Quick definition
Story completion rate is the percentage of viewers who watch a story sequence through to its final frame: completions ÷ starts × 100.
Metrics
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Stories publish as a sequence of frames, and completion rate is the share of viewers who make it from the first frame to the last: completions ÷ starts × 100. It sits alongside a family of navigation metrics — taps forward, taps back, exits, and swipes to the next account’s story — that show how people moved through the sequence. The distinction matters: a tap forward is skimming, while an exit or a swipe to another account is the real loss.
Stories are the most time-sensitive format in social: on most platforms they expire after 24 hours, so a sequence published while your audience sleeps burns half its lifespan unseen. Completion rate then grades what happened to the viewers you did catch — whether the sequence held them or leaked them frame by frame. Together the two questions, did they start and did they finish, cover the whole job a story has to do.
Suppose 1,000 viewers start a five-frame story and 640 are still there on the final frame: 640 ÷ 1,000 × 100 = 64% completion. The per-frame breakdown shows exits spiking on frame three — a dense block of text. You split that frame into two lighter ones and move the announcement to frame one; the next comparable sequence completes at 75%. Same message, better sequencing.
Native insights on professional accounts (Instagram and Facebook, for instance) report reach, exits, and navigation per frame; completion is the final frame’s viewers divided by the first frame’s. To raise it: keep sequences short, lead with the strongest frame, give each frame one idea instead of a text wall, and use interactive stickers — polls and questions give thumbs a reason to pause. Track your average by sequence length, because longer stories naturally complete less.
Where SocialKit fits
Completion starts with catching viewers while they’re actually scrolling — SocialKit’s best-time auto-posting publishes into your audience’s high-activity windows, and each platform’s native Story insights then show you frame by frame where viewers drop.
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FAQ
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