Impressions
Impressions are the number of times an ad was shown, not the number of people who saw it. An impression is one showing. One person can create many impressions if they see the same ad again and again. If the ad was shown 500,000 times to 200,000 people, you have 500,000 impressions and 200,000 reach (reach is how many different people saw it at least once).
Theodor Lindfors, Founding Marketer ·
How impressions are counted
The platform records an impression when the ad is served into a placement (a slot in a feed, a story, a search result, a video). Some platforms count on render. Others count when a portion of the ad enters the screen. Viewability standards then measure whether it was actually in view, which is why served impressions and viewable impressions differ.
Let's take a drink brand as an example. They sell a low-sugar sports drink for active women over 50, mostly from their own website. The drink brand also runs ads on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. In June, $10,000 on Instagram produces 500,000 served impressions. If 70% of those 500,000 served impressions were on screen long enough to count as viewable, viewable impressions are 350,000. The cheap ones in the other 150,000 may never have had a chance to be seen.
Impressions vs reach
Reach counts people, impressions count deliveries. Let's take a drink brand as an example. They sell a low-sugar sports drink for active women over 50, mostly from their own website. One woman scrolling Instagram who sees the drink brand's ad Monday, Wednesday, and Friday generates 3 impressions and 1 reach. Impressions divided by reach is average frequency: 500,000 impressions / 200,000 reach = 2.5. A campaign with huge impressions and small reach is repeating itself, not expanding.
Where impressions actually get used
Impressions are the denominator of most media pricing. CPM is cost per thousand impressions. Let's take a drink brand as an example. They sell a low-sugar sports drink for active women over 50, mostly from their own website. That drink brand's $10,000 Instagram spend / 500,000 impressions × 1,000 = $20 CPM. Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions. 10,000 clicks / 500,000 impressions = 2%. Impression share tells you how many of the available impressions you won, which matters more in search than in a social feed.
Because so many metrics sit on top of them, an impression counting change quietly moves your whole report even though nothing about the campaign changed. Comparing Instagram impressions to YouTube impressions as if they were the same product is the everyday version of that trap. The platforms do not count them the same way.
Common impression mistakes
- Presenting 500,000 impressions as the reach number in an awareness report. A drink brand that got 500,000 impressions may have reached 200,000 people, not 500,000.
- Ignoring viewability, so cheap CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) come from placements nobody saw.
- Comparing impression counts across platforms that count them differently.
Lemonado
How Lemonado helps with impressions
Impressions (times an ad was served) are only useful next to spend, reach (distinct people who saw it), and what happened after. Lemonado reads them together across connected ad accounts, so a jump in impressions gets explained by CPM (cost per thousand impressions), audience, or placement instead of just sitting in a chart.