Just as Facebook continues to add more users, so too are more advertisers flocking to the platform to tap into that audience.

This week, The Social Network has reported that there are now more than five  million active advertisers on their platform. For comparison, Instagram reached its first million advertisers last month, while Facebook itself reported that it had reached four million advertisers only six months ago.

In addition, Facebook has also noted that:

• 75% of advertisers are now based outside the U.S.
• Almost 50% of advertisers have created an ad on a phone or tablet
• Facebook ad usage is growing the most among businesses in Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, India and Mexico

The numbers underline the continued strength of Facebook’s ad business, while the international growth data highlights that there’s still plenty of opportunity left for Facebook to expand. Facebook’s working to facilitate more connection in international markets with new initiatives like a freemium version of Facebook Workplace and, on another front, new, in-stream payment options in WhatsApp.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has also noted that while there are five million active advertisers, there are more than 65 million businesses using Facebook Pages, which further highlights the untapped potential of Facebook’s ad business.

In addition to this, Facebook has also launched some new and improved video metrics within Page insights, including improved data comparison tools and new filter options for video content performance.

Here’s what’s been announced.

1. “Adding Aggregate Minutes Viewed”

Previously, Facebook only provided data on minutes viewed at the individual video level. Now, they’re adding the capacity to view total minutes viewed across all videos on your Page.

Just as you can access for regular posts in the ‘Reach’ tab, this provides the capacity to get an overall sense of video performance, and how much of your content is being consumed. In order to capitalize on this, and understand what, specifically, is driving performance, you’ll still need to check in on individual posts, but aggregate video minutes viewed provides another measure to consider, which could be particularly useful for those who’ve made video a key element of their Facebook strategy.

2. “Simplifying Aggregate Video Views’

Facebook’s also simplifying the Page Insights interface to only include aggregations for 3-second video views. Facebook says that publishers have been telling them that they don’t frequently view the aggregate 10-second video views in Page Insights, and that the aggregate 3-second video views display is preferred.

Neither of these stats is highly indicative of overall video performance, but the 3-second measure provides more insight into people who’ve shown some form of interest – 10-seconds is likely a more accurate measure of overall intent, but as noted, Facebook is working with publisher response.

Aggregate 10-second video views will still be available in the API and at the individual video metric level.

3. “Making it Easier to Analyze Metrics Across a Date Range”

Facebook’s also making it easier to compare the performance of all video views within a period, as opposed to only examining the content uploaded within the chosen date range.

“We’ve heard that when measuring the aggregate performance of videos on Facebook over specific time periods, many publishers are more interested in capturing the performance of all videos in the time period selected instead of only seeing metrics from videos uploaded during that time period. We’re updating the metric presented when selecting a date range to align with this expectation, enabling publishers to assess the overall performance of all of their videos across a specific timeframe, regardless of when the videos were uploaded.”

This is similar to how general reach and post performance metrics are already displayed.

4. “Enabling Comparisons Between Current Video Metrics and Historical Benchmarks”

Facebook’s also adding in benchmark comparisons to help publishers better understand historical performance of their video content.

“Benchmarks are calculated based on the time period selected. For example, when a publisher selects a 7 day time period for measurement, the benchmark will consist of data from the prior 7 days.”

This will give video publishers more of a baseline as to how their content is performing, helping to highlight whether they’re on the right track.

5. “Making it Possible to Sort Top Videos by Minutes Viewed or Views”

And lastly, Facebook’s also giving publishers the opportunity to rank their top videos within a time period by minutes viewed or views to get a better understanding of how individual videos are performing relative to the group.

The new options will provide more ways to sort their Facebook video data, in order to more quickly pinpoint relevant trends or shifts.

The new metrics don’t offer anything huge, in terms of functionality, but providing more ways to sort and utilize the available data can only be beneficial for those looking to get a better understanding of their Facebook video performance, and capitalize on audience interests.

Article Written by Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media Today