If you are looking to run Facebook ads then two of the metrics that you will want to track are your reach and impressions.
But which is more important for your business?
Defining Reach And Impressions
There are two ways to measure the success of your social media marketing strategy: reach and impressions.
What Is Reach?
Reach is the total number of unique users who see your content in their news feed.
It doesn’t matter if the user sees your organic content or paid content once or one hundred times, each person only counts as one.
This metric is important because it allows you to gauge how far your message is spreading.
If you have a large reach then you know that your content is being seen by a lot of people.
What Are Impressions?
Impressions refer to the number of times your content is seen in the news feed.
So, if one person sees your post ten times in their news feed then that counts as ten impressions.
This metric is important because it allows you to gauge how often your content is being seen.
If you have a large number of served impressions then you know that people are seeing your content a lot.
Determining The Importance Of Reach And Impressions
At first glance, it might seem like reach is the more important metric. After all, what good is your content if no one sees it?
But impressions are also important. They give you a sense of how frequently your content is being seen.
And if people are seeing your content multiple times, that means they're more likely to remember it—and take action on it.
So, which metric should you focus on? The answer is: it depends...
I know super definitive.
When it comes to deciding the importance of Facebook reach vs Facebook impressions for your business here are two factors you should consider when determining which metric to focus on.
Remember that reach and impressions are leading KPI's and not your primary KPI's
Reach and impressions are interconnected and you should watch both closely.
Keep these two bullet points in mind as you decide which one is best for your campaign objectives.
Reach And Impressions Are Leading KPI's, Not Your Primary KPI's
Reach and impressions are important, but these are not your leading KPI's
Reach gives you an idea of how many people saw your content.
Impressions tell you how many times it was seen.
Your north star will be your revenue.
To find and grow your revenue you can use the following formula.
Visitors X AOV X Conversion Rate = Revenue
Reach and impressions will impact the visitor's portion of this formula.
Reach will increase the unique visitors to your site, you can expect these new Facebook users to be low intent.
As this is theoretically the first time they have heard of your brand.
We can expect this to lower the conversion rate for your site.
By increasing the impressions and frequency that Facebook users see the same ad in their news feed we can increase familiarity with our brand and the likelihood that the potential customer will purchase from us.
The way you would increase impressions on Facebook is through retargeting ads that bring your previous visitors back to your site.
Reach And Impressions Are Interconnected And You Should Watch Both Closely
When comparing reach vs impression viewing the two metrics as interconnected will have a significant impact on your campaign success.
If you focus only on your social media impressions through retargeting ads. You will see a higher frequency increasing your conversion rate and driving higher revenue.
However, as you do this you will drain the pool of new customers coming into your business.
This is where you need a Facebook reach campaign to increase the number of new visitors to your site.
Frequency Helps You Determine If The Balance Between Reach And Impressions Is Off
Having a high frequency can tell you that you may be encountering ad fatigue.
Ad fatigue occurs when a Facebook user scrolls past the same content that they have seen in their news feed multiple times.
This can occur because your advertising spend on Facebook retargeting is too high compared to your pool of users.
In general, Facebook social media managers want to see around a 3-4 on frequency.
Ultimately, when looking at Reach vs Impression which metrics you should focus on depends on your business goals.
If you're trying to increase brand awareness and get visitors to site, then reach is more important. If you're looking to generate leads or sales, impressions through retargeting are key.
How to track reach and frequency in the Facebook ads manager
Tracking the Paid Reach vs Impressions metrics for your Facebook ads is easy.
1. Open the Facebook Ads Manager.
By default, you will start on the performance column. So you will not need to change anything to see your reach vs impressions, which are located below the columns drop-down.
If you are ready to compare your reach and impressions with other metrics like your purchase conversion value you will need to "Customise" this report.
2. To do this click on "Columns" in the top navigation bar and select "Customize Columns"
3. This will open a pop-up allowing you to edit your report.
From here you can add type in purchase in the top nav bar and add in total purchases.
You can also rearrange, remove, or see added columns on the right side of the pop-up.
Not seeing a metric you need, you can create a custom metric.
4. When you've added or removed metrics you wish to see alongside your reach and frequency metrics you hit "Apply" in the bottom right corner.
This will add the new metrics to your current dashboard. Allowing you to compare the reach and frequency of your Facebook paid ads to new metrics
5. As a final step don't forget to save and name your new report if you want to see this dashboard again.
Track Your Organic Reach From Facebook Social Media
You can view the Facebook social media metrics for your organic posts by going to your Facebook business page and looking at Facebook Insights for your page.
To do this go to manage in the upper right-hand corner.
Then look at your page insights.
To track impressions for your Facebook page, scroll down to "Posts" and click select a Facebook post.
This will show only a fraction of your organic impressions as it's showing the impressions by post.
Tracking Reach Vs Impressions Via Google Analytics
Having a single source of truth is important for all social media marketers.
If you are running campaigns on multiple social media sites you may have multiple impressions of the same unique user across all your platforms.
This can be a problem as you end up spending more on the same social media users but on different platforms.
By using Google Analytics you can compare your total reach vs impressions for your business.
Reach Vs Impressions Can Differ Based On Social Media Platforms
There seem to be new social media platforms springing up every time you turn around.
Tik Tok, Be Real...
Each of these different social media platforms will perform differently and you need to be aware of user behavior before determining if your next platform should focus on reach or impressions.
When launching on a new social media platform follow these rules to get started.
What type of social media strategy will I be running?
How will the users on the platform interact with content
What Type Of Social Media Strategy Will I Be Running?
Remember our formula?
Visitors X AOV X Conversion Rate = Revenue.
Where does the new social media campaign fit into your audience targeting strategy?
Are you looking to drive revenue or increase social media engagement with the channel?
The same rules apply that we used for Facebook...
If you are looking for engagement then reach is for you. This will drive more visitors and a lower conversion rate.
If you are looking for a higher conversion rate within your social media analytics then impressions are for you.
How Will The Users On The Platform Interact With Content
Your target audience will interact with other social media platforms differently than they do with Facebook.
For example, those viewing an Instagram post are typically used to seeing something that shows a particular type of lifestyle and is produced very well.
Compared to Pinterest which is a very discovery-focused tool and great for expanding your reach.
Choose The Right Facebook Campaign
If you are running Facebook ads, Facebook allows you to choose to create an awareness campaign to increase the reach of your Facebook ads.
If you would like to learn more about creating a Facebook campaign you can read our post on this.
If you are looking for help determining which campaign is right for you between reach and impressions. Feel free to book a call with me.
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