Definition

In marketing and advertising, a single instance of an ad being displayed, regardless of whether anyone actually looked at it or immediately scrolled past. Digital marketers obsess over impressions like they're collecting Pokemon, even though an impression doesn't guarantee anyone's eyeballs actually made contact. It's the vanity metric that makes your campaign look successful before you check the click-through rate.

Example Usage

The banner ad generated 500,000 impressions but only 12 clicks, proving that visibility doesn't equal engagement.

Source: Digital marketing terminology

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See “impression” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

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