What is an Impression?
Impressions definition: impressions are a digital marketing metric that show how many people have seen a social media post or display ad.
Impressions calculate the number of people who have been exposed to a post on social media or a website.
For example:
- Moleskine run a Twitter ad to promote their notebooks.
- The ad is displayed (and seen) in the 1000 different fees
- Moleskine’s ad has received 1000 impressions
Impressions only measure visibility. Therefore, impressions are equal regardless of how the user reacted to the post or ad.
This makes impressions an important metric and they provide the foundational number for other metrics, such as conversion rate and engagement rate.
Impressions can be seen using analytics tools, such as Loomly’s Advanced Analytics.

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Additional resources about Impressions
- Understanding Impressions in digital marketing
- Reach vs Impressions: Why You Need to Know the Difference