Part of the Internet technologies glossary:

In Web advertising, the term impression is sometimes used as a synonym for view , as in ad view . Online publishers offer and their customers buy advertising measured in terms of ad views or impressions. Since a single Web page can contain multiple ads (depending on its design), a site usually registers more ad views per unit of time than Web pages per unit of time. ( Hits is the term for any requested file, including each of a page's images. Although hits are of interest for traffic measurement purposes, they have no significance for advertisers.)

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Page or ad impressions are logged in a log that is maintained by the site server. Programs like Web Trends read the log, abstract meaning from it, and generate a report about site usage. Other programs, such as Central Ad, can keep track of all ad impressions that have been sent and how many of these were clicked on by users.

This was last updated in March 2008
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

Related Terms

Definitions

  • hit

    - A hit is a single file request in the access log of a Web server. (WhatIs.com)

  • clickthrough rate (CTR)

    - In banner advertising on a Web site, the clickthrough rate (CTR) is the percentage of times that viewers of a Web page click on a given banner ad. (SearchSOA.com)

  • supercomputer

    - A supercomputer is a computer that performs at or near the currently highest operational rate for computers. (WhatIs.com)

Glossaries

  • Internet technologies

    - This WhatIs.com glossary contains terms related to Internet technologies, including definitions about port numbers, standards and protocols and words and phrases about how the Internet works.

  • Internet applications

    - This WhatIs.com glossary contains terms related to Internet applications, including definitions about Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery models and words and phrases about web sites, e-commerce ...

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