What is a good video completion rate?

On non-skippable CTV it is routinely above 90% because viewers cannot skip; on skippable web video it is far lower and arguably more meaningful. Judge VCR against the format.

Video players report quartile events at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. VCR is the completed views divided by the started impressions.

View rate counts whether a video met a view threshold; VCR specifically counts plays that reached the end.

Growth Marketing Glossary

Video Completion Rate

video completion ratenoun

The attention gauge of CTV — a view is cheap, a completion is earned.

Schematic — video quartiles to completion

Stands for: Video Completion Rate
Channel: CTV, OTT, online video
Tracked via: quartiles 25/50/75/100%
High VCR: non-skippable, relevant

Forms & parts of speech

VCR · noun

Completed video views ÷ video impressions started.

"Our CTV VCR is 95% — non-skippable placements almost always finish."

What VCR measures

Video players fire events at quartiles — 25%, 50%, 75%, and complete. VCR is the share of started videos that reach that final 100% mark.

It is the headline quality metric for connected TV and over-the-top video, where the format is usually non-skippable and the screen is the main focus, so completion rates run high.

Why high VCR is not automatically good

Non-skippable CTV ads complete at very high rates almost by default — the viewer cannot skip. A 95% VCR there says little about whether the ad landed; it mostly says the format forced a finish.

Completion is necessary but not sufficient. Pair VCR with outcomes — brand lift, search lift, site visits — so you know the finished view actually moved someone, not just that the player reached the end.

Worked example. Say a CTV campaign serves 500,000 video impressions and 475,000 reach the 100% quartile, a 95% VCR — typical for non-skippable inventory. A skippable pre-roll campaign on the open web finishes 60% of starts. The skippable VCR is lower but more informative: those completions were chosen, not forced.

Read each VCR against the format that produced it before drawing conclusions.

Failure modes to watch. Comparing VCR across skippable and non-skippable formats as if they meant the same thing; treating high completion as proof of effectiveness without outcome data; and counting auto-play muted starts as genuine engaged views.

Benchmarks

Completion benchmarks are only comparable within the same format. A non-skippable VCR and a skippable VCR are different measurements; compare like with like.

Non-skippable CTV

very high by design

Skippable web video

markedly lower

Pair with

brand or search lift

Ranges are illustrative; every published figure is cited from a named public source or labelled “RGM analysis.”

Synonyms & antonyms

Synonyms

VCRcompletion ratevideo ad completion rate

Antonyms

skip rate

Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

View interest-over-time on Google Trends →

Common questions

What is a good video completion rate?: On non-skippable CTV it is routinely above 90% because viewers cannot skip; on skippable web video it is far lower and arguably more meaningful. Judge VCR against the format.
How is VCR measured?: Video players report quartile events at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. VCR is the completed views divided by the started impressions.
VCR vs view rate?: View rate counts whether a video met a view threshold; VCR specifically counts plays that reached the end.

Related tools & calculators

toolROAS calculator
toolRGM benchmarks compendium

Resources & people to follow

referenceIAB — digital video measurement
referenceMNTN — performance CTV resources

Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.

Sources

trendsGoogle Trends — "video completion rate"