Metrik.world
Total reach
A more or less accurate estimate of the number of unique individuals potentially reached by a communication activity or campaign across all channels. Or this number expressed as a percentage of the total size of the target audience.
alternative names
- total audience reach
- total reach
- overall reach
- combined reach
units
- Count
- % (ratio)
Additions, clarifications, extended definition
The metric expresses how many individuals may have been exposed to the campaign/communication message through various media, digital platforms, events or other communication activities.
It is based on a combination of data on viewership, readership, listenership, traffic or social media reach. It is always imprecise to some degree, because audience overlaps across individual platforms can never be determined perfectly.
Interpretation
A higher value indicates greater campaign reach and thus greater potential, for example, to raise awareness. It is therefore a basic indicator of the scale of communication, not of its quality or impact.
Watch out: limits and risks of distortion
- In the vast majority of cases it is a modelled estimate, not a precisely measured figure, because exact measurement is not feasible for larger-scale activities.
- A high value does not mean that everyone reached actually registered the message – it only indicates that they were potentially exposed to it (e.g. an article in a magazine I never read).
- Double or multiple counting of an individual who encountered the message on two or more different channels is common, so reach is often overestimated.
- Results from different platforms cannot simply be added up without recalculation using a robust data model. Media agencies are usually best placed to help with calculating this metric.
Where and how to measure
- A combination of monitoring tools (Mediaboard, Newton Media, Meltwater, etc.), analytics platforms (Google Analytics, Meta Insights, YouTube Analytics, etc.), audience measurement data (Media projekt, NetMonitor) and other sources depending on the specific media mix.
Context
The metric makes it possible to compare campaign reach across channels and to evaluate how large a share of the target audience could be reached.
It is a suitable input for subsequent measurement of brand awareness and knowledge.
Formulas
total reach = sum of the reach of individual channels - estimated audience overlap between channels
Example from practice
An integrated campaign ran on television, in online media and on social media. Television reached 2.4 million viewers, online media generated a reach of 2.1 million unique visitors and social media 1.2 million users. The modelled combined reach was 4.5 million unique individuals. Of the target audience, which totals 5 million users, 90% were reached.
