Reach is the number of unique people who saw a piece of content.
Reach is different from impressions because each person is counted once, even if they see the content multiple times.
Reach is commonly used to understand awareness and audience distribution.
Reach is especially helpful for awareness goals, but it becomes more meaningful when paired with engagement, profile visits, clicks, or brand search activity.
Reach counts unique people who saw the content, impressions count every display. Impressions will always be equal to or higher than reach.
Feeds are ranked, so platforms only show your post to followers likely to engage with it, plus non-followers if the content earns recommendation. No account reaches all of its followers with every post.
Reaching 5 to 10 percent of followers per feed post is a common baseline, while discovery formats can far exceed it. Trends in your own reach over time matter more than one-off comparisons.