Social Media
What is reach?
Reach is a platform-reported estimate of how many unique people or accounts saw a piece of content or a page over a period. Each person is counted once, however many times they saw it, which is what separates reach from impressions, where every display counts. Exact measurement methods vary by platform, so reach figures are best treated as consistent estimates rather than precise counts.
Reach vs impressions
Reach counts people; impressions count displays. If eighty people see a post and twenty of them see it twice, reach is 80 and impressions are 100. The pair answer different questions, how many people did we touch, versus how much surface area did we occupy, and the ratio between them adds a third: impressions well above reach means the platform is showing the content repeatedly, or the same audience keeps returning to it.
Reading reach sensibly
Reach is a platform estimate, measured differently on each network, so absolute figures are less informative than trends on one platform over time. It is also an exposure metric, not an outcome: high reach with no engagement or clicks usually means the content travelled to people it did not move. Reach tells you the size of the audience a post found, the other metrics say whether finding them mattered.
Related terms
Reach pairs with impressions and gives engagement rate one of its possible denominators; together they describe the exposure layer of social media marketing.