How to Read a Screen Ad Campaign Report
The campaign ran for a month, you open the report — and see a column of numbers: impressions, reach, scans, CTR, cost per action. Which of these actually matters, and which just looks nice? Small businesses usually either look at the wrong metric or never open the report at all — and then can't say whether the ad worked.
This article is a practical breakdown of an indoor screen campaign report for cafes: what each number means, how much you can trust it, and which three figures decide whether to run the campaign again.
The core rule: some metrics are measured, others are estimated
The first thing to understand before reading any report: not all numbers are equally reliable.
- Measured metrics are what the system counted exactly, event by event. Impressions (video plays) and QR scans belong here. The player logs every play; the redirect system counts every scan.
- Estimated metrics are a model, not a fact. Reach (how many people saw it) is calculated from venue footfall, not from a camera counting faces. It's an informed estimate, but an estimate.
The rule is simple: when you need to make a decision, lean on what's measured; treat the estimated numbers as context. Here's each metric in turn.
Metric 1 — Impressions
What it is: how many times your video played on the screen over the period. If the screen runs a loop of 6 fifteen-second clips, your clip plays dozens of times per operating hour; thousands per month.
Reliability: high. This is a measured number — the player records every play.
The trap: impressions ≠ people. A thousand impressions doesn't mean a thousand viewers. It's a count of plays; how many people were in the room at that moment and looked up is a separate question (see reach). Impressions are useful as a "how much airtime you got" figure, but on their own they say nothing about results.
Metric 2 — Reach & frequency
What it is: reach is an estimate of how many unique people could have seen the ad. Frequency is how many times, on average, one person saw it. Impressions = reach × frequency.
Reliability: medium. It's a model based on venue footfall and campaign length, not a headcount. We're honest about this in How to estimate indoor screen reach.
How to read it: in indoor advertising, frequency is your friend. A regular cafe visitor sees the screen daily, and over a month your brand sticks. Don't be scared of modest reach with high frequency — for a local business, 500 people who saw you 8 times beat 4,000 who saw you once and forgot. More on this in Brand recall: frequency vs reach.
Metric 3 — QR scans (the most important measured action)
What it is: how many times people pointed a camera at the QR code in your clip and followed the link. This is the only precisely measured reaction from the audience on an indoor screen.
Reliability: high. Every redirect is logged. It's your "click" in the offline world.
Why it's the headline number: a billboard won't tell you how many people responded to it. A screen with a QR code will. A scan is a person who didn't just see the ad but took an action: pulled out a phone, aimed the camera, opened your site or offer. For a small business, that's the most honest "the ad works" signal there is.
Benchmark: a typical impression-to-scan conversion for indoor is a fraction of a percent, but a strong offer (a discount, a free coffee, a promo code) lifts it several times over. We gathered real benchmarks in QR scan benchmarks.
Metric 4 — CTR (scan-through rate)
What it is: scans ÷ impressions, as a percentage. It shows how well your clip drives action — that's creative quality, not campaign volume.
Reliability: high (both components are measured).
How to read it: CTR is creative diagnostics. Lots of impressions, few scans → the problem isn't reach, it's the clip: a weak offer, a tiny QR code, no reason to scan right now. Low CTR isn't cured by raising the budget but by reworking the creative. If you're running two clips, compare their CTR — that's a ready-made A/B test.
Metric 5 — Cost per action (cost per scan)
What it is: campaign budget ÷ number of scans. What one redirect cost. If you know how many scans turn into a customer, work out your cost per customer too.
Reliability: high, if you calculate it from scans (measured) rather than reach (estimated).
How to read it: this is the metric that ties the ad to money. UAH 3,000 a month and 300 scans → UAH 10 per scan. Then the question: how many of those 300 reached a purchase, and what does your customer cost elsewhere? If a scan from the screen is cheaper than a click in search or a lead from paid social, the channel works. How to carry this through to a final ROI is laid out in How to measure outdoor advertising ROI.
The three numbers that decide everything
If you're short on time for the report, look at these three:
| Metric | Question it answers | What to do with the answer |
|---|---|---|
| QR scans | Did the ad trigger action? | Few scans on normal impressions → change the creative/offer |
| CTR | Is the creative strong enough? | Low → rework the clip, don't pour in budget |
| Cost per action | Is it worth it vs other channels? | Cheaper than paid social/search → scale up |
Impressions and reach are context. Scans, CTR and cost per action are the decision.
How this looks in HostAd
HostAd is a network of indoor screens in Kyiv's craft coffee shops and bars, and reporting here is built precisely around the measured action, not just impressions:
- QR analytics are built in. Every QR redirect is counted — you see real scans, not just a reach estimate. It's the same "measured" metric you should lean on for decisions.
- Transparent pricing before you start. The placement price is visible on the map before booking — so you can estimate cost per action before launch, not after the fact.
- Monthly booking. Read the first month's report, saw a cheap scan → continue; saw a weak CTR → rework the creative and keep testing. No annual contracts.
- No agency markup. You pay for placement directly, so there's no hidden 15–30% middleman in the denominator of your "cost per action."
To add UTM tags to the link behind the QR and see scans in your own analytics, read UTM tags in a QR code.
Takeaway
A campaign report is intimidating until you know the hierarchy. Impressions tell you how much airtime you got. Reach and frequency — how many people and how often (an estimate). But the decision — run it again or not — is made by three measured numbers: scans, CTR and cost per action. Watch those, and screen advertising stops being "faith" and becomes math.
Ready to run a campaign you can measure from the first scan? Pick a screen in your area on the HostAd map — price and availability are visible right away.