In search engine marketing, or PPC marketing, the words impression and click are occasionally intertwined. They’re both ways of measuring the effectiveness of your advertising campaign, but do you know what the difference is between the two? And which is better in terms of measuring engagement?

Impressions are the most basic interaction you can have with someone’s ad.It’s the number of times your ad, whether it’s a image, button, or text link, has been (or will be) exposed to a potential viewer. In simpler terms, this is the number of times your ad appeared on any computer, cell phone or other device. You might say what’s the point of an impression? Well, you can’t have a click without an impression right? For example, you wouldn’t buy a shirt online without seeing an image of it first before clicking to see more of a description.

Now for clicks. A click-through rate is the actual number of times someone clicks on your ad and is taken to your website. This is the best way to manage the effectiveness of your ad because it takes the guesswork out of the equation. You will know how many visitors to your website were directly linked to that ad. The more clicks, the more engaging that ad is. Having a good ad isn’t enough though. Your website should be engaging and interactive in order to keep visitors on it long enough to  contact you to learn more about what you offer.

Just as we mentioned above, you need an impression in order to get a click. Likewise, you need a click in order to get a conversion. This is why clicks are so important to measure.

It’s important to know the difference between these two terms because it will make a difference in how you measure the effectiveness of your Pay-Per-Click campaign.