So, you’ve decided to dive deeper into digital marketing and now just stumbled upon techie-sounding jargon impressions vs clicks. Well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg as you’ll encounter many more like CPC, CTR, and ROI. But you don’t need to panic because today, the focus is on helping you understand the difference between impressions and clicks.
You see these two terms everywhere and the fact that they seem to mean the same thing makes them more baffling to digital marketing newbies. They’re both tasty in their own way and by the end of this article, you should be able to know the difference between them.
Impressions vs Clicks: What’s The Difference?
First up, impressions. Imagine yourself browsing your Facebook feed and you notice a sleek ad for the latest must-have gadget (yeah, that one you didn’t know you needed just until this moment). The ad is just there, getting noticed by everyone else scrolling through their feed. Every time someone takes a glance at it, that’s an impression.
This is the exact logic through which impressions work. Whenever your ad is shown on a screen as a user browses, whether on a social media feed, website, or app, it’s counted as an impression. It’s more like your ad waving to the world, saying, “Hi, look at me!”
Features of Impressions
- Impressions mainly focus on the visibility of an ad. They show you how many times your ad was shown to users and not whether they interacted with it.
- They mark the starting point of awareness, so without impressions, it’s impossible to tell whether your ad is visible to your audience.
- Impressions are typically cheaper than clicks and, therefore are an affordable way to spread brand awareness.
Next on what are impressions vs clicks, we look at clicks. We’ve already seen that impressions are all about visibility, on the other hand, clicks are all about action taken by the user. Let’s go back to the Facebook ad we just talked about. Now, imagine it has a shiny button that says, “Click here for a free sample!” Whenever someone actually clicks this button, that’s a click.
In the digital world, clicks take place when someone sees an ad and interacts with it. It could be clicking through to your site, watching a video, or signing up for a newsletter. A click lets you know that your ad got seen and someone took the next step.
Features of Clicks
- Clicks are about engagement, measuring how many users saw your ad and showed interest in it.
- Clicks are an important metric for performance-based marketing campaigns.
- They’re usually more expensive than impressions since getting people to make a move is often a bigger deal than just being noticed.
Clicks vs Impressions: Why Are These Metrics Important?
So, which metric in impressions vs clicks should your marketing campaign focus on more? Well, these two metrics are equally important. Clicks come next after impressions, so tracking both lets you understand how your ad is doing. They give you insights that are essential for enhancing your campaigns.
Impressions are all about quantity, and clicks, on the other hand, are all about quality. So, to comprehensively understand your marketing campaign, you need to track and evaluate both metrics. Understanding how impressions and clicks are related is vital in refining your campaign strategy. Click-Through Rate (CTR) is the metric that features both clicks and impressions and offers insights into the number of impressions that led to clicks.
If your ads garner more impressions and fewer clicks, this might be an indication that your content is not compelling enough, or your audience cannot access it. Conversely, a lower impression with a high number of clicks might show that your content is highly engaging and resonates with your audience. So, tracking clicks and impressions is highly important if you want your campaign to be successful.
The Key Difference in Impressions vs Clicks
Now that we’ve understood the basics of clicks vs impressions, let’s pit them against each other in a friendly face-off.
Purpose
- Impressions: They’re all about exposure and are great if you want to increase your brand awareness. They help you ensure that your ads and content are seen by a larger audience.
- Clicks: They’re all about engagement. You track and evaluate clicks when you want to determine the effectiveness of your ad in driving traffic and conversions.
Cost
- Impressions: They cost less than clicks since you’re paying for visibility.
- Clicks: They’re costlier, but also add more value if your target is to drive specific actions, such as visits to your website or purchases.
Measurement
- Impressions: They’re measured by how many times your ad was shown to the user’s screen. Whether the same user views it once or multiple times, each view is considered an impression.
- Clicks: They’re measured by the number of people that actually clicked on your ad. Clicks are more important since they’re a more targeted metric that reveals a user’s genuine interest in a brand.
Value
- Impressions: Focus on impressions if you want to build brand recognition, especially during the early stage of your campaign.
- Clicks: If you aim to drive conversions and track ROI, focus on clicks. Clicks are the stepping stone to converting a casual observer into a client.
When To Focus on Impressions and Clicks
Now that we’ve made everything about impressions vs clicks crystal clear, when should you focus on each?
Impressions
Focus on impressions when launching a new brand, product, or service and want it known by your target audience. Impressions offer a way of casting a wide net and getting your message to as many people as possible.
They also come in handy when running a video ad or display ad campaign on social media platforms where the objective is to build awareness by creating buzz. Just don’t forget that impressions are all about being seen rather than being acted upon.
Clicks
When you want tangible results from a campaign, clicks should be what you focus on. Clicks help you know whether you’ve achieved your goal of driving traffic to your site, generating leads, or making more sales.
So, when running a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign, you’re paying for clicks (PPC), meaning every click must count. Therefore, the ad quality must be top-notch to ensure it’s not only seen but also pushes the user to take action.
How Do You Track Impressions and Clicks?
When all is said about impressions vs clicks, the ultimate task lies in tracking these two key metrics. The most recommended way of tracking these metrics and others like conversions, is through the platform that you use to run your campaign. That simply means if you’re using Google Ads for your ad campaign, you should that same platform to track engagement metrics and discover how people are interacting with your ads.
But that doesn’t mean you’re limited to the tools you’re using in your ad campaign—there are other options as well. Let’s have a look at these alternative options.
1. Google Analytics – The Grandaddy of Web Metrics
Whether you’re a newbie in digital marketing or a pro, you’ve probably heard of or interacted with Google Analytics. It’s the Swiss Army knife of web metrics, offering everything from basic traffic data to detailed reports about user behaviour.
You can use Google Analytics to track impressions (through ad campaigns) and clicks. This enables you to know how many users are seeing your ads as well as how many are clicking through.
Why Choose Google Analytics
It excels at providing detailed reports including clicks vs impressions. It’s also free to use and can seamlessly integrate with many other Google suite tools, such as Google Ads.
Pro Tip
Use Google Analytics to create your custom campaign goals and track conversions. This will allow you to see how clicks translate into actions like signups and purchases.
2. Google Ads – For PPC Enthusiasts
Google Ads is the ultimate tool of choice if you’re running a paid search campaign. You can have access to real-time data on impressions and clicks, plus many other metrics like CTR and CPC (Cost Per Click). Google Ads lets you monitor the performance of your ads and make adjustments on the fly to enhance the results.
Why Choose Google Ads
It provides precise control over ad campaigns, making it easier to adjust your budgets, bids, and targeting so you can maximise your ROI.
Pro Tip
Make use of the keyword planner in Google Ads to discover the best keywords that can quickly drive impressions and clicks.
3. Facebook Ads Manager – Social Media’s Best Friend
To gauge the performance of impressions vs clicks on Meta platforms, that is, Facebook and Instagram, Facebook Ads Manager is the tool you should be using. By tracking clicks and impressions with Facebook Ads Manager, you can discover how well your ads are performing.
This powerful tool is mostly useful when it comes to visual content as it helps you understand the videos and images that are evoking interest and driving more engagement.
Why Choose Facebook Ads Manager
Facebook Ads Manager is great at offering detailed audience targeting and tracking the performance of your ads. This reduces the hassle of refining your social media ad strategy.
Pro Tip
Don’t hesitate to experiment with different ad formats such as video or carousel. This can help you identify one that drives more clicks from the impressions so you can focus your strategy in the right place.
Wrapping Up
Paid advertising is a crucial part of any digital marketing campaign, which is why it’s important that you do it the right way. In doing so, you don’t need to battle with the decision of choosing Impressions vs clicks. These two metrics are equally important, so it’s essential to understand them well before you start investing your resources in paid advertising.
More importantly, if you’re just getting started, it’s important that you get everything right the first time. Get the most out of your paid ad campaign by going beyond just the numbers. Eaglytics Co can help you understand clicks vs impressions from an analytical point of view to ensure your ad campaign reaches the right people.Get assistance from Eaglytics Co. to analyse your clicks, impressions, and other key metrics and achieve the best possible positive ROI.
