As a supplier, you will no doubt be concerned about the clicks, click-through rate (CTR), return on investment (ROI) and return on advertising spend (ROAS) that your campaign garners. But reach and impressions are equally important and are vital KPIs (key performance indicators) for any campaign you run.

Metrics like impressions and reach should be measured to establish the campaign’s impact which will, in turn, help you get a better understanding of how potential clientele learn about your offerings as well as what motivates them to take the first step in the buyer’s journey.

Reach and impressions are both important KPIs and metrics to consider, although many suppliers might underrate their value.

Here, we explain the differences between the two and set out why they are important and how to improve them.

Reach - explained

Reach, also often referred to as unique page impressions, is the total number of people who see your content on any associated page.

Total reach shows you the figure of how many unique users came into contact with your page, ad or post. It can offer valuable info about how many people see your ad/content, but the success of your campaign will also be determined by other elements (the content, the message, the USP, any offers you include, the call to action, how it’s displayed, etc.).

Impressions - explained

Impressions, meanwhile, are defined as the number of times your content is displayed. As you’d expect, impressions are typically higher, because one person (reach) could see the content many times (impressions) if the ad appears for them many times a day.  

Page impressions don’t distinguish between ten users seeing one post each, or a single user seeing ten posts. This figure simply tallies all impressions gathered by a single page – not just a specific part of them.

Where else are they important?

Other marketing channels where reach and impressions are crucial KPIs include banners and text links. Banners (which are effectively online display campaigns) are essential to keep brand awareness and to ensure you are top of your clients’ minds. Additionally, they are the perfect way to promote exclusive offers. For example, if you run a display campaign on Estate Agent Today or Letting Agent Today, this is a perfect way to promote exclusive offers directly to agents.

With these campaigns, reach and impressions both allow you to see how much exposure your ad is getting. If your main objective is to reinforce your brand identity and increase your brand awareness, reach and impressions will be critical KPIs to consider.

Paid media KPIs

Reach and impressions are still vital KPIs when it comes to paid ads campaigns, helping to show the levels of awareness, traffic, video, views, etc, that your campaign is achieving. Simply put, it all boils down to what your marketing strategy goals are.

Having a high level of reach and a high number of impressions can help you grow your community and your audience on social media, and doing it through paid media can help you achieve this as you’ll have the chance to impact a bigger segment of your potential target audience.

This doesn’t mean that you should ignore working on your organic reach, though. Algorithms like relevant content, keeping your profiles active, and managing the digital conversations that take place there. This will generate a loyal and trustworthy community of potential clients and advocates.

What is important to understand is that awareness always comes before engagement. To run a successful campaign with a high level of engagement, regardless if this is a paid or an organic campaign on social, a display campaign on a publication, or your blog, you need to make sure that your content or ad will be seen by the highest possible number of people – but again (and we’ll never stop saying this): make sure that you target the correct audience and segment!

For more information about how Angels Media can improve your campaign’s reach and impressions – as well as other KPIs – please email lee@angelsmedia.co.uk or call us on 020 663 4989 so we can work on the best strategy for you.