What Are Impressions? And Why Do They Matter?

Not to be confused with Impressionism. Claude Monet, Low Tide at Pourville, 1882.

Put simply, an impression describes the act of a person viewing your ad. It’s most often used in digital marketing, defined as when a person uses a website and the advertisement is loaded and visible. Each time your ad loads counts as an impression. Impressions aren’t especial to digital marketing, as they also describe anytime a person encounters an out-of-home (OOH) ad. For instance, an impression includes any instance of a person encountering a roadside billboard ad. Here is what makes impressions important in the marketing industry:

Generating Business

An ad that reaches far and wide is more likely to bring in new customers than one that is seen by only a limited number of consumers. Even though OOH ads don’t usually target a particular audience, OOH media still reaches consumers more than any other advertising medium. 96% of consumers are exposed to outdoor ads, and 71% see outdoor ads regularly. While OOH ads aren’t going to connect with every individual who sees them, they garner far more impressions than most media and reach the most diverse audiences, which makes it more likely for these impressions to translate into purchase decisions.

Cost

Another reason impressions are important is because advertising costs are sometimes determined by impressions. Ads are often priced based on cost-per-thousand impressions, sometimes called cost per mille (CPM). In terms of cost-per-thousand impressions, billboards and other OOH media rank as the most efficient ad formats, even when including digital advertising. According to the OAAA, OOH ads cost $3 to $6 per impression, the lowest of any ad format.

Tracking Impressions

For digital ads, impressions can be tracked whenever an ad loads on a webpage – although there are problems regarding what constitutes an impression due to the amount of bots visiting websites. OOH ads don’t have this luxury. There are, however, alternative approaches for tracking impressions when it comes to OOH ads, and they’re able to offer accurate estimates. Traffic data, by vehicle and by foot, geotagging, census data, data modeling, and other statistical sources are able to estimate how many people are in the physical vicinity of an ad, thus measuring how many people potentially saw your ad. Companies such as Geopath and PeopleToMySpot are capable of tracking this data and providing impressions estimates for OOH advertising.

If you’re still considering out-of-home advertising, then check out BillboardsIn.com to get started, and make a stunning outdoor ad today.