Impressions vs. Reach vs. Engagement…What’s the Difference?

If you are involved in marketing or social media, you may have heard these terms before. But what exactly do they mean, what’s the difference between them and most importantly, how does each affect the success of your marketing campaign?

Impressions

An impression is the number of times your content is displayed on someone’s screen, no matter if they saw it or clicked on it. For example, if your company or product was mentioned on a TV show that had 1 million viewers, that would count as 1 million impressions.

Reach

Reach is the number of unique people who actually saw your content. First, your content must be delivered to their eyes (impressions), then the user must interact with your platform (reach). For example, if you put an ad in your local newspaper and it sells 10,000 papers per day, your ad has the potential to be seen by at least 10,000 people.

Engagement

Engagement is when your brand and a consumer connect. This is arguably the most important of the three in terms of measuring the action your user takes. Engagement is the only one of the three metrics that directly involves the user. Having someone see your content is one thing, but influencing them to take action is another. Moreover, if people engage with your content, the algorithm will notice that your content is interesting and valuable and will show it to even more users. For example, if you post a photo of your new product on your Instagram page and it gets 5,000 likes and is shared by 800 people, those are measures of engagement.

Although customer engagement is important for your business, there are still some precautions to take to ensure you are getting the most out of your marketing efforts. To learn more about the risks of social media engagement, you may click here.