Chapter 49
Reach

To evaluate the size of the audience reached at least once during an ad campaign.

Reach is the number or percentage of people in the target audience reached by a single exposure (advertisement) in a given period of time. An exposure is defined as an opportunity for members of the target audience to see or hear a particular ad. This does not mean that the target audience actually sees or hears the ad. For example, your company may advertise on television, but that does not mean that the target audience sees it. When a member of the target audience actually sees or hears an advertising message, this is known as an impression. Internet advertising refers to this as a view.

As a brief illustration, assume that there are ten households in a particular market. Five of the households are exposed to a company’s advertisement one or more times. Since the total market is ten households, and five are exposed, the reach is 50%.

As described at the beginning, reach does not actually measure impressions, only that the person was in the general location of the message. An ad in a magazine counts as an exposure to everyone receiving the magazine and whether or not they saw the ad. A 30-second television commercial counts as an exposure even if the person left for the kitchen during the ad. Therefore reach must be used conservatively, perhaps even reducing the reach number by an estimate of the probability that the ad was actually seen. Reach is a decision about how many persons in the target market should be reached by exposure one or more times. A company may prefer to use its money to reach a smaller percentage of the target market with a greater frequency. Much depends on the product and on an estimate of how many exposures are necessary to register an actual impression. Reach would be incorporated in a description of the proposed advertising campaign, including the target audience, the creative content, the media vehicle, and the costs. Media companies usually have media kits that provide data on reach, as well as other target audience profile demographics including age, income, and race. Media companies include television and radio stations, magazine and newspaper publishers, outdoor media (billboards), and online portals.

Reach is set during the marketing planning process. Marketers would either contact media companies directly, or use an ad agency, to learn about each media vehicle’s reach statistics. Reach is an estimate that one must use cautiously. Media people will generally estimate reach on the high side (because they can charge more), but they are supposed to observe rules for estimation set by the Advertising Research Foundation.

Knowing reach enables marketers to more effectively select the media vehicle that best captures the target audience they seek. The actual reach data may vary depending on the time of day and the program (if it is broadcast) or the content, so marketers must decide what is the most effective reach they can achieve for the proposed investment.

iLaura Lake, Learn About Market Reach and Why It’s Important, The Balance, June 26, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2017 from https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-market-reach-2295559