What is Reach?
Reach is the number of unique people who saw your ad. It shows coverage, not engagement.
Understanding Reach
Reach counts the number of unique people who saw your ad; it is a coverage metric, not an engagement metric. Pair reach with impressions to understand frequency—how often the average person saw your ad. Growing reach at steady outcomes indicates you’re expanding the addressable audience effectively. If reach stalls, targeting, budgets, or eligibility may be too constrained. Read reach trends over time, not just in daily snapshots.
Context is key. High reach with weak outcomes can signal creative or landing page issues. Low reach with high frequency can indicate overserving to a small audience. Expanding placements and sizes usually increases eligible inventory. Fresh creative helps sustain qualified reach as fatigue sets in. Keep exclusions clean to avoid wasting impressions on recent converters.
Why Reach matters
Reach matters because it shows whether your message is getting out broadly enough to find new customers. It helps diagnose whether issues stem from coverage (too few people seeing ads) versus conversion (people seeing but not acting). When reach grows while cost and quality hold steady, you’re tapping new pockets of demand.
- Coverage: Ensures your message gets out broadly.
- Diagnosis: Low reach can flag targeting or budget issues.
How Reach works
Reach works by counting unique users exposed to your ads over a given window, deduplicating impressions across placements where possible. Platforms estimate uniqueness differently, so definitions can vary—keep windows consistent when comparing. Increasing placements, sizes, and audiences expands eligible inventory and reach. Frequency controls balance repetition with coverage to avoid fatigue. Creative variety helps reach new segments without hurting clarity. Monitor reach alongside new‑customer share to ensure growth is truly expanding your audience.
Meta Information
- Primary Keyword: Reach
- Secondary Keywords: unique reach, unique users, audience reach
- Target Word Count: 700–900 words
- Meta Title: What is Reach? Count Unique People, Not Just Impressions | Marpipe
- Meta Description: Reach counts the number of unique people who saw your ad. Learn how to read reach with frequency and optimize coverage.
- URL: marpipe.com/ad-glossary/reach
# What is Reach?
Reach is the number of unique people who saw your ad. It shows coverage, not engagement.
Understanding Reach
Reach counts the number of unique people who saw your ad; it is a coverage metric, not an engagement metric. Pair reach with impressions to understand frequency—how often the average person saw your ad. Growing reach at steady outcomes indicates you’re expanding the addressable audience effectively. If reach stalls, targeting, budgets, or eligibility may be too constrained. Read reach trends over time, not just in daily snapshots.
Context is key. High reach with weak outcomes can signal creative or landing page issues. Low reach with high frequency can indicate overserving to a small audience. Expanding placements and sizes usually increases eligible inventory. Fresh creative helps sustain qualified reach as fatigue sets in. Keep exclusions clean to avoid wasting impressions on recent converters.
Why Reach matters
Reach matters because it shows whether your message is getting out broadly enough to find new customers. It helps diagnose whether issues stem from coverage (too few people seeing ads) versus conversion (people seeing but not acting). When reach grows while cost and quality hold steady, you’re tapping new pockets of demand.
- Coverage: Ensures your message gets out broadly.
- Diagnosis: Low reach can flag targeting or budget issues.
How Reach works
Reach works by counting unique users exposed to your ads over a given window, deduplicating impressions across placements where possible. Platforms estimate uniqueness differently, so definitions can vary—keep windows consistent when comparing. Increasing placements, sizes, and audiences expands eligible inventory and reach. Frequency controls balance repetition with coverage to avoid fatigue. Creative variety helps reach new segments without hurting clarity. Monitor reach alongside new‑customer share to ensure growth is truly expanding your audience.
Best practices
- Track reach with frequency; avoid excessive frequency without lift.
- Expand placements and audiences to grow reach.
- Keep creative fresh to sustain qualified reach.
