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It’s the perpetual marketer’s conundrum: How do you measure and quantify your activities and the results they produce? I’m reading a great book right now that has a whole chapter dedicated to advertising and web metrics. It breaks the metrics down one by one and describes their uses and significance. I thought it appropriate to share the relevant ones in a series called “Mastering the Metrics.”

METRIC 1: IMPRESSIONS

Impressions are the number of times any given ad is viewed, usually indicated by the number of times the webpage containing the ad has been viewed. These can also be referred to as exposures or opportunities-to-see (OTS). You can calculate total impressions by multiplying the ad’s reach (# of people viewing it) by its frequency (# of times it appears). Keep in mind that this number is not as valuable some other metrics like Cost-Per-Click (which we’ll discuss later); just because someone viewed the webpage doesn’t mean they saw your ad or paid attention to it. Still, calculating the total impressions is one way to measure ad exposure.

Reach * Frequency = Total Impressions

Stay tuned for the next post in our “Mastering the Metrics” series, Metric 2: Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM). For more tips, check out the full book: Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master by Paul W. Farris, Neil T. Bendle, Phillip E. Pfeifer, and David J. Reibstein.