Impressions (social media)

Additions, clarifications, extended definition

It is not unique, which distinguishes it from unique reach. We also distinguish between organic and paid impressions (whether the content was distributed naturally or boosted by advertising).

Interpretation

The number of impressions indicates the overall volume of a given activity – for example, the size of a campaign.

Watch out: limits and risks of distortion

• An impression does not mean the user paid attention to the content. It may not even mean they had the opportunity to see it – content can, for example, be "displayed" in a part of the page the user never scrolls to (a so-called "invisible impression"). The total number of impressions therefore includes both visible and invisible impressions.
• Because this metric is non-unique and appears standardised, it looks as though impressions can be treated mathematically – added together, for example. This holds within a single platform (you can add up impressions from two different Facebook campaigns), but we definitely do not recommend it across platforms. Not least because different platforms define, and therefore measure, the metric in different ways – it is apples and oranges.
• The metric can be distorted by factors such as automatic page refreshing, double counting, ad fraud or bots (the content is displayed only to a machine, not to a real user).
• It is sometimes confused with metrics such as page views or video views – or these metrics are treated as equivalent and, for example, added together. This, too, is incorrect.

Where and how to measure

• The native analytics tools of each network (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube etc.) – most often called "insights", or the ads managers.
• You can also measure the data through third-party tools (e.g. Brandwatch, Emplifi, Hootsuite etc.).