What is an Impression?
Each time your ad or content is displayed, whether or not it's clicked.
Understanding Impression
An impression occurs each time your ad, content, or listing is displayed to a user. Impressions measure potential reach and exposure, but not engagement—an impression counts whether or not the user notices or interacts with your content.
Impressions are the top-of-funnel metric in digital advertising. They're used to calculate other metrics like CTR (clicks/impressions), CPM (cost per thousand impressions), and viewability. Not all impressions are equal—visible impressions in premium placements are more valuable than below-the-fold impressions on low-quality sites. On social media, "reach" (unique users) differs from impressions (total views), as one user can see your content multiple times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Impression?
Each time your ad or content is displayed, whether or not it's clicked.
An impression occurs each time your ad, content, or listing is displayed to a user. Impressions measure potential reach and exposure, but not engagement—an impression counts whether or not the user notices or interacts with your content.
Why is Impression important?
Impressions measure the volume of exposure your ads receive, which is the first step in the conversion funnel. Understanding impression volume helps you gauge whether you're reaching enough people to hit goals. However, impressions alone are a vanity metric—what matters is whether those impressions reach relevant audiences and drive engagement (CTR) and conversions.