Idempotent states and the inner linearity property

We find an analytic formulation of the notion of Hopf image, in terms of the associated idempotent state. More precisely, if $\pi:A\to M_n(\mathbb C)$ is a finite dimensional representation of a Hopf $C^*$-algebra, we prove that the idempotent state associated to its Hopf image $A'$ must be the convolution Ces\`aro limit of the linear functional $\phi=tr\circ\pi$. We discuss then some consequences of this result, notably to inner linearity questions.