By David Miller, Product Management Director
We want to help talented video creators find their audience and build profitable video businesses on Facebook. We want to help media companies — whether large, small, global, or local — continue their invaluable work. And above all, we want to help people on Facebook discover great videos and build relationships with the creators and publishers that matter to them.
To do this, we’re introducing a series of ranking updates over the coming months that will further prioritize original videos that people seek out. These updates are outlined below, and Understanding Video Distribution on Facebook includes tips on how creators and publishers can find the most success with their videos. (Updated on May 7, 2019 at 9AM PT with correct resource name.)
What Are the Changes?
We are sharing an update on three factors that impact video ranking on Facebook: 1) loyalty and intent, 2) video and viewing durations and 3) originality. These are not new principles, but we will be strengthening their influence among the multiple factors that determine video distribution. The changes will affect video distribution across Facebook, including News Feed, Facebook Watch and our “More Videos” recommendations.
- Loyalty and intent: Intent and repeat viewership are important factors we consider when surfacing videos to people in News Feed. Going forward, we will add more weight in ranking to videos that people seek out and return to week after week.
- Video and viewing duration: As we’ve shared in the past, it’s important to ensure that videos capture viewers’ attention for at least one minute. We will add more weight in ranking to videos that keep people engaged, especially on videos that are at least three minutes long.
- Originality: Last year we announced that we would limit distribution for unoriginal or repurposed content from other sources with limited or immaterial added value — as well as demote video content from Pages that are involved in sharing schemes. We will more strongly limit distribution and monetization for this kind of content. (See here for more details.)
While there are numerous factors that determine video distribution on Facebook, these changes will benefit video distribution for Pages that create original content people want to watch and come back to. We’ll continue to improve video ranking to show videos that people value and to help great video makers reach more people on Facebook.