How CPV works
With cost-per-view pricing you are charged only when a view is counted, which on skippable in-stream YouTube ads generally means the viewer watched a meaningful portion of the video or clicked to engage with it. Someone who skips within the first few seconds usually costs you nothing. You set a maximum CPV bid representing the most you will pay for a view, and the auction determines the actual cost. The model aligns spend with genuine engagement, since you are paying for viewers who chose to keep watching.
CPV vs CPM
CPV and CPM are two ways to price video and display. CPM charges per thousand impressions regardless of whether anyone paid attention, which suits pure reach and awareness goals. CPV charges only for counted views, which suits engagement goals where you want to pay for attention rather than exposure. The right choice depends on the objective: a broad brand-awareness push may accept CPM to maximise reach cheaply, while a consideration campaign that needs people to actually absorb the message often prefers CPV so budget flows to viewers who watched.
Reading CPV well
A low CPV is not automatically good. Cost per view says nothing about whether those views drove any downstream action, so it has to be read alongside view-through rate and, more importantly, whether the video contributed to conversions later. A cheap view of an irrelevant audience is worthless, while a more expensive view of a high-intent audience that later converts is a bargain. CPV is an input metric, useful for controlling video cost, but never the measure of whether the video campaign worked.
How iClick uses CPV
iClick uses CPV to control the cost of engaged video attention on YouTube, but judges the campaign on downstream contribution, not on cost per view alone. The rule is to pair CPV with view-through rate and later conversion signal, because a cheap view of the wrong audience is worthless while a dearer view of a high-intent audience that converts is a bargain. CPV is treated as a cost lever, not a success metric.
