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Facebook Impressions for Pages – Give Your Fans What They Want

Caitlin Melvin | November 25th, 2010
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Facebook page admins may have noticed something new under their posts lately. Facebook Insights launched a new feature for page admins, so that they can see impressions and feedback on each post. This new feature officially launched in June, 2010, and was only offered to pages that had more than 10,000 fans. But now all page admins will have access to this feature.

Impressions, Feedback on post

The number of impressions can be seen directly under the post for a quick look. For a more detailed understanding of the impressions on your posts, you can view it by going into Insights, and clicking on Interactions. See screenshot below.

What's So Good About It?

The great thing about this feature is that it lets you see which posts are getting across to your fans. Interaction among your fans is most likely one of your biggest goals as a social media user - so why not please your fans all the time by posting things that will get the most interactions.

Page admins can use Facebook impressions as a way to tailor their posts so they get more interaction among their fans. By looking at the Feedback percentage, admins can see which posts get the most interactions. Facebook takes the number of impressions (how many times the posts has showed up on a Facebook users' feeds, and on the page itself), and puts whatever feedback (comments and likes) there were from that post into a percentage.

For example, Search Engine People displayed a post on The 10 Most Incredible Google Bombs. If you read this post it probably gave you a good chuckle. This post had 3 likes, and two comments. Facebook concluded that this post had 683 impressions - not bad! And from that the percentage of feedback based on those 3 likes and 2 comments was 0.73%. Again - not bad.

Facebook Insights Impressions

From that we can compare this entertaining and insightful post with a completely different post to see which genre of posts our fans prefer and enjoy commenting on.

Keep Your Fans Where They Belong - On Your Page

This feature could be a great tool for keeping fans, and catering to them properly. If you track the feedback, you may be able to spot trends on what type of posts your fans like best. If you keep them satisfied with their preferred style, then you could have a healthy, active Facebook page.

What's Missing?

Unique impressions haven't made their way into this feature yet - but knowing the fast pace of Facebook, you will likely see it soon. Another thing I have noticed is that it only allows you to look at the most recent posts. However, impressions - even sans unique counts, and older posts - are still beneficial to Facebook page admins. I see it being most useful for those who want to keep their fans entertained and active on their page.

Can you think of any other uses for this feature?

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Posted in SEOTagged facebook, Facebook Fans, Facebook Insights

About the Author: Caitlin Melvin

Caitlin works at Search Engine People. She loves internet marketing, and has a passion for social media. Caitlin is a former competitive cheerleader, a crazy cat lady, and a work-a-holic.

39 thoughts on “Facebook Impressions for Pages – Give Your Fans What They Want”

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  1. Shockley Au says:
    November 26, 2010 at 7:14 am

    It would be great if Facebook would break down where those impressions are coming from (wall vs. feed). I’m sure they have the data somewhere on their servers.

  2. Greg Allbright says:
    December 10, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    Thanks for explaining this new feature for the FB fan pages. I’d like to know, as the other commenter suggested, where these impressions are coming from. Are these people that scrolled past the post in their news feed, or actually saw it on the page, or some combo of both.

    1. Caitlin Melvin says:
      December 13, 2010 at 9:28 am

      Hi Greg,
      Thanks for your comment and question. The impressions are coming from both showing up in their news feed, and seeing it on the page. Basically whenever the post is shown on their page it counts as an impression.
      Hope this helps!
      Thanks again!

  3. Nabeel Adeni says:
    January 4, 2011 at 1:02 am

    Is there any way we can derive an ’empirical relationship’between the No. of fans and the Impressions?

    1. Caitlin Melvin says:
      January 4, 2011 at 9:17 am

      Hi Nabeel,

      Unfortunately there is no way to derive an empirical relationship between the number of fans and the impressions.
      The way Facebook is currently working it out is Impressions = the number of fans (posts from the page that come up in their news feeds) + the number of visits to the actual FB page (which could be random, i.e. not a fan).

      I hope this answers your question 🙂

  4. stella anticcione says:
    January 9, 2011 at 1:46 pm

    does anyone know if the administrator’s page veiws affect the number of impressions? for instance, i’m the admistrator of my company’s page…if i’m logged in and visit the company page, does it count me as an impression as well (’cause i visit the page a lot, and wondering if i’m influencing the numbers myself…)

  5. Beverly Nelson says:
    January 10, 2011 at 7:27 am

    Since the beginning of 2011, I have quit receiving impressions. I follow those number closely. Has something changed?

  6. Casey Craig says:
    January 11, 2011 at 10:35 am

    Thanks so much for explaining this as I am new to facebook. I too, was wondering if the admin’s views effect the number and also are these numbers updated instantly or daily?

    1. Caitlin Melvin says:
      January 11, 2011 at 11:42 am

      @Stella anticcione and @Casey Craig – I have not been able to locate any information that explains whether or not an admin view counts towards the impressions. My guess it no it does not. The reason being is that most websites will not count an admin view as a page view, however Facebook could also work this differently. The impressions feature is still quite vague on a number of issues.

      @Beverly Nelson – I have also noticed the impressions are not showing up on Facebook pages. My guess is they have a bug they need to work out.

      Thanks for the comment! I really appreciate it!

  7. Jan Cleary says:
    January 17, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    Thank you very much for your helpful explanation of impressions…I’m new to Facebook and am finding my way around.

  8. Minal says:
    January 17, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    Hello,

    Can you please explain me what “Unique Impressions”, “Unique Clicks” and “Unique CTR” is? They are present in our reports for facebook adds, but I am unable to find exactly what they mean. I would really appreciate it!

  9. Erin Whalen says:
    January 20, 2011 at 11:33 am

    Hi there! I have a question about impressions also. Call me crazy, but when you post something on your wall, shouldn’t the MINIMUM number of impressions equal the number of people who have “Liked” your page? After all, my post should be showing up in their feeds, right?

    The reason why I ask is because I often get an impression rate that’s lower than the number of people who have “Liked” my page and I would like to know why that is so. What’s preventing the appearance of my wall post in everybody’s feeds from counting as impressions?

    Thanks!

    1. Greg Allbright says:
      January 20, 2011 at 2:22 pm

      The reason impressions don’t equal total number of fans is that in order for it to show up as an impression one of your fans has to have that post open on their newsfeed for it to count. Not everyone checks their FB everyday, or every few times a day, so if they miss that post in their feed, it doesn’t count as an impression.

      Notice the next time you open FB how many posts it loads at first. If that’s all people look at and don’t load more, then the rest of the posts they don’t load don’t get counted as an impression for that person.

      1. Caitlin Melvin says:
        January 21, 2011 at 7:23 am

        @Jan Cleary – thanks! I’m glad you found my post helpful!

        @Minal – Here is an explanation I found to answer your question :

        Unique Impressions: The number of distinct users who viewed the ad(s) tracked by the given row of the report.

        Unique Clicks: The number of distinct users who clicked on the ad(s) tracked by the given row of the report.

        Unique Clicks Rate:This rate is calculated as the number of unique clicks the ad(s) received divided by the number of unique ad impressions.
        http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=14730
        I hope that answers your question 🙂

        @Erin Whalen – Greg Allbright does a great job of explaining the answer to your question. If a person does not check their news feed often their friends posts and status updates will push your page’s post down in the news feed, so it may not be visible to them at all unless they go directly to the page. Another explanation is that there is an option to hide your page’s posts from the news feed so it doesn’t show up at all. Hope that helps!

  10. Niki Belkowski says:
    January 21, 2011 at 7:32 am

    I’ve suddenly lost the “impressions” figure on my business page (as of 1/20/11). I find this feature very useful and don’t want to lose it! Can you help me?

  11. Minal says:
    January 21, 2011 at 9:57 am

    Thanks for the information :-)! This is great.

    @Niki – Even I cannot see the impressions on our “Fan” page. I was able to get a short report by looking for the detailed report on interactions option. Here is the route to get the information; Edit page – insights – interactions – details. Hope this helps!

    1. Niki Belkowski says:
      January 21, 2011 at 12:32 pm

      Thanks, Minal, I certainly appreciate your response to my problem. Your directions were perfect and I found the impressions information I was looking for. I’m still wondering why the impressions info no longer appears on my wall, though. I sure liked it being there.

      To the “managers” of Facebook: PLEASE put the “impressions” info BACK on our walls – or at least provide an explanation as to why this info has disappeared!

  12. Sherman Mohr says:
    January 21, 2011 at 10:25 am

    Caitlin,

    I pride myself in knowing all I need to know but sometimes, you need help. You provided it today. Many thanks for this clarification. I’d noticed the “impressions” change on the largest page I admin but was unclear. I’m sure FB notified me of the change at some point. 🙂

    Thanks again,

    Sherman Mohr
    Nashville,TN
    .-= Sherman Mohr recently posted: =-.

  13. mandi@cumminglocal says:
    January 23, 2011 at 8:35 am

    Hey there! Great article on something that’s been fairly confusing! Quick question – I’ve noticed a drastic decrease in the number of impressions received this past week. From hundreds to single digits. The same has happened to other friends as well. Do you know of any official changes that have been made? Otherwise I’m developing a complex;)

  14. Teresa says:
    January 23, 2011 at 10:31 am

    I like the impressions feature, but today it’s gone. What’s up with that?

  15. Herbert Nielsen says:
    January 24, 2011 at 4:33 am

    Like Teresa, I benefited from the impressions feature. Why has it disappeared? And will it come again? Hope so….

  16. Kris says:
    January 25, 2011 at 7:52 am

    My impression disappeared from my fan page too. I hope it comes back!

  17. Caitlin Melvin says:
    January 25, 2011 at 9:40 am

    @Sherman – Thank you! I’m so happy I could help you out, and answer some questions for you.

    @Mandi – I’ve noticed some funny things going on with the impressions tool lately. It is new – so I would assume bugs are still being sought out, and so on. There are a number of reasons why your impression may have decreased including a problem with the tool itself. However, I’m not entirely sure. The tool has actually come and gone for a number of pages. I’ve been eying The Facebook Blog to see if there has been any updates on it, but nothing has come up yet.

    To everyone else – I unfortunately cannot explain the disappearance of the impressions tool. Sorry!

  18. simon reynolds says:
    January 29, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    Now im a new FB user

    If I post something on my business page does it only go to my friends or is it live on the system for anyone to read?

    Ive had 7000 post views so is this 7000 people?

  19. Lisa Winton says:
    February 4, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    I am a new administator to our FB page and am currently trying to learn all I can. I loved the impressions feature, but noticed that it hasn’t been present since Tuesday (2/2/11). Could I have accidentally turned it off, or are there still bugs going on with the feature? It’s not on my wall, and I tried Minal’s suggestion, but don’t get any info past Tuesday…

  20. Deb Lewis says:
    February 9, 2011 at 6:48 pm

    On the fan pages I administrate, many posts record impressions significantly larger than there are fans of each individual page (e.g. 1,200 fans, but 1,600 impressions for a post). Can you tell me what this means? Are there that many Facebook users who are not fans of the pages visiting the walls? It doesn’t happen for every post – many register impressions equal to the number of fans, or sometimes noticeably fewer – but I am finding it curious. Thanks for all the info you’re offering!

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