only format where you pay for completed views is their TrueView Format.

What is a YouTube TrueView format?

This is a skippable video format that allows viewers to choose whether or not they want to watch the whole video. This means advertisers only pay when someone watches the video creative in its entirety (or 30 seconds). The TrueView format is a type of in-stream format.

Why is CPCV pricing important?

Video spending continues to grow at an unmatched rate and is projected to reach US$207.50bn in 2025. With numbers like this, it’s no wonder why marketers are keen on finding new ways to earn exposure whilst minimising the risk of paying on an impression basis, whereby you pay no matter the completion rate of your video.

What are the Benefits of Online Video Campaigns?

• Viewers are more likely to purchase a product after watching an online video campaign.
• Video has the highest engagement rate out of any other type of ad format.
• Digital video campaigns are more likely to result in higher brand awareness.
• Advert recall is improved, especially when advertisements are paired with an image or text related to the product being advertised on screen.
• Videos can be used to create a brand image or identify with an audience.
• Video campaigns are an effective way to communicate complex messages, ideas or concepts.
• You can track a video campaign’s performance with more accuracy than other forms of online advertising such as audio advertising.

As you can see, there are many reasons why you should be using CPCV video advertising in your marketing strategy. They provide a more engaging experience for the viewer.

CPCV Frequently Asked Questions

What websites can I feature videos on?

Programmatic advertising allows you to buy across thousands of websites globally, anything from forbes.com to The Guardian to Vice News and everything in between. If you want to advertise on a specific domain/site, let us know, and we can cost this up for you.

Can I run videos in mobile apps?

Yes, especially in mobile gaming!

Can I buy CPCV ads in rewarded video advertising?

Yes!

CPCV ads are particularly prominent among rewarded video advertising, where you will also get an excellent share of voice on the mobile screen and excellent viewability.

Most rewarded ad campaigns offer the user some kind of reward for completing an action; sometimes, that action is watching a video to 100% completion.

How can I lower my CPCV?

To lower your CPV consider broadening the targeting or extending the period. Consider adding more inventory to your mix, such as delivering across mobile, desktop and also in-app and using a mix of in-stream and out-stream formats.

How do you calculate CPCV cost?

Total budget divided by the total number of completed views.

Should I care about viewability as well as completion rate?

Both are important metrics to look at.

Viewability measures how many impressions were served and displayed above the fold.

The definition of viewability can be found here: This becomes an issue if you’re paying based on views and your campaign is completely invisible because viewers didn’t scroll far enough down the page for it to load properly.

The completion rate takes into account whether or not your video creative was watched in its entirety, whereas viewability is whether the ad was seen or not. These metrics are important for brand awareness.

Viewable completion rate matters because both metrics are critical to tracking the quality.

Other Metrics: CTR Click-through Rate

Most clients usually have sales as their goal. They want a solid, but that doesn’t mean that success should only be clicks and traffic.

Video advertising can serve the purpose of increasing awareness which over time will help to increase the salience and therefore sales by nurturing audiences over the long term.

What is the average CPCV in rewarded video advertising?

$0.01 to $0.07 for mobile in-app inventory. This can be a very competitive rate for 100% in view and fully completed video ads, so you should consider using them as part of your video strategy.

Average Cost of CPCV Campaigns

Across open exchange inventory, expect to pay around $0.01 to $0.10. Note Advant Technology accepts payment in GBP, EURO and USD.

How does CPCV advertising compare to other models?

The CPCV model is not alone in the online advertising bubble, and they all have their own pros and cons. Let’s take a look at some other pricing models:

Where can I run CPCV campaigns?

We offer CPCV pricing to advertisers and agencies globally.

Cost-Per-Mille (CPM)

It is still used by most for video advertising, but paying for impressions on video advertising doesn’t guarantee the ad was viewed, only that it appeared, this is where optimisation towards completion rate is key.

Cost-Per-View (CPV)

It is another model which looks at ‘views’, but again, what counts as a ‘view’ is not set in stone. Generally, a CPV campaign will be priced on a video quartile such as:

• 25% completion
• 50% completion
• 75% completion
• or the number of seconds

Of course, the advertiser can expect to pay less for a CPV campaign compared to a CPCV.

Cost-Per-Action (CPA)

Models are performance-based, meaning an advertiser would get charged only if action was taken after watching the video.

This action can vary from a specific download or purchase but mostly benefits performance marketers and isn’t great for building brand awareness.

Cost-Per-Second (CPS)

CPS is a time-based model and variation of CPCV, with the cost rising per second viewed.

This still doesn’t guarantee a whole video has been watched but can be more bang for your buck than the impression-focused models.

Wrapping it up

The way we consume content has changed significantly, from mobile devices to social media, so many options make it hard to grab anyone’s attention anymore.

This is where CPCV comes in – it guarantees a completed view.

There is no such thing as the perfect ad, so you need to test different pricing models until you find what works for your product/marketing goals.

A successful marketing campaign needs an arsenal of strategies: native, Facebook posts, tweets, prospecting, retargeting, performance, brand, search etc, the list goes on.

As mentioned earlier, CPCVs offer a more effective way of advertising compared to CPV because you pay only when the ad is viewed completely and successfully. Meaning you will get better value for your money by paying less on average per view or while still reaching your target audience effectively with relevant content.

So if you have a video and want to increase your brand awareness among your target audience, buying on a CPCV is the way forward. Reach out, and we can discuss setting up a campaign for you. Our CPCV campaigns start from around £1500 / 1800 Euros.