Glossary
Reach vs impressions
Reach counts the unique people who saw a post; impressions count every time it was shown, repeats included. Impressions are always at least as high as reach.
Reach is the number of unique people who saw a post. Impressions are the number of times the post was shown, counting repeat views. Because one person can see a post more than once, impressions are always equal to or higher than reach.
Example
A post has 10,000 impressions and a reach of 4,000. That means 4,000 different people saw it, on average 2.5 times each. If a second post has 10,000 impressions and a reach of 9,000, it got in front of more than twice as many people, even though the impression counts are the same.
On LinkedIn
LinkedIn's post analytics show both numbers side by side: impressions (the number of times your post was shown) and members reached (the number of distinct members and Pages that saw your post, not including repeat views). LinkedIn marks both as estimates.
On X
X's developer documentation lists these metrics for a post: reposts, quotes, likes, replies, impressions, bookmarks, link clicks, profile clicks and engagements. Impressions are documented as not unique (one person viewing twice counts as two), and there is no unique-viewer count in the list, so on X you compare posts by impressions and engagements rather than by reach.
Which one to watch
- If you want new people to see your posts, watch reach, since repeat views do not inflate it.
- If you want to know how often your message was in front of people, watch impressions.
- A wide gap between the two (impressions three times reach, say) means the post kept coming back to the same people.
Either way, pair the number with interactions: engagement rate tells you how much of that attention turned into a reply, a like or a click.
Sources
- LinkedIn Help, Post analytics for your content (impressions and members reached).
- X Developer Platform, Metrics (the metrics X reports per post).
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