Improving how we report impressions
Starting January 18, 2022, Instacart Ads reports viewable impressions for all sponsored product ads (formerly known as featured product ads) in both Instacart Ads Manager and the Instacart Ads API. This change retroactively affects reporting for dates January 1, 2022 onward. We previously reported served impressions for sponsored product ads which was calculated based on how many times an ad impression was served to the end user’s device.
A viewable impression is a standard measure of ad viewability where 50% of the ad creative is visible for at least one second in the viewable space of the device or browser. We made this update to more accurately measure how many users have seen an ad and to better align with industry standards.
Click-through rate (CTR) also uses viewable impressions. This change doesn’t affect clicks, cost per click (CPC), attributed sales, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
Expected Impact
As we start reporting impressions as an actual view rather than an ad loading (served), we expect impression volume to appear lower for most sponsored product campaigns. This drop can vary significantly by advertiser and campaign.
Viewing historical reports
Historical campaign reporting on dates preceding January 1, 2022, for sponsored product ads remain unaltered and are based on served impressions.
When viewing campaign reporting periods that span date periods before and after January 1, 2022, in Ads Manager, you’ll see a notice indicating that both new viewable impressions and old served impressions are present. You’ll see additional notices for data exports that span date periods before and after January 1, 2022.
