ToolSahla, Tools Sahla

My report shows both reach and impressions: which goes in the impressions field, and what changes if I use reach?

Enter impressions. CTR and CPM are defined per impression, and impressions are reach multiplied by how many times each person saw the ad. Use reach instead and you divide by a smaller number, so CTR and CPM both come out higher by roughly the frequency.

Published · 3 min read

The difference in one line

Reach counts the different people who saw the ad. Impressions count how many times it was shown, including repeats to the same person. If Sara saw your ad three times, she is one in reach and three in impressions. The frequency in your report is impressions divided by reach.

Example: one campaign, both figures

Impressions 50,000 and reach 20,000 people, so each person saw the ad two and a half times on average. Clicks 1,000, spend 1,500 AED, orders 20.

Worked example

With 50,000 impressions: CTR 2%, CPM 30.

With reach of 20,000 by mistake: CTR 5%, CPM 75.

Either way: CPC 1.5, CPA 75, conversion rate 2%.

Both metrics grew two and a half times, exactly the frequency. A 5% CTR looks like a triumph, but it is not a click-through rate as defined; it is clicks per person reached. A CPM of 75 looks expensive, but it is really the cost of reaching a thousand people, not a thousand impressions. The other three metrics do not use impressions, so they stayed put.

Where the mix-up does real damage

  • When you compare a campaign worked out with reach against one worked out with impressions, and think CTR jumped when nothing changed.
  • When two campaigns have different frequencies: the high-frequency one looks much better on CTR if calculated with reach.
  • When you send a report to a partner or client without saying which denominator you used, and they compare it with figures calculated the usual way.

The steps

  1. In the platform report, check the column name before copying: impressions, not reach.
  2. Enter impressions with clicks, spend and conversions in the Campaign performance calculator.
  3. If you want a per-person figure, such as clicks per thousand people reached, work it out separately and label it as its own note, not as CTR.

A quick tell: if CTR is far above your usual campaigns and CPM is far above too, at the same time, the figure in the impressions field is probably too small. To see which campaign actually brought orders, tag its links with the UTM campaign link builder and work out return on sales in the ROAS calculator.

Common questions

Is reach any use in this calculator?

Not in its fields; the calculator needs impressions. Reach is useful for frequency, how often each person saw the ad, which you read from the platform report.

My report only shows reach. What should I do?

Look for the impressions column in the column settings. If it is not available, skip CTR and CPM and rely on CPC and CPA, which do not need impressions.