What are Impressions?
Impressions are the number of times your ad was served. They're a delivery metric—not a performance metric by themselves.
Understanding Impressions
Impressions measure ad delivery volume by counting how many times your ad was served, regardless of whether users actually viewed or engaged with it. Big impression counts without engagement are noise, not progress—always pair impressions with reach to understand frequency, and with CTR and CVR to assess quality. Placement and audience context change expected impression volumes, so compare like with like when evaluating performance across campaigns or time periods. Creative clarity and aspect-ratio coverage increase eligible auctions and delivery by making your ads eligible for more inventory. Sudden drops in impressions can indicate disapprovals, budget pacing limits, or eligibility issues—investigate quickly to restore delivery.
Impressions interact with other delivery controls to determine campaign scale and efficiency. Frequency caps, bid targets, and audience size all determine how impressions distribute across your target users. Expanding placements with multiple aspect ratios (1:1, 4:5, 9:16) increases available inventory and stabilizes delivery across platforms. When impressions rise but CTR falls, it signals that you're reaching less qualified traffic—refine targeting and improve product clarity to qualify engagement. Track impression trends weekly by campaign and placement to spot creative fatigue or delivery constraints early. High impression volume paired with stable CTR and CVR signals healthy scale, while rising impressions with declining engagement suggests you're exhausting your audience or diluting targeting quality.
Why Impressions matter
Impressions matter because they show whether your campaigns are delivering at the scale you planned and budgeted for. Low impression volume can flag eligibility issues, budget caps, or targeting that's too narrow, while impressions paired with engagement metrics reveal campaign health. Monitoring impressions helps you diagnose delivery problems before they impact performance and ensures your creative gets sufficient exposure to drive results.
- Coverage: Show whether campaigns are delivering
- Diagnosis: Low impressions can flag eligibility or budget caps
- Scale: Track impression trends to monitor growth
How Impressions work
Impressions work by counting each time an ad is served according to platform rules, regardless of whether it's seen or clicked. Auctions determine eligibility based on predicted value, available budgets, and targeting constraints; winners serve and increment the impression count. Viewability standards define whether an impression is considered in-view for reporting purposes, but all served ads count toward total impressions. Budgets, bids, and audience size constrain the total possible delivery your campaign can achieve. Placement eligibility and asset fit affect how often your ad enters auctions and qualifies to serve. Healthy impression volume paired with stable CTR and CVR signals sustainable scale, while impression growth without engagement suggests reach expansion into less qualified audiences.
Meta Information
- Primary Keyword: Impressions
- Secondary Keywords: ad impressions, impression count, served impressions
- Target Word Count: 700–900 words
- Meta Title: What are Impressions? The Starting Point of Delivery | Marpipe
- Meta Description: Impressions count how many times an ad was served. Learn how to read impressions alongside reach and CTR for signal, not vanity.
- URL: marpipe.com/ad-glossary/impressions
# What are Impressions?
Impressions are the number of times your ad was served. They're a delivery metric—not a performance metric by themselves.
Understanding Impressions
Impressions measure ad delivery volume by counting how many times your ad was served, regardless of whether users actually viewed or engaged with it. Big impression counts without engagement are noise, not progress—always pair impressions with reach to understand frequency, and with CTR and CVR to assess quality. Placement and audience context change expected impression volumes, so compare like with like when evaluating performance across campaigns or time periods. Creative clarity and aspect-ratio coverage increase eligible auctions and delivery by making your ads eligible for more inventory. Sudden drops in impressions can indicate disapprovals, budget pacing limits, or eligibility issues—investigate quickly to restore delivery.
Impressions interact with other delivery controls to determine campaign scale and efficiency. Frequency caps, bid targets, and audience size all determine how impressions distribute across your target users. Expanding placements with multiple aspect ratios (1:1, 4:5, 9:16) increases available inventory and stabilizes delivery across platforms. When impressions rise but CTR falls, it signals that you're reaching less qualified traffic—refine targeting and improve product clarity to qualify engagement. Track impression trends weekly by campaign and placement to spot creative fatigue or delivery constraints early. High impression volume paired with stable CTR and CVR signals healthy scale, while rising impressions with declining engagement suggests you're exhausting your audience or diluting targeting quality.
Why Impressions matter
Impressions matter because they show whether your campaigns are delivering at the scale you planned and budgeted for. Low impression volume can flag eligibility issues, budget caps, or targeting that's too narrow, while impressions paired with engagement metrics reveal campaign health. Monitoring impressions helps you diagnose delivery problems before they impact performance and ensures your creative gets sufficient exposure to drive results.
- Coverage: Show whether campaigns are delivering
- Diagnosis: Low impressions can flag eligibility or budget caps
- Scale: Track impression trends to monitor growth
How Impressions work
Impressions work by counting each time an ad is served according to platform rules, regardless of whether it's seen or clicked. Auctions determine eligibility based on predicted value, available budgets, and targeting constraints; winners serve and increment the impression count. Viewability standards define whether an impression is considered in-view for reporting purposes, but all served ads count toward total impressions. Budgets, bids, and audience size constrain the total possible delivery your campaign can achieve. Placement eligibility and asset fit affect how often your ad enters auctions and qualifies to serve. Healthy impression volume paired with stable CTR and CVR signals sustainable scale, while impression growth without engagement suggests reach expansion into less qualified audiences.
Best practices
- Monitor impressions with reach and frequency.
- If impressions stall, check approvals, budgets, and asset sizes.
- Improve creative clarity to convert impressions into clicks.
