Computation of video presentation statistics in an online system

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• receive, at an online system, from a third party system, a video-presentation request, the video-presentation request comprising a video, a period of time for presenting the video, and a target audience specification;
• access a metadata of users of the online system;
• select a plurality of users of the online system as the target audience, wherein at least part of the metadata of the selected plurality of users matches the target audience specification received from the third party system;
• generate a sample subset of users from the target audience;
• determine a sampled video reach count for the sampled users in the subset, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to determine the sampled video reach count comprise instructions that cause the processor to:
• for each sampled user:
• determine whether the sampled user would have viewed the video for at least the threshold duration, and
• in response to determination that the sampled user would have viewed the video for at least the threshold duration, include the sampled user as part of the sampled video view count;
• estimate a total video reach count for the target audience by extrapolating the sampled video reach count for the subset of users to the target audience;
• and
• determine a parameter of presenting the video based on the total video view count.

A computer system comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions, the computer program instructions comprising instructions that when executed cause a computer processor to perform steps, comprising:
• receiving, at an online system, from a third party system, a video-presentation request, the video-presentation request comprising a video, a period of time for presenting the video, and a target audience specification;
• accessing a metadata of users of the online system;
• selecting a plurality of users of the online system as the target audience, wherein at least part of the metadata of the selected plurality of users matches the target audience specification received from the third party system;
• generating a sample subset of users from the target audience;
• determining a sampled video reach count for the sampled users in the subset, wherein determining the sampled video reach count comprises:
• for each sampled user:
• determining whether the sampled user would have viewed the video for at least the threshold duration, and
• in response to determination that the sampled user would have viewed the video for at least the threshold duration, including the sampled user as part of the sampled video view count;
• estimating a total video reach count for the target audience by extrapolating the sampled video reach count for the subset of users to the target audience;
• and
• determining a parameter of presenting the video based on the total video view count.