What Is Reach?
Reach is the number of unique users who saw your ad at least once within a defined window. Distinct from impressions (total views including repeats), reach measures the size of the audience you actually touched.
Reach vs impressions
A 7-day campaign has 150,000 impressions and 30,000 reach, meaning 30,000 unique people, average frequency of 5. If reach is 30,000 in a market with 500,000 potential buyers, you've only touched 6% of TAM, plenty of headroom.
Benchmarks
- Cold prospecting: aim to cover 25 to 60% of addressable audience per month.
- Retargeting: reach should stay close to warm-audience size (5,000 to 100,000).
- Brand awareness: reach % of target market is the KPI, not CPA.
Why it matters
Reach is the growth ceiling. When reach plateaus, frequency climbs, fatigue sets in, and CPMs rise. Growth means expanding reach, new audiences, new geographies, new creative angles.
Common mistakes
- 1.Ignoring reach when 'CPA is fine.' You're saturating; the problem is coming.
- 2.Reach for reach's sake. Reaching the wrong people costs money without effect.
FAQs about Reach
Reach vs impressions?
Reach = unique people. Impressions = total views. Impressions ÷ Reach = Frequency.
How do I grow reach?
Broader targeting, more geographies, more creative variety, higher budgets. Fatigued audiences aren't reach problems, they're creative problems.
Related terms
Average number of times a person saw your ad in a window.
Number of times your ad was rendered on a screen.
Cost to serve 1,000 impressions, the auction's price signal.
When an audience has seen the same ad enough that CTR/CVR drops.
Meta brand-awareness metric estimating the number of people who would remember your ad within 2 days.
% of impressions your brand owns vs total category impressions.