HOW MANY PEOPLE...?

HOW MANY PEOPLE...?

How Many People? is a calculator that turns your Reach into an equivalent number of people.
Type in a number and find out the true size of your audience.

How Many People?
A calculator that gives meaning to Reach, Impressions and media coverage by turning numbers into real life equivalents 

How to use it 

  1. Enter any number between 500 and 1 billion from your PR and marketing activity – think press coverage circulation, OTS, impressions, video views or social media reach – to determine just how many people that *really* is 

  2. Filter the calculator results by category for a super relevant result. From travel and food, to business and up-to-the-minute pop culture, choose the one most likely to wow your boss, wider business or client 

  3. Re-calculate if you need a new stat. We’ve provided a range of options on the same theme so you can find the most appropriate one  

  4. Take your easy-to-visualise, attention-grabbing stat to your next senior meeting to show impact in a more meaningful, tangible way 

Got a stat you want to see on the 'How Many People?' tool? 

Did your recent PR campaign reach 75,000 people? That's enough to fill Wembley Stadium. How about that social media post appearing in front of 12,500 potential customers? That's roughly how many attend Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity every year. Go viral on TikTok with 8,000,000 views? That's pretty much the population of New York. 

Even if you feel a little shy about your 800 coverage views, equate it to people aboard the London Eye for a damn cool stat (and remember, a small but super relevant readership on a niche publication is a win). 

The range in the tool is one to 1 billion, but if you've got a number in mind that you'd like to see visualised, or you're from an industry not represented in the tool, let us know.  

Why is putting media circulation, or metrics such as Reach or Impressions, into context so important for marketers? 

We all know the buzz of landing coverage on a top-tier target publication and some of you may have been extra lucky when something’s gone ‘viral’. But when you don’t live and breathe comms (like a lot of people in business who, let’s face it, have a million other priorities), its understandably harder to ‘get’ the impact of public relations and marketing. 

Rather than being impressive, big numbers can (at best) be hard to comprehend or, worse, seem unbelievable. 

Our industry still grapples with a reputation issue. Nearly a third (29%) of senior marketers worry the Board see marketing as ‘fluffy’, according to our recent survey. 

When it comes to reporting back to the C-Suite, there’s a risk of hard-earned results (without context) seeming like vanity metrics, riding the cliché wave, when all they really want to hear is the impact on the bottom line. You guessed it, ROI… 

Not all marketing campaigns can be directly attributed back to sales, but there’s an unquestionable link to brand health. The value of brand awareness is undeniable, and for awareness, you need Reach. So helping colleagues to visualise large numbers is essential. 

And we know that some board members are at least interested in Reach – nearly half (40%) of senior marketers told us so. But around a third (29%) of marketers have received feedback that their huge numbers just aren’t believable. 

Making big numbers make sense 

Big numbers and the human brain don't go hand-in-hand, according to Hyde and Spelke. They were all about the ‘cardinality’ of a number – AKA it’s ‘how-many-ness’. 

Big numbers should be good, right? Sadly, not always. We're more likely to interact with smaller figures in everyday life, so that’s what our minds acclimatise to. 

What's more, research has shown that the brain is built to compare rather than count. We can work out the difference between 1 and 3, but 1,256,071 and 1,256,073 becomes tricky – despite there being two digits between each. 

This might explain why your Reach total in the hundreds of thousands is met with a yawn (10% of marketers have genuinely experienced that. Ouch). It’s tricky to comprehend and not arresting. Even those who deal with numbers everyday (e.g numbers with £s in front of them), will struggle to visualise the scale.  

So, follow up your 48,000 views with “that’s the capacity of Lord’s Cricket Ground” and wait for the lightbulb moment when you’re presenting to stakeholders. It feels more tangible, comparable and memorable. 

A third (30%) of senior marketers said they only get one hour or less every YEAR to present results to the C-Suite. 

And then for some, the reaction can be deflating, with bosses distractedly chatting among themselves (24%) and even taking phone calls (18%). 

Data’s an important tool in the boardroom. But, when it comes to presenting impact, it’s natural to assume the numbers will do the heavy lifting. Nuh-uh. 

Break your impressive (but incomprehensible) figures down into something more meaningful. Craft and tell a story around them. If you can make the results more relevant and tangible, your marketing impact update will be the agenda item they look forward to most. 

How PRs and marketers can effectively communicate value 

Make your next report memorable 

Four in 10 marketers wish it was easier to demonstrate the impact of marketing. If this resonates, we hope our new Reach calculator gives your reporting a glow-up. 

Stop and think about the big numbers. What do they truly mean? If our brains can’t process big numbers, why should we expect that of the Board? 

No longer will they look stumped at your ‘ta-dah’ moment of Reach into the millions. Equate it to easy-to-visualise populations, venue capacities, event attendees and even Taylor Swift fans to make your results pack a punch. 

You’re a click of a button away from a killer one liner and lasting impact with our powerful tool, How Many People? 

FAQs

There's nothing better than feeling like you know your stuff when presenting results. But even so, the regular board meeting might feel like Groundhog Day – 43% of senior marketers find themselves answering the same ol’ questions on what the numbers mean. 

If you’d like clarity on what different metrics mean and the value they add, here’s a handy list of questions they might pose and how to nail the responses: 

  • This refers to any media coverage about your brand that’s shared on social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter – how much longer will we say that for?). It’s also worth noting that the social media content shared by a news outlet or other digital platforms often differs from that of the website. 

    Brands can often gain great social media coverage from viral content shared on their own channels, if it gets picked up by others (for example, The Guardian’s social media accounts. This is even more likely if the media outlets think a brand's content will boost its own social media engagement rate. National journalists also get KPI-ed on how many social shares their articles get.

  • ‘Good’ press coverage varies depending on your marketing objective. But essentially, if your brand – and the key messages you want to promote – appear in publications with a relevant readership that reflects your target audience, it’s ‘good’ because it’ll help you grow your profile with your target market.

    Ideally, you’re mentioned high up the article to build memorability. We call this fame coverage – there’s findability (public relations for SEO) too, which is all about landing quality backlinks on authoritative sites to get Google to notice. We could get super nerdy, but we’ve got more on PR for a range of goals if you want to understand it more.

    Positive sentiment in media coverage contributes to brand building. It’s achievable in various ways: helpful advice from an expert, new relevant data, or an example of your company doing something great for a community with a case study that brings it to life. Anna Górska and Grzegorz Mazurek found that positive media coverage of a corporate brand’s CEO benefits brand equity.

  • Yes, especially if it’s sustained. Even better if your competitors aren’t active in PR as you can own the discourse on a particular topic and grow your share of voice. A national newspaper article will generate large numbers of coverage views but, to maximise impact, you should be targeting the publications you know your prospects are reading. Then you’ll reach the largest possible, relevant audience.

    For example; if you’re an affordable dog food brand targeting families, you might want to prioritise relevant sections in national tabloids, women’s lifestyle, family and pet media.

    If your goal is ‘awareness’ then 'fame' digital PR – which sits at the top of the marketing funnel – is for you.

    We can measure its effectiveness by looking at the Reach of media outlets or, to get an even greater feel, the estimated number of coverage views, as well as the prominence of a brand, key messaging and readership.

  • Reach refers to how many people have seen something about your company in earned, paid or social media platforms.

    This could be the total number of readers who flicked or scrolled through a publication with brand coverage in, or unique users who have seen a Facebook post.

    The number of Impressions, on the other hand, is how many times it’s been seen (so includes multiple hits from the same user).

    For more definitions of different marketing and PR metrics, check out our Digital PR Glossary.

  • Here’s a simple formula to calculate Reach: divide the total number of Impressions by frequency.

    To find out the Reach of a publication, refer to PR databases or input into an analytics tool like CoverageBook. Its algorithm also generates ‘estimated coverage views’ to give you a better feel for how many landed on an article citing your brand.

    Ad management tools for platforms like TikTok or Meta give you data on each social media metric.

  • Reach is a great KPI if your objective is aligned with brand building and raising awareness.

    In digital PR, estimated coverage views (i.e. those who are likely to have read it) are your best bet. We don’t use circulation because it defines the total readership of a publication and as we all know, no-one reads every section so it’s an exaggerated number that’s dubious. In social media marketing, Reach is the number of unique users that have seen your specific post or page.

    If your goals sit further down the funnel, Reach is less relevant. For example; backlinks and URDs (Unique Referring Domains) are better for media coverage to drive search visibility. Over on social, you might aim for a strong average Engagement Rate on social media ads when trying to move people from awareness to consideration.

  • Both Reach and Engagement hold value on overall brand health. Despite often working in tandem as part of a wider marketing campaign, they serve different goals.

    Reach supports awareness and - hopefully - improving sentiment towards a company. Achieving wide Reach with a strong frequency helps consumers build their impression of a brand.

    High engagement rates, particularly in a social media marketing campaign, suggest that a brand is successfully building a relationship with fans and creating a community via its posted content. It also acts as a feedback tool and engagements like ‘saves’ can illustrate purchase intent.

    And if your brand is memorable, it’s more likely to result in new customers, increased word of mouth or repeat purchases.

    It's well known that customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition. So, Engagement is key. But it all starts with achieving and maintaining a healthy Reach so you’re front of mind.

  • The rule of seven Impressions is a marketing principle based on the idea that a consumer must see a product / service from a brand at least 7 times before making the purchase decision.

    This level of visibility across media coverage, native advertising, advertising and social media encourages target customers to engage or choose a product over a competitor. There isn’t a precise number of Impressions for sure-fire wins, but 7 is considered the minimum.

  • Impression share (IS) is the percentage of Impressions that your ads receive, compared to the total number they could get. It’s an ad metric determined by others in your category.

    A good Impression share depends on the keywords you're targeting with PPC ads. To calculate your Impression share, divide Impressions by total eligible Impressions. For unique, unbranded or low-competition terms, a good Impression share is between 90% and 95%. Where keywords are more competitive and popular, or your budget is minimal, a fair target is around 60%.

  • The cost of a social media Impression depends on a brand's industry and the platform used. It can also vary depending on the spend available.

    To calculate this, multiply the total number of Impressions from your ad or campaign by the CPM (cost-per-mille, or per thousand Impressions). Drop a £ or $ at the beginning of the number, and you'll have the earned media value.

Are you looking for fame and findability for your brand?