Facebook’s “people reached” metric refers to the number of unique users who saw a post at least once. This includes both paid and organic reach. It gives page owners and advertisers an idea of how many different people their content is reaching.
What Counts as Reach on Facebook?
There are a few ways a user can be “reached” and counted by Facebook’s metrics:
- Seeing a post in their News Feed organically
- Seeing a sponsored post or ad in their News Feed
- Seeing a post or ad on the right sidebar
- Interacting with a post (liking, commenting, sharing, etc)
Essentially, if a user sees a post at least once, either through organic unpaid distribution or paid advertising, they are counted towards the total reach. It does not matter how many times an individual user sees the post – they are only counted once.
Organic vs. Paid Reach
There are two main types of reach on Facebook:
- Organic reach: This refers to the number of people who saw the post through unpaid distribution on Facebook’s News Feed.
- Paid reach: This refers to the number of people who saw the post because it was promoted through Facebook advertising such as boosted posts, ads, or sponsored stories.
Facebook will specify in the metrics whether the reach came from paid or organic views. Pages can increase their organic reach by posting engaging content that people want to like, comment on, and share. Paid reach requires putting money behind posts through Facebook’s advertising platforms.
Factors That Impact Organic Reach
Many factors impact how many people will see a post organically, including:
- How interesting/relevant the content is to viewers
- How many likes, comments, and shares the post gets
- How frequently the Page posts content
- How many people follow or have liked the Page
- Facebook’s algorithm that controls what appears in each user’s News Feed
Pages can’t take organic reach for granted. Facebook’s algorithm has become more restrictive over time, making it harder for Pages to reach a wide audience organically without paying. Engaging content and high page quality scores are requirements for reach.
How Facebook Calculates People Reached
Facebook uses data from its over 2.9 billion monthly active users to calculate the number of people that saw a post. Here is an overview of how they count reach:
- When a post is published, Facebook detects how many News Feeds to insert it into based on the Page’s quality score and relevancy to each user.
- The post has the potential to reach each unique user that it appears in the News Feed of.
- If the person scrolls past the post without seeing it, it does not count as reached. But if they saw it for any length of time, Facebook counts it.
- Any action like liking, commenting, clicking, or sharing also counts as the person being reached.
- Facebook de-duplicates all of this user data to only count each unique user once, regardless of how many times they saw or interacted with the post.
- The total tally of unique users counted is the “people reached” number.
This system allows Facebook to provide page owners an accurate look at real reach, not inflated numbers based on views or impressions. The technology involves sophisticated user tracking and data science.
Why Accurate Reach Metrics Matter
For page owners and advertisers, an accurate reach metric is important for these reasons:
- Shows if social media efforts are effectively exposing content to new audiences at scale.
- Helps calculate the cost efficiency of boosting posts or running ads.
- Indicates whether a specific piece of content resonated or fell flat.
- Informs future decisions about what types of content to invest more in.
- Benchmarks how audience response changes over time.
Without an accurate reach metric, it would be very difficult to tell if a Facebook strategy was working. This data is essential for guiding decisions.
Typical Reach Benchmarks on Facebook
The number of people reached will vary greatly depending on the size and type of Facebook Page. Here are some average benchmarks:
- Pages with 1,000 followers: 100-500 people reached per post
- Pages with 10,000 followers: 500-2,000 people reached per post
- Pages with 100,000 followers: 2,000-10,000 people reached per post
- Pages with 1 million+ followers: 10,000-100,000+ people reached per post
These numbers are rough estimates and many factors can affect performance in either direction. Niche pages with very targeted audiences can reach a higher percentage of followers than general interest pages. Using Facebook ads also increases paid reach substantially.
Benchmarks for Different Post Types
Certain types of posts tend to have higher or lower reach on average:
| Post Type | Typical Reach |
|---|---|
| Status Updates | Lower reach |
| Photos | Higher reach |
| Videos | High reach |
| Links | Moderate reach |
These benchmarks demonstrate the importance of understanding what resonates with each audience. Photos and videos tend to drive the most interactions and sharing, boosting their organic reach potential.
Tips for Increasing Facebook Reach
Here are some proven ways to improve Facebook reach and get content in front of more people:
Post Visual Content
Posts with photos or videos reach 5x as many users as plain text status updates. Visuals make posts more eye-catching and engaging in the News Feed.
Experiment with Different Post Types
Try different types of posts like links, questions, polls, live videos, and more to see what your audience responds to best.
Invite Engagement
Ask questions, run polls and contests to generate more comments and shares, which will increase reach.
Optimize Post Length
Analyze whether short, medium or long posts have the highest reach for your Page.
Post Consistently
Stay active and post high-quality content multiple times per week to stay top of mind.
Align Content with Audience Interests
Use Facebook Insights to analyze your audience and cater content accordingly.
Improve Video Watch Time
Videos with higher view durations perform better, so hook viewers fast.
Post at Peak Times
For most pages, weekdays at 11am-3pm reaches the most users.
Analyze and Refine
Check Facebook Insights after posting to see what content is reaching the most people and continuously optimize.
Getting More Reach With Facebook Ads
The most direct way to increase reach is by using Facebook’s advertising tools to promote posts. Options include:
Boosted Posts
Boosting posts turns organic reach into paid reach. You choose the post, target audience, and budget.
Facebook News Feed Ads
Create video and image ads and display them in the News Feed to relevant users.
Instagram Ads
Run ads on Instagram to reach highly engaged mobile users.
Messenger Ads
Advertise directly to people through Facebook Messenger.
Audience Network Ads
Reach users beyond Facebook on third-party mobile apps and sites.
When executed effectively with the right targeting, ads give you more control over increasing your Facebook reach. The cost per person reached depends on audience size, competition, and engagement rates.
Measuring Return on Investment
While reach is an important metric, having the maximum number of people see content isn’t always the end goal. Return on investment matters more.
To measure ROI, compare the cost of boosting posts or running ads to the revenue or conversion value received from the additional reach. For example:
- Ecommerce store: Compare ad spend to sales generated
- Lead generation: Compare cost per new lead acquired
- Downloads: Analyze cost per app install
If each new person reached costs more than they are worth in business value, the high reach isn’t efficient. Setting up accurate tracking and attribution is key to optimizing for real ROI beyond vanity metrics like reach.
Prioritizing Quality over Quantity
If the people your content reaches aren’t taking any valuable actions, reaching a larger quantity won’t necessarily impact your business. 500 highly engaged followers who convert to customers or donors can be much more beneficial than 1 million uninterested people scrolling past your posts.
This is why relevance is key – it’s better to reach a small number of qualified individuals highly likely to convert than a broad irrelevant audience. Targeting and segmentation capabilities help improve reach quality.
Conclusion
Facebook’s “people reached” metric provides valuable insight into how many unique users your content connects with. While organic reach has declined on Facebook, tactics like visual content, ads, and focusing on ROI over vanity metrics can help ensure your posts resonate with qualified audiences. Analyze this reach data to make informed decisions that will grow your business on Facebook moving forward.