Advertising Exposure

Date created: Oct 12, 2022  •   Last updated: Oct 12, 2022

What is Advertising Exposure

Ad unit exposure measures the total amount of time your ad was exposed to your target audience, usually measured in milliseconds.

Advertising Exposure Formula

ƒ Sum(Ad Unit Exposure Time)

How to calculate Advertising Exposure

Say you have a banner ad and an animated ad on your website. In a single day, say your banner ad gets 600K milliseconds of exposure, while your animated ad gets 900K milliseconds of exposure. Your total Ad Unit Exposure for this day would be 1.5M milliseconds, which equates to 25 minutes of ad exposure.

Start tracking your Advertising Exposure data

Use Klipfolio PowerMetrics, our free analytics tool, to monitor your data. Choose one of the following available services to start tracking your Advertising Exposure instantly.

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How to visualize Advertising Exposure?

Since Ad Unit Exposure is most often measured in milliseconds, it would make the most sense to visualize your data in a line chart. Track ad exposure over time to identify dips in the trend, and segment your data by ad type and ad location to identify your best performing digital ads.

Advertising Exposure visualization example

Advertising Exposure

Line Chart

Here's an example of how to visualize your Advertising Exposure data in a line chart over time.
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Advertising Exposure

Chart

Measuring Advertising Exposure

More about Advertising Exposure

Ad Unit Exposure measures the total amount of time, in milliseconds, your ad is seen by your website or app users. An ad unit is an advertisement block or location on your website or app where an ad can be displayed. Ad unit types include banner ads, lightbox ads, animation ads, interstitial ads, video ads, interactive ads, and more.


The ultimate aim is for your ad to get as much exposure as possible, because the longer your ad is viewed, the more likely it is for the user to engage with it. In general, it is wise to choose multiple ad unit types to display your ads in various formats to attract longer exposure and CPM. Ad engagement and ad exposure are two different metrics, however, it can be argued that ad exposure is just as important as engagement, due to it being a strong indicator of ad effectiveness and a great representation of potential. Measure along with Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) to better evaluate your ad performance.

Advertising Exposure Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between ad exposure and ad impressions?

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Ad exposure is the sum of the total time spent viewing ads, while ad impressions counts the total number of times an ad is viewed. Increased impressions leads to increased exposure, although not necessarily in proportion.

How do I measure Ad Unit Exposure in Google Analytics?

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You can find Ad Unit Exposure in the Publisher Ads tab under Reports in Google Analytics 4. Then, use a free analytics tool, such as Klipfolio PowerMetrics, to instantly connect to your data and monitor ad performance over time.

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