Impressions

Impressions is a common metric used by the online marketing industry. Impressions measure how often your ads were on screen for your target audience.

Impressions from certain placements are accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC).

An impression is counted as the number of times an instance of an ad is on screen for the first time. For example, if an ad is on screen and someone scrolls down, and then scrolls back up to the same ad, that counts as one impression. If an ad is on screen for someone two different times in a day, that counts as two impressions. This method of counting video impressions differs from industry standards for video ads. With the exception of ads on Meta Audience Network, impressions are counted the same way for ads that contain either images or video. This means that a video is not required to start playing for the impression to be counted.

In a few cases when it can't be determined whether ads are on screen, such as on feature mobile phones, impressions are counted when ads are delivered to devices.

Impressions aren't counted if they come from invalid traffic that we detect, such as from non-human sources, such as a bot.

• CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions)
• Reach
• Frequency

• About impressions accredited by the Media Ratings Council (MRC)
• Will I be charged for my ad if it hasn't received impressions or clicks?
• About Facebook's description of methodology
• About Instagram's description of methodology