What is an Impressions Multiplier?

An Impressions Multiplier (IM) is used to project how many people were exposed to a digital ad. This metric was adopted in comparison to the thought that advertisements on personal devices (e.g. computers and smartphones) are only seen by one person.  The IM seeks to account for two additional factors:  (1) how many people are present to see the screen and (2) how long they stay, understanding that longer dwell times will deliver more impressions for video media.

The IM is a standard used by programmatic DOOH media owners and is computed by BlueZoo, accessible on BlueZoo’s dashboard.  BlueZoo’s approach is accepted by all leading Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs), including Vistar Media and BroadSign.

BlueZoo calculates the IM for a screen by measuring the number of people entering the screen’s viewshed (impressions) and the duration of each person’s stay in the viewshed (dwell time).

Digital screens always count playbacks (also known as “spots” or “plays”), but a spot alone does not tell you how many people saw the content. The IM bridges this gap by converting raw spot numbers into audience impressions, an industry-standard measurement.

The Impressions Multiplier is derived from BlueZoo’s foot traffic analytics:

• Opportunities to See (OTS) - Visit counts observed by BlueZoo sensors
• Median dwell time, representing how long visitors stay in the viewing zone
• A Realistic opportunity-to-see (ROTS) factor adjusts OTS to reflect how many people realistically had a chance to view the screen. Example: if 100 pass by but only about half of them face the screen, the ROTS factor is 0.5. This gives us likelihood-to-see (LTS), a more accurate impression count than assuming that everyone in the vicinity saw the ad.
• A digital attraction multiplier (DAM), acknowledges that moving, bright, or rotating content will pull additional short-glance traffic. This boosts impressions for digital/video ads, which draw more attention than static. Example: DAM 1.1 = 10% more impressions.
• Spot Length (seconds) is the length of each ad play. 

These components are combined to provide a single multiplier that can be applied to content plays.

This value can be obtained from the BlueZoo dashboard under the “Sensor location> Analytics> Impressions multiplier” screen. Start by selecting a specific date range for the sensor location and entering the values for ROTS, DAM and spot length depending on the location. In the upcoming BETA version of the dashboard, these variables can also be defined at the “Account” level from the “edit organization properties” section of the home page.