Definition of Impressions

The term “impressions” is one that is used to refer to the number of times that an online ad or page has been seen by web users. It is also used as a synonym for page views or ad views. The server for the site maintains a log of the page impressions. Programs have been designed to track impressions, read the log for page impressions, and analyze the data to generate a report as to the site usage. Data can be tracked as far as the total number of ad impressions that have been sent and the number of ad impressions that have been viewed by all web users.

Guaranteed impressions is the term used to refer to the minimum number of times that a specific online ad of any type will be seen by users. Advertising is bought and sold in terms of the measurement of impressions or ad views.

External links:

• Wikipedia explanation of a page impression
• Alexa tutorial on page views and other statistics