Although media impressions, reach, and engagement may appear similar at first, they each carry distinct meanings.
Reach: the number of individuals exposed to your content
Engagement: it focuses on the level of interaction people have with it, including comments, shares, and likes
Impressions: the number of times your content was displayed
Views: total plays or views represent the overall number of times your videos have been viewed. A view is registered when a user watches it at least a few seconds.
💡 By content we mean all types of published content: story, post, video, reel whether it is organic or paid content.
📣 Example:
Even if your content receives 30 impressions, if it is viewed by the same person repeatedly, its reach remains limited to one person.
Impressions are counted each time the content is loaded or shown to a user, regardless of whether this very user interacts with it or not.
For example, if an ad is displayed on a social media platform, each time the ad loads on someone's screen will count as one impression. And this, even if the user simply scrolls past it without clicking on the actual content.
🎩 Good to know:
Impressions are commonly used to measure the exposure and visibility of a particular piece of content or advertising campaign. They help marketers and advertisers understand the potential audience size and the overall reach of their content, which can be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of their campaigns and making data-driven decisions.
👀 Visibility, you said?
Frequency is the average number of times a person has seen your ad.
The number of repetitions reveals the gap between reach and impressions: how many times has someone seen 👀 your content?
When advertising on social media, it's essential to maximize your frequency to capture your audience's attention and keep them engaged.
Last but not least, impressions are often used in metrics like Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM), which represents the cost incurred for every one thousand impressions of an ad.
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