Reach and impressions look interchangeable until you do the division. Frequency — how often the same person sees you — is the hidden number behind ad fatigue, retargeting and organic virality.
The two counts
Impressions reward display; reach rewards people. When impressions dwarf reach, the same eyes are seeing everything — useful for reinforcement, wasteful for discovery.
Frequency as a health metric
For paid media, rising frequency is the classic sign of audience saturation: costs climb as the same people see ads they've learned to ignore. For organic, high frequency suggests your growth is stuck cycling within your own following.
Reading the share of followers
Reach relative to followers separates algorithm love from follower debt. Crossing 100% means strangers are seeing you — that's when growth stops depending on your existing audience.
Frequently asked questions
Reach is unique people who saw content; impressions is total times it was displayed. One person seeing a post three times counts as one reach and three impressions.
Frequency = impressions ÷ reach. 50,000 impressions on 20,000 reach means each person saw it 2.5 times on average.
Generally 2–3 for campaigns before fatigue sets in — but retargeting sequences intentionally use higher frequency later in the funnel.