Reach vs Impressions
Reach counts unique users who saw content; impressions count total views, including multiple views by the same user.
Definition
Reach and impressions are related but distinct metrics. Reach measures the number of unique users who saw your content at least once, while impressions count the total number of times your content was displayed, including multiple views by the same person.
If 100 people each see your post twice, reach is 100 and impressions is 200. The relationship between these metrics indicates content frequency and can reveal whether you're reaching new audiences or repeatedly showing content to the same users.
Why It Matters
Understanding both metrics helps evaluate campaign effectiveness. High impressions with low reach suggests you're repeatedly reaching the same people—good for awareness campaigns but potentially indicating audience saturation. High reach with proportional impressions suggests healthy audience expansion.
For brand awareness goals, reach often matters more. For message reinforcement or retargeting, impressions and frequency matter more.
Examples in Practice
A brand notices 500,000 impressions but only 50,000 reach, indicating each person sees the ad 10 times—potentially causing ad fatigue.
A campaign optimized for reach exposes the brand to 1 million new users, prioritizing breadth over frequency.
A product launch uses high frequency (impressions) among a targeted reach to ensure message retention before purchase decision.