All Points Media PrintWorks - We offer branding, graphics, and print services to help develop your company’s image, and make your brand stand out from the crowd.

Cost of Impressions

After all the reach and frequency math is figured out, we can calculate a single number that reflects the cost to communicate your message to 1000 people. This measure is know as CPM, or Cost Per Thousand ("M" being the roman numeral for thousand).

It is important to note that in "traditional" media, impression numbers do not actually mean that many people saw your message, just that they had the TV or radio on, or picked up a paper. The audience could be skipping commercials with a DVR, not paying attention to the radio, or only reading the front page of the paper. Impression numbers given for "traditional" media outlets can be very deceptive.

Outdoor media's impression numbers are calculated differently. Physical counts of people in the vicinity of, or exposed to an ad installation, are taken throughout different time periods, and an average number of daily impressions is reported. TAB (Traffic Audit Bureau) has developed the Mobile Advertising Report Generator (MARG) which estimates that mobile advertising generates average daily impressions ranging from 30,000 to 70,000. This is based on a mobile advertising vehicle searching out and occupying the highest, most visible locations in a top 10 DMA market.

You're not going to only drive in the heaviest traffic areas though. Based on an 8 hour work day, with a mix of city, highway, and residential driving as well as parking at stores and pedestrian impressions, a PrintWorks vehicle wrap in the Portland metro area will generate approximately 10,000 impressions a day. If the wrap is on a personal vehicle, it will generate an additional 5,000 impressions while off the clock picking up groceries and taking the kids to practice.

Once we know how many impressions a medium can generate, and the cost to purchase the advertising, we can use CPM to more accurately compare the value of different strategies, and see how much it costs you to put your message in front of 1000 people. Take a look at this chart to see just how much value you get for your advertising expenditure with different media options.