Understanding Impressions Data
Impressions are generally understood to represent the total number of times a piece of content was seen by audiences. They are commonly gathered at both the post and story level. However, the actual definition of impressions varies across social networks and even within networks depending on the type of content.
This article explains the differences in how impressions are gathered by social network, as well as how these differences can affect your reporting in GRIN.
Understanding Impressions by Social Network
The information below explains how impressions are defined across each social network and when GRIN collects them for your reporting.
On Instagram, impressions represent the total number of times a piece of content has been seen, including multiple views by the same user. Instagram impressions are available for the following content types:
Posts and Reels: Impressions are available.
Stories: Impressions are available during the 24-hour window the story is live. After this window expires, the story expires and impressions are no longer available. If the story expires before GRIN pulls the metric, GRIN will use the story's reach as the impression count instead. GRIN's metric collection windows are designed to maximize metric coverage before stories expire.
Note: If you need to update your Instagram impressions, you can do so from your Live Site. You can learn more about this in our help article Uploading Instagram and Facebook Stats.
YouTube
On YouTube, impressions are not collected the same way as they are on Instagram. Instead of tracking how many times a video was shown to a viewer in a feed, YouTube tracks how many times a video was viewed. Because of this, GRIN uses views to represent impressions for YouTube videos instead of a dedicated impressions metric.
TikTok
On TikTok, impressions are not collected the same way as they are on Instagram. Instead of tracking how many times a video was shown to a viewer in a feed, TikTok tracks how many times a video was viewed. Because of this, GRIN uses views to represent impressions for TikTok videos instead of a dedicated impressions metric.
On Pinterest, impressions represent the total number of times a pin was seen on screen. Pinterest impressions are available for the following content types:
Pins: Impressions are available.
Impressions in GRIN Reporting
Since impressions are not a universal metric across all social networks, GRIN uses the best available metric per network to represent impressions in your reporting. The table below shows which metric GRIN uses per network:
Social Network | Metric Used for Impressions |
Impressions (or Reach if impressions expire) | |
YouTube | Views |
TikTok | Views |
Impressions |
Because of these differences, impressions across social networks may not be directly comparable in your GRIN reporting. Keep this in mind when reviewing cross-network performance data.
Note: For more information on Instagram-specific metrics, see our help articles Instagram Reels Metrics: Understanding Views & Impressions and Uploading Instagram and Facebook Stats.