What Are Impressions?
An impression is a fundamental metric used to quantify the number of digital views or engagements of a piece of content—typically an advertisement, digital post, or web page. Impressions, often referred to as ‘ad views,’ are crucial in online advertising, which frequently charges on a per-impression basis. Measuring impressions helps account for and optimize web advertising and monitor the performance of social media campaigns. Importantly, impressions count the number of times content is displayed, not whether an advertisement has been clicked, engendering some debate about their accuracy.
Key Takeaways
- Impressions reveal the reach of digital content, measuring views or engagements for ads, posts, or web pages.
- Counting impressions can be nuanced, as it may include duplicate views and interactions from bots, raising questions about its effectiveness for measuring digital marketing success.
- Technically, ad servers use a barely visible image (or ‘pixel’) on publisher pages, which records an impression each time the page loads.
How Impressions Work
In essence, one impression is tallied whenever a web page, ad, or piece of content is found and loaded. Due to its accessibility and ease of understanding, counting impressions has become the standard method for determining whether content is being seen. However, interpreting this figure can be contentious. For instance, duplicates or multiple views by the same user are often included in the count, which can skew results. To mitigate this, advertisers and publishers often predefine the parameters for counting impressions. Success might also be gauged by other metrics such as engagement—including interactions with an ad.
Impression Accounting
Often, impressions are monetized using a cost per mille (CPM) model, where ‘mille’ denotes 1,000 impressions. For example, a banner ad with a CPM of $5 implies a website owner earns $5 for every 1,000 times an ad is displayed. Web publishers might be compensated per impression or based on other actions, such as clicks or purchases initiated via the ads. Generally, advertisers pay less for impression-based campaigns than those based on clicks or conversions, reflecting the higher value of actions that lead to tangible results like sales. Nonetheless, impression metrics are valuable for public relations campaigns aiming to build brand image or awareness.
Impression Fraud
Several factors can distort impression counts. Notably, estimates suggest that approximately 60% of web traffic originates from bots, and impression metrics do not differentiate between human viewers and bots. Moreover, ads may fail to load correctly, or the wrong ads might load, further complicating accuracy. Additionally, some website developers deliberately manipulate systems to generate false counts, contributing to claims that a significant portion of the online advertising market is fraudulent. Despite these challenges, impressions remain a key metric for measuring engagement across online advertising, social media, and web traffic analytics.
Related Terms: ad view, click-through rate, conversion rate, digital marketing campaign, online advertising fraud.
