Summary
Highlights
The video starts by introducing the concept of a user journey to contextualize the discussed terminology. Using an example from bbc.com, the presenter illustrates how an ad for North Face jackets appears to a user, how some users ignore it, some click on it and decide against buying, and others proceed to make a purchase. This journey demonstrates the various touchpoints where metrics are measured.
An impression is counted every time an ad is loaded, whether it is visible to the user (within the viewport) or not. It's crucial to understand that an impression can be counted even if the ad is 'outside of the viewport'. If multiple ads from the same campaign appear on a page, each counts as a separate impression. Impressions are the most common metric for buying and selling ad inventory, typically priced in CPM (cost per mille or thousand impressions).
Viewable impressions address the issue of ads being loaded but not seen. An ad is considered a viewable impression if at least 50% of it is within the user's viewport for more than one consecutive second. This metric provides insight into the actual probability of an ad being seen. Interstitial ads (full-screen ads) generally have higher viewability due to their design.
Reach refers to the number of unique users who saw an ad, contrasting with impressions, which count every time an ad was loaded. Reach is particularly important for brand campaigns where the objective is to expose the ad to as many unique individuals as possible. Frequency is a derived metric calculated by dividing impressions by reach, indicating the average number of times a unique user saw an ad. Managing frequency is vital for brand safety and preventing user irritation.
A click is registered when a user interacts with an ad, regardless of whether they successfully land on the advertised website. Clicks are always less than or equal to impressions. Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of impressions that result in a click, calculated as (clicks / impressions) * 100. A higher CTR generally indicates a more engaging ad. CTRs on Google Search are typically higher (5-10%) than on other platforms (around 1%) because ads are more contextually relevant to user searches.
Views are a metric specific to video ads, measuring how many times a video ad was watched according to specific criteria. For YouTube, a view is counted if a user watches the ad for 30 seconds, watches the entire ad if it's shorter than 30 seconds, or clicks on the ad. Different platforms have different definitions for a view (e.g., Facebook counts a view after 3 seconds with 50% in the viewport, Twitter after 2 seconds with 50% in the viewport). View-through rate (VTR) is the percentage of impressions that resulted in a view, calculated as (views / impressions) * 100, indicating the engagement level of a video ad.
Traffic refers to the number of people who successfully land on a website after clicking an ad. The bounce rate is the percentage of users who land on a website but leave without interacting further. A high bounce rate suggests a mismatch between ad content and landing page expectations. Conversions are the ultimate objective of many campaigns, representing a specific desired action taken by users on an advertiser's website, such as purchasing a product, filling a lead form, or booking tickets. Each advertiser defines their conversion goal.