Why Are Impressions Far Less Than Views?

1. 93

   eugbugposted 23 months ago

   Even taking into account Hubpages' share, with the amount of ads, shouldn't it be a multiple of views? I reckon, there should be about 6 impressions per article, but instead, there's only about .5 on average.

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   1. STAFF

      Matt Wellsposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      Please visit the FAQ for information about this.

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         DrMark1961posted 23 months agoin reply to this

         That link does not address his question.

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            Kenna McHughposted 23 months agoin reply to this

            Thanks for pointing this out, Dr. Mark.

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         2. 73

            Miebakagh57posted 23 months agoin reply to this

            It seems the FAQ need updating the days?

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            1. 73

               Miebakagh57posted 23 months agoin reply to this

               The last 'the' should be read as 'these'. I'm sorry for the typo. Thanks.

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      2. 93

         eugbugposted 23 months agoin reply to this

         Another likely reason impressions are so low is because it takes so long for them to load, typically 10 to 15 seconds. A user has scrolled down before they display, so they don't see them unless they scroll up again.

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      Nour Zahrhposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      I think that impressions depend on how long the visitor stays on the page, and if he leaves it within a short time, that is not counted as an impression

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         DrMark1961posted 23 months agoin reply to this

         Yes, you are correct, but he is asking about multiple impressions per page view.

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   3. STAFF

      Matt Wellsposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      We can look into this, but we need more information from you. Where are you getting this ".5 on average" data? Please send the info to team@hubpages.com.

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2. 93

   eugbugposted 23 months ago

   Are Hubpages getting 5 times as many impressions as we do?

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      Solarasposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      5-30 times?

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      1. STAFF

         Matt Wellsposted 23 months agoin reply to this

         Please visit the FAQ for impression information.

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            Solarasposted 23 months agoin reply to this

            Here is the information in that link:
            
            "What are impressions?
            
            As it relates to online advertising revenue (and the Ad Program), an impression typically means an "ad impression", and occurs whenever an ad appears on an article and is presumably seen by a visitor.
            
            With regards to your Ad Program reports, you are paid based on "page impressions," which are article views. Each page impression can include several individual ad impressions, depending on: whether ads are turned on, the length of the article, and whether a given location has "time" to show an ad in case the viewer navigates away from the article.
            
            The CPM for an individual is determined based on the value of individual impressions based on traffic characteristics."
            
            The FAQ goes to the trouble of distinguishing between page and individual ad impressions.  We are paid for Pageviews.  The value of that pageview is determined by the average of the value of the ads displayed.
            
            An article on dog food that contain 6 ads for Diamond smoked almonds will pay less than an article on Mesothelioma with 6 ads for tort law firms.
            
            However, the number of ads does not appear to influence the CPM. As stated, CPM is determined by the value of the ads displayed.  Nowhere does it state that the ads are added up to influence the CPM rate.
            
            In fact the opening sentence of this FAQ confirms industry standard.  Everyone is paid on individual ad impressions displayed, as is the Arena Group.  Then the FAQ goes on to explain in plain terms - writers at HP are paid for pageviews.
            
            I fail to see why you keep posting this link when it clearly undercuts your detailed answer to Eugene's question with the response "Yes."

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            1. STAFF

               Matt Wellsposted 23 months agoin reply to this

               The "yes" answer is in a different forum thread with a different question. I posted this FAQ entry to let people know how impressions and article views work with HubPages.

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                  Solarasposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                  That question was "So CPM is based on individual ad impressions and not page impressions and CPM increases as individual ad impressions increase?" posted by Eugene, and you wrote "yes" and referred him to the very same FAQ.

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                  1. STAFF

                     Matt Wellsposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                     I apologize if the question was answered incorrectly. This is the correct answer to the other forum thread. "Each page impression can include several individual ad impressions, depending on: whether ads are turned on, the length of the article, and whether a given location has "time" to show an ad in case the viewer navigates away from the article. The CPM for an individual is determined based on the value of individual impressions based on traffic characteristics."

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3. 82

   Solarasposted 23 months ago

   I have been asking about this for a long time. On my personal webpage impressions are many times pageviews. So it's  not about  ad blockers etc.
   
   If it were caused by slow ad load times, I would expect that it would affect both TAG and our incomes, and they would have addressed that long ago. So no, this is likely about we get ad income share on one ad, and they get all of the rest.
   
   Someone at HP should prove me wrong by explaining to us how the ad share is divided up.

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      DrMark1961posted 23 months agoin reply to this

      A very quick reply would be enough but I think we will just be sent an unrelated link.

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         eugbugposted 23 months agoin reply to this

         So therefore we can assume that it's true that we only get a small fraction of earnings.

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            Madeleine Claysposted 23 months agoin reply to this

            Yes, as writers for HP, we should absolutely be informed of how the ad share is divided up and what our share is.

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               AliciaCposted 23 months agoin reply to this

               Yes, we should be. The fact that the company won’t share this information worries me almost as much as the loss of income.

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   2. 92

      Sue Adamsposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      "Someone at HP should prove me wrong by explaining to us how the ad share is divided up."
      
      Good luck with that, we've tried and tried but it's a criminal rip-off secret.
      All you get is: "Please visit the FAQ for information about this."

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         DrMark1961posted 23 months agoin reply to this

         By now they should realize this is a FAQ! Too bad those links as they exist are no help at all.

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   3. 93

      eugbugposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      As  far as I recall, that's the way it used to be and our ads were shown part of the time and Hubpages' ads were shown the rest of the time with the time divided up in a 60/40 ratio. Then the method was changed so that we all earned from the same ads, but the total revenue was split up afterwards.

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4. 93

   eugbugposted 23 months ago

   I wonder why editors have removed one of my callouts asking readers to whitelist articles in their ad-blocker?

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5. 93

   eugbugposted 23 months ago

   I've sent that info to the team Matt.
   Can everyone check the approximate ratio of impressions to views for a few selected days to see if it's similar for everyone? Mine is about 0.62 (Not 0.5 as I said earlier).
   Is a view of a loaded ad considered as one impression?
   If a reader scrolls down and scrolls backup again and sees the ad for a second time, is that second view counted, or are only unique ad views counted as an impression?
   If ads are loading slowly (which is my experience on my phone, but not on desktop, maybe the 5 year old phone technology just can't cope) and readers miss them, isn't it a serious problem? I'm not sure why this would be. Maybe it's an issue with finding suitable ads to serve, based on interests or it's something to do with the overhead in processing power required to display multiple ads simultaneously. It could also be that readers are being diverted by "Read More" to other articles, thinking that what they were reading had ended.

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6. 92

   Sue Adamsposted 23 months ago

   Eugene said: "Then the method was changed so that we all earned from the same ads, but the total revenue was split up afterwards."
   
   And the very Frequently Asked Question is:
   To what ratio is the total revenue split up between HubPages/Arena and the writers?

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      Solarasposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      To MATT and Eugene and anyone else who cares:
      
      One week's stats: Pageviews 19699
      Impressions 11398
      Impressions are 57% of pageviews. That is total BS.
      
      
      However is does sort of match up with the old 60% rule, except earnings should be 2-3 times what they were based on the explosion of ads on our articles  and videos and sponsored links to sleazy content.
      
      There are 6-9 ads per article depending on its length. I should receive an average of 4  ad impressions per article, given that some people will leave because of slow ad, image, and content loads or videos obscuring their view of the article; some will have ad blockers (which don't block sponsored content links).  However, HP stats give my articles 5 stars for duration, so apparently many people stick around and view the majority of the article.
      
      According to the old rules, no longer listed in the FAQs: My weekly impressions should be:
      
      4 (ad impressions per read on average) X 19699 (Pageviews) = 78,796
      
      HP ad share 40% = 31,518
      Barbie's ad share 60% = 47,278
      
      the actual current split is more likely 11,398 for me and 67398 for HP per week.
      
      BTW - These figures are based on current stats which have dropped by 40% from a month ago, and are 1/3 of what they were several years ago. Sad.

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7. 92

   Sue Adamsposted 23 months ago

   Help me with the maths, but looking at Barbara's figures, am I correct in concluding that the Writer/HP ratio is 1/6th or 16.6/ 83.4 %?

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      Solarasposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      yep

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8. 93

   eugbugposted 23 months ago

   CPM is 30% to 40% down on last year too. I guess partially because automated ad auctions are resulting in lower final bids because there is less interest in serving ads because of lower traffic. Or is it because of less views on more lucrative articles that are served higher earning ads?

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      PaulGoodman67posted 23 months agoin reply to this

      I don't think it's an either-or situation. Both reasons can potentially be true or false independently.
      
      Overall/underlying CPMs do fluctuate over time. They're dependent on the levels of interest from outside advertisers.
      
      However, CPMs can also drop due to traffic being lost at a greater rate from the articles chasing the more lucrative keywords. My traffic dropped 15% recently, but the earnings seemed to fall twice that.
      
      I think that both processes have been happening recently.

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9. 92

   Sue Adamsposted 23 months ago

   Good thing there are clever people here who understand how CPMs, page views, impressions, and all that stuff works (not me).
   
   Thank you, Eugene for this thread. Thank you Paul, and thank you Solaras (Barbara) for your real weekly stats and for your confirming that, as per your figures, the Writer/HP ratio turns out to be 1/6th or 16.6/ 83.4 %.
   
   So it seems we finally have the answer to the FAQ:
   To what ratio is the total revenue split up between HubPages/Arena and the writers?
   
   Rounding off the figures, the answer is:
   Writers get 17% and HubPages gets 83%
   
   This is such a huge drop from the original
   Writers got 60% and HubPages got 40% that we signed up for.
   
   No wonder we were never told. No wonder management has tried to keep this a secret for so long. No wonder our income has dropped so much.
   
   Just goes to show that we are slaves but not idiots and, together, despite all the secrecy, we've been able to work out the answer to this longstanding FAQ ourselves.

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10. 80

    psycheskinnerposted 23 months ago

    Just adding my data
    7 day impressions: 621
    7 day views: 991

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11. 93

    eugbugposted 23 months ago

    I've been looking at stats for 6 and 5 years ago. The ratio of impressions to views back then was similar, between 0.5 and 0.6. Maybe one impression represents the fact that readers see one or more ads and not the actual number of ads viewed? So that would mean on average they see ads 60% of the time. The rest of the time they back out before waiting for a page to fully load with ads or they have their blocker turned on and see none.

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       Solarasposted 23 months agoin reply to this

       There were far fewer ads back then, no video and no sponsored links to unrelated articles, which appear twice in my articles.
       
       Impressions should have increased per pageview as each of these items was added.

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12. 96

    Shesabutterflyposted 23 months ago

    I personally do not find the 7 day averages to be very helpful, especially when the impressions are lagging and not running on the same 7 days as the views. However, mine are not nearly as drastic as Solaras'.
    
    I'm still waiting for yesterday's stats to finalize and I'm assuming they will jump a bit which will help with some of the difference. Right now my stats are showing yesterday's impresssions at about half of views. When it finalizes I expect them to be pretty close.
    
    I have not noticed much change since they implemented that new ad back in October a year or two ago that was giving us impresssions on par or even higher than views.
    
    My current 7 day average stats are showing impressions are 78% of pageviews.

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       Shesabutterflyposted 23 months agoin reply to this

       It is too late to edit my original comment, but I wanted to come back and update after the stats finalized. Much to my surprise they didn't bump up. Impressions for yesterday are about half of what I personally saw as a view high.
       
       My 7 day average stats changed quite a bit in one day, due to impressions and page view both dropping (impression's dropped by over 400 while views only dropped 12). New 7 day average brings impressions to 64% of views.

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13. 93

    eugbugposted 23 months ago

    So several people so far are giving a figure of around 60% for impressions versus views. Just as I suspected, the excerpt from the Hubpages help guide below suggests that an impression is a view of one or more ads and we are paid based on impressions. So more ads being seen doesn't necessarily result in more impressions:
    
    "With regards to your Ad Program reports, you are paid based on "page impressions," which are article views. Each page impression can include several individual ad impressions, depending on: whether ads are turned on, the length of the article, and whether a given location has "time" to show an ad in case the viewer navigates away from the article. The CPM for an individual is determined based on the value of individual impressions based on traffic characteristics"

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    1. 92

       Sue Adamsposted 23 months agoin reply to this

       So how do you translate that into Writers vs HP share percentages of total revenue? I thought we'd collectively already established that the current share policy is 17% to writers and 83% to HP but In another thread  Mark thought writers only get about 15%!
       
       With all these data available now, what do you think the current share policy is, Eugene?

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       1. 93

          eugbugposted 23 months agoin reply to this

          I don't know, but share is determined later as I understand it, rather than the previous scenario where there were Hubpages ads and our ads, shown alternately. I think the load of ads is a big problem though. Maybe it's just me who is experiencing this on a phone connected to WIFI (No issues with load time on a notebook connected to WIFI)

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14. 82

    Solarasposted 23 months ago

    It may well be that we are paid on page impressions, however HP is paid on ad impressions, as is everyone else on this planet.  So that would be a tricky distinction to give themselves 6-8 times more income based on revenues from ads. 
    
    Also, they take out their expenses before divvying up the CPM monies.

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15. 92

    Sue Adamsposted 23 months ago

    ROSS LEVINSOHN - Chief Executive Officer - The Arena Group
    
    source: https://www.idolnetworth.com/ross-levin … rth-278359

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       Solarasposted 23 months agoin reply to this

       A picture is worth 1000 words.

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          Miebakagh57posted 23 months agoin reply to this

          Yes.

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16. 82

    Solarasposted 23 months ago

    Here is my specific question, assuming no page blocking software and all ads load at a reasonable rate..
    
    A short article has 5 ads on it. The average of the value of their CPMs is $5.00. If 1000 viewers read the article to the end, what will be the author's earnings for that article on that day.
    
    Versus
    
    A long article has 30 ads on it that average $5.00 in their CPMs. What will the author's earnings be for 1000 views of the entire article on that day.
    
    Is there a difference in earnings for the author?
    
    Thank you in advance.

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