Reach vs. impressions: What's the difference?

Modern marketers know the importance of getting eyes on content when it comes to increasing brand awareness. They also know that leaving a lasting impact can be just as valuable. By getting a good sense of your marketing analytics, especially on social media, marketers can find areas for improvement that ultimately lead to more consumer attention.

That’s why it’s crucial to understand underlying metrics such as reach and impressions. Here we’ll go over what they are, how they’re different, and why they matter.

What is reach?

In digital marketing and social media terms, marketing reach refers to the number of people who saw your content. Specifically, it refers to the number of unique views, meaning each “unique” person only counts as one, regardless of how many times they saw the content. 

For example, if you post a story on Instagram and 100 different people watch that story three times, the reach of that story would be 100 — because that’s the number of individual people that viewed it (rather than the 300 views it received overall).

What are impressions?

Impressions, on the other hand, are meant to track the total number of times your content was displayed. While this metric is generally referred to as impressions, some platforms would call this “total views.”

Taking the same scenario we just described, if 100 different people saw your Instagram post three times each, the impressions would be 300. That’s because Instagram counts total views, regardless of how many of those views came from the same people.

Reach vs. impressions: Key differences

While both reach and impressions are valuable for digital marketing campaigns, which one you should focus on will vary depending on your goals. 

Reach-based content: If your primary goal is to get as many unique sets of eyes on a piece of content, focusing on reach metrics would be your priority. Reaching more people equals growing a larger audience, making reach a numbers game. The scenario in which you’d want to focus on reach would be for businesses that rely on casting a wide net, rather than locking in a smaller set of repeat customers.

Impressions-based content: Comparatively, if your goal is to create highly engaging content, or rather content that people feel compelled to view multiple times, then impressions will be your priority metric. This is likely the focus for businesses that want to emphasize ongoing relationships with their customers, keeping their products/services at the front of customer’s minds.

In a way, reach can be viewed as a more quantity-based metric (maximizing viewers), while impressions can be viewed as more of a quality-based metric (maximizing views). Of course, these two aren’t mutually exclusive, but focusing on one or the other can be beneficial based on your ultimate business goals.

An additional factor to consider is that each social media platform has its own way of tracking reach and impressions. That means that certain platforms will have different ways they report social media metrics, and some can offer more in-depth analysis than others.

Facebook reach vs. Facebook impressions

On Facebook, reach is officially defined as “the number of people who saw any content from your Page or about your Page,” while impressions are defined as “the number of times any content from your Page or about your Page entered a person's screen.” Facebook also provides additional context for each by breaking them down into three categories:

• Organic Reach/Impression: The number of unique viewers/total views a piece of content received for free.
• Paid Reach/Impressions: The number of unique viewers/total views a piece of content received as a result of paid sponsorships/ads.
• Viral Reach/Impressions: The number of unique viewers/total views a piece of content received as a result of interactions such as shares, reposts, likes, and comments.

Instagram reach vs. Instagram impressions

Instagram defines reach as “the number of unique accounts that have seen your content on screen at least once” and impressions simply as the total number of times your content was viewed (including multiple views by a single user).

Additional features that are useful on Instagram include breaking down reach and impressions over certain time frames (7 days, 30 days, or 90 days). Instagram also provides in-depth looks at demographics such as age, gender, and location.

X (Twitter) reach vs. X (Twitter) impressions

X (formerly known as Twitter) differs from Facebook and Instagram in that it only tracks impressions. That means any content on X can only be measured by how many times it appeared on user feeds or search results, though the platform does allow you to view impression reports broken down into specific time frames (7 days, 28 days, or a specific month). 

TikTok reach vs. TikTok impressions

TikTok uses standard reach and impressions metrics, showing you how many unique users viewed your content, as well as showing impressions as “total video views.” TikTok also gives additional insights into your audience’s age, gender, and location, as well as a video’s total play time, average watch time, and percentage of viewers that watched the entire video.

Nextdoor Ads Manager reach vs. impressions

Nextdoor Ads Manager allows local businesses to connect with their communities by targeting specific neighborhoods. The platform allows you to track reach, or how many users see your ad, and impressions, or the number of times your ad appears on users’ screens.

Nextdoor Ads Manager provides robust metrics that break down reach and impressions by ad groups, allowing businesses to:

• Identify the total number of neighbors exposed to an ad.
• Analyze repeat views for better engagement strategies.
• Refine campaigns using additional metrics like click-through rate (CTR)

Pro Tip: Nextdoor’s hyper-local targeting makes it an ideal platform for small businesses or those with location-specific audiences, ensuring a focused yet impactful campaign.

How to use reach and impressions to optimize your strategy

Maximizing reach and impressions are top digital marketing and social media strategy priorities. Both can play a pivotal role in building brand awareness and an engaged audience. 

Many of the same strategies can be applied to increase both reach and impressions. Some top tips for maximizing reach and impressions include:

• Focusing on a target audience. By creating content aimed at your desired demographic, you have a better chance of getting your message in front of people who have the potential to become customers. This focused approach will also ensure you create content from the get-go that better resonates with your target audience or customers.
• Using paid strategies. Ads work, especially when paired with content that speaks to your intended audience. Whether it’s Google ads, social media ads, Nextdoor Ads Manager, or even paid influencer marketing efforts, paid strategies are a great way to get increased exposure to your desired audience.
• Using organic reach methods. Paid methods work great, but they aren’t the only way to gain visibility. By creating well-thought-out, high-quality content, you can achieve more reach and impressions without spending more of the budget. Some of the best ways to accomplish this are through search engine optimization (SEO) — content that is created around a specific word or phrase — and through customer engagement such as responding to comments or reposting user-based content featuring your product.
• Using multiple platforms. We’ve probably said it enough, but we’ll say it again — reach is about getting your content in front of as many unique users as possible. But, not every person is on every app or website, meaning it’s important to get content on a diverse set of platforms. One caveat to this: The same content doesn’t always translate to users on different platforms, so creating varying impactful content will be a consideration for achieving better impressions across multiple sites/apps.
• Harnessing analytics. Another element that applies to both reach and impressions is the utilization of analytics. By keeping an eye on analytics, you can better adjust your strategy based on calculated feedback. Is your reach high but impressions about equal? Maybe you want to focus on creating more entertaining/engaging content. Is your reach low but your impressions high? It’s probably time to strategize ways to get your content in front of more people. It can also show you what content is working on what platforms, so you know where you need to make changes and where you’ve found success.

By using metrics like reach and impressions, your campaign can gain a clearer picture of what’s working and what could be improved. When done right, the final outcome is content that builds your brand’s awareness and potential customer base.

Make the most of your content

Reach and impressions are cornerstones for building campaigns for social media and digital marketing. By analyzing how many people you are reaching and how much of an impression your content is making, you can develop a well-rounded marketing strategy that boosts both.

While classic social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are great places for building a wider audience, they aren’t the only places where people find valuable content. In fact, 94% of Nextdoor users say they value recommendations from their neighbors, and 78% shop at, patron, or hire a local business at least once a month. That makes Nextdoor a great place to house your content. 

Nextdoor Ads Manager is the perfect way to get content directly in front of local audiences. It guides you through the ad creation process by helping you with campaign setup, ad group setup (such as target audience, schedule, and budget), ad setup (creative and copy), and finally review and publishing. It also ensures you have the insights you need to maximize your campaigns, by providing key metrics like total impressions, reach, clicks, click-through rate, and messages.   

Grow your business and claim your Nextdoor business page today.