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What is Impression? Why Does It Matter in Digital Marketing?

By Mandala Team • November 14, 2023

Contents

What is Impression?
Impression VS Reach
Impressions by Platforms
Factors Influencing Impression
How Business Can Track Impression
How to Improve Impressions
Beyond Clicks and Views

The word ‘impression’ isn’t just some buzzword. In the marketing world, an impression means more than just meeting someone for the first time — it’s a key tool for measuring your brand awareness on social media.

Impressions really count when you’re looking to broaden your message to a wider audience. Some people might say that impressions are hard to get your head around, but don’t worry — our article breaks it down and helps you nail the strategy behind impressions in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way.

What is Impression?

In digital marketing, an ‘impression’ is simply a chance for your content to be seen on a social media platform or website. Every time your ad or content pops up, regardless if a user actually spots it or clicks on it, it’s counted as one impression.

Even if the same ad is shown to the same person over and over, each time it’s considered a separate impression. So, the more your ad or content shows up, the higher your impression count goes.

Impression VS Reach

Impressions and Reach are two key metrics in digital marketing, and they can sometimes get mixed up because they’re quite similar.

In basic terms, impressions tally up how often your content pops up on social media, no matter what actions (if any) users take. On the flip side, Reach keeps track of the total number of unique people who have actually seen your content.

Here’s an easy way to think about it: imagine you’ve put up a billboard in the middle of a busy city. Every person or car that passes your billboard counts as an impression, whether they stop to look, just catch a glimpse, or completely ignore it. But for Reach, it would tell you how many unique individuals or cars actually noticed your billboard.

Impressions by Platforms

Impressions are key in measuring online visibility and impact across various digital platforms — be it social media, Google ads, or your brand’s website. However, the calculation of impressions can vary from platform to platform, each with its unique methods and associated metrics.

Today, let’s dive into the three primary categories of impressions: Social Media Impressions, Pay Per Click (PPC) Impressions, and Website Impressions.

1. Social Media Impressions

In the social media universe, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter count an impression each time a post graces a user’s timeline, regardless of whether they interact.

With a business account, you can easily track both organic and paid impressions, right from your profile’s professional dashboard. You have the option to look at the overall impressions or delve deeper into the insights of individual posts.

For those who running ad campaigns, keep your eyes peeled on ‘ad frequency’ — it’s the number of times a specific audience sees your ads. To avoid oversaturating your audience and to maximize exposure, try to keep this number below 2.

2. Pay Per Click (PPC) Impressions

PPC or Pay-per-click impressions are metrics that are mostly featured on Google’s territory such as Google Search, YouTube, or any other Search Engine advertisements — where you choose specific keywords and your ads appear in search results when those keywords are used.

The beauty of PPC lies in the fact that you only pay when users click on your ads. But remember, the position of your ads and your bidding rates can make or break your campaign. Higher bids mean more visibility and potential clicks, while lower bids might not get you the exposure you desire.

3. Website Impressions

Also known as pageviews, these represent the total number of pages viewed or refreshed in a web browser.

To check your website impressions, turn to your trusty Google Analytics account. Go to “Behavior”, then “Site Content”, and select “All Pages”. Here, you’ll see a column marked “Pageviews”.

Factors Influencing Impression

1. Ad Placement & Content Format

Each platform offers unique ad placement opportunities. For instance, Facebook and Instagram offer On-feed Ads, Stories and reels, In-stream Ads, and space on the Explore Page. TikTok provides options like Following Feed, For You Feed, Profile Feed, ads in the Shopping Center, search ads, and more. Each placement has varying traffic levels, which can heavily influence your ad’s impressions. Also, different content formats can have a significant impact on your ad performance.

2. Ad Frequency

This term refers to how often your ads or paid content are shown to the same audience. A high Ad Frequency can lead to ad fatigue, causing a decrease in impressions. A potential solution is to show an ad periodically to the same audience, helping maintain engagement without overwhelming them.

3. Budget Allocation

The rule is simple — more money equals more advantages. When it comes to ad impressions, if you allocate more of your budget to ads, you can expand your target audiences and secure more ad spaces than competitors with smaller budgets.

4. Ads Competition

If many advertisers are targeting the same audience, it becomes more challenging to secure ad placements and achieve high impressions. This situation intensifies during holiday or seasonal events when many brands launch their ad campaigns simultaneously, increasing ad competition.

5. Target Audiences

Understanding your audience’s demographics, interests, and online behavior helps tailor ad placements and content to maximize impressions. Knowledge about your audience enables you to create more engaging and relevant ads, thus improving your ad performance.

How Business Can Track Impression

For any brand or business looking to boost its online presence, keeping an eye on impression metrics is a must. It’s not just about counting how many eyeballs your content reaches, but also about understanding how engaged your audience is and how your digital footprint is growing.

When it comes to tracking impressions, you’ll encounter two main scenarios: ad impressions and impressions on regular social media posts.

Ad Impression Tracking:

Mostly, if you are running ads on various platforms, you can check your ad’s performance directly from built-in tools, such as various Ads Manager Dashboards, or even extract them to view detailed reports with other metrics.

Simultaneously, you can rely on Ad Servers, which are third-party tools that allow you to monitor and optimize ads on multiple platforms at the same time. This helps you adjust your ad strategy on multiple platforms to be more relevant and adapt to real-time efforts.

Social Media Impression Tracking:

For your regular social media posts, platforms usually come equipped with their own insights tools. These give you a peek into how each piece of content is doing and offer a snapshot of your overall profile performance.

If you’re a fan of convenience and speed, you can also turn to Social Listening Tools like Mandala AI. They bring all your social impressions into one convenient dashboard. Plus, you get to spy on hashtag performance, which can be a game-changer for those viral campaigns.

How to Improve Impressions

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, understanding the mechanics of impressions is no less than deciphering a cryptic code. However, having a grasp on the basics can significantly increase your chances of success. Here’s an easy guide to boost your impressions:

1. Optimizing Ad Impressions

If you’re investing in impression advertising, regular optimization is the key to ensuring every penny counts. Here’s how to make the most of your ad budget:

Refine your target audiences: Regularly assess the performance of each target group and adjust your ad budget accordingly. The focus should be on audiences that yield better results.

Set frequency caps: Limit your ads to a maximum frequency of once every seven days to avoid overwhelming the same user and to reach a wider audience.

Expand ad placements: Broaden your ad placement strategy to enhance visibility and lower cost per result.

Conduct A/B testing: Experiment with different ad versions to identify what resonates best with your audience. Learn how to conduct effective A/B testing with our insightful blog here.

2. Enhancing User Experience Impressions

Absolutely, a well-designed and user-friendly website can make a world of difference when it comes to attracting and retaining visitors. To boost website traffic and enhance impressions, focus on creating an enticing landing page and website.

These strategies can make your site more appealing to visitors, encouraging them to stay longer and explore, while also benefiting your SEO efforts.

Mobile Optimization: These days, people browse the internet more on mobile phones than on desktops. Therefore, making your website mobile-friendly is essential. Ensure that your site’s design and content are optimized for various screen sizes and devices, offering a seamless experience for mobile users.

Page Load Speed: Slow websites are a big turn-off in terms of bounce rates and reduced impressions. You can improve your web experience speed by compressing images, minimizing unnecessary code, and leveraging CDNs.

Visual Appeal: Investing in web design is crucial in 2023. Not only does it help improve your brand image, but it also attracts visitors’ attention. Images and videos should be high-quality and contain content that meets the visitor’s needs to lead to longer page views and increased impressions.

Discover our expert 21 SEO marketing tips and unlock your full potential.

3. Keyword Optimization

Keywords play a pivotal role in digital marketing, spanning across social media and search engines. Ensuring your brand’s keywords align with user search intentions is paramount. Irrelevant keywords can leave you virtually invisible in audience searches, resulting in a sharp decline in impressions. To address this, it’s essential to consider different keyword matching options such as Broad Match, Phrase Match, and Exact Match, while also diligently filtering out unrelated keywords.

4. Improve Engagements

Engagement is all about how actively and positively your audience interacts with your content and brand. Creating engagements for your content often has a positive impact on the algorithms of social media platforms. It can lead to increased visibility and exposure, sparking social conversations through social sharing, which means more relevant people see your posts.

Beyond Clicks and Views

Impressions, while a commonly heard metric, often take a back seat to more attention-grabbing metrics like engagements and reach. However, recognizing the significance of impressions is crucial for enhancing brand awareness and strengthening your presence on social media.

It’s essential not to overlook impressions and to continually apply the optimization methods we’ve discussed above to align with your goals consistently. By understanding and effectively utilizing this metric, you can achieve greater success in spreading your brand’s message and making a lasting impact in the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing.