The short answer
A watched video ad counts as a view on the video itself
Because YouTube counts 30 seconds of a watched video ad as a view on the video itself, not just as an ad seen and scrolled past. Run ads pointed at your listing video, and every person who watches far enough adds to the public counter on your own channel. That counter is visible to anyone with the link, including your seller. It climbs for as long as the ads run, then it holds at whatever it reached.
Why the view counter moves while ads run
A listing video posted normally on social sits in front of whoever follows you, and for most agents that's a small, quiet audience. Run listing ads or brand ads that use that same video as the creative, and YouTube puts it in front of a much wider group of people who never followed you and never would have found it. Once someone watches past the 30 second point YouTube counts as a genuine view, that view lands on the video itself, on your channel, the same public counter anyone sees when they open the link. It isn't a separate ad number kept off to the side. It's the same counter, moving because more people are actually watching.
That's why the climb tracks the ad run so closely. Views build while the ads are active because that's when the video is reaching people beyond your own following. Once the ad run ends, the counter holds at whatever it reached. It doesn't reset and it doesn't get relabeled. What a seller opens weeks later is the same number, sitting where it landed.
How to get views on a real estate listing video
Put ads behind it. A listing video only earns real view counts at scale when it's in front of people who aren't already following you, and ads are how you get it there. A Compass agent running listing ads with a listing video as the creative is putting that video where strangers will actually watch it, and watches past a certain point are what move the counter. Posting the video and hoping it travels on its own rarely gets you there.
This is a mechanism, not a stunt. It works because YouTube treats an ad someone chooses to keep watching the same way it treats an organic view, so nothing about the number is inflated or borrowed from somewhere else. The open question is entirely about what you tell people, not about whether the number is honest.
What this means for how you talk to your seller
Say plainly that ads are running. A seller who watches their listing video's counter climb is going to draw a conclusion about how much interest their home is getting, and that conclusion is only fair if they know ads put real people in front of that video. The views themselves are not manufactured. Real viewers watched, and the platform counted them the same way it counts any other view. What's yours to manage is the explanation, not the number.
The honest version of this conversation is short: the video is running as an ad, real people are watching it, and that's what's moving the counter your seller can see. Said that way, a climbing view count becomes proof the campaign is working, which is a stronger thing to hand a seller than a report they have to trust you on. A view counter, they can just open and see for themselves.
Do YouTube ads count as views on my video?
Yes, past a certain point. YouTube treats a video ad and an organic view the same way once someone watches long enough, so the number that shows on your video is not a separate ad metric sitting off to the side. It is the same public counter a seller sees when they open the link on their own. That's the whole mechanism in one line.
Why did my listing video suddenly get so many views?
Because it started running as an ad. A listing video that sat flat after a normal social post can pick up steadily once you run ads against it, since paid reach puts it in front of far more people than your own followers ever will. The jump is real people watching, not a glitch or a reset. Ads are almost always the reason.
Should I tell my seller the views came from ads?
Explain it, don't hide it. The people behind those views genuinely watched the video, so the number itself is not made up, but the seller is drawing a conclusion about interest in their home and deserves to know how that number got there. Sellers don't need a report to understand a view counter, which is exactly why it's an easy thing to leave unexplained by accident. Tell them plainly what put it there.