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TikTok: expose 2-second / 6-second video view metrics (hook and hold rate cannot be derived without them)

Request

Please expose TikTok's video_watched_2s, video_watched_6s and the 6-second focused (engaged) view count in AdMetrics.

What we get today

videoPlayActions · videoP25/P50/P75/P100WatchedActions · videoAvgTimeWatchedActions (all populated for TikTok — thank you)

What is missing and why it matters

TikTok Ads Manager exposes 2-second and 6-second view counts, and the standard way to judge a TikTok creative is:

hook rate = 2-second views / impressions hold rate = 6-second views / 2-second views

These are absolute-time thresholds, so creatives of different lengths are judged on the same scale.

The percentile fields cannot substitute for them, because they are relative to each video's own length: 25% of a 10-second video is 2.5s, but 25% of a 40-second video is 10s. Measured on a real campaign, average watch time is 2.67s while only 5.3% of plays reach the 25% mark — so P25 systematically penalises longer creatives. There is also no video duration field, so we cannot normalise it ourselves.

(The schema note on videoP25WatchedActions suggests hook rate = videoP25 / videoPlay. That is a different measure from the one TikTok's own reporting uses, so we would rather not publish it under the same name.)

Impact

Automated creative reports cannot show hook/hold rate for TikTok. We currently fall back to play rate, average watch time and completion rate.

Status: Completed1 comment

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Comments1

  • Miquel Palet López

    Team•

    Oct 8

    This is live. TikTok ads now return three more video counts in every place that already returns the video percentiles (GET /v1/ads, the campaign and tree views, and single-ad analytics, both daily and summary):

    • video2SecWatchedActions: TikTok's 2-second video views (video_watched_2s)
    • video6SecWatchedActions: 6-second video views (video_watched_6s)
    • video6SecFocusedViews: TikTok's 6-second focused views (engaged_view: 6 seconds watched, or an interaction in the first 6 seconds)

    For your hook and hold rates: hook rate = video2SecWatchedActions / impressions, hold rate = video6SecWatchedActions / video2SecWatchedActions. They are summed across days and child ads like the other counts.

    We backfilled your account's history too. For campaign 1869603293308258 in September you'll see 155,104 two-second views, 50,227 six-second views and 54,849 focused views, which match TikTok Ads Manager (deleted ads included). These fields are TikTok only for now.