Why Your Organic Facebook Reach is Declining
It’s no secret that Facebook’s organic reach has been declining over the last few years. If you are a marketer and have noticed that fewer and fewer people seem to see your Facebook content unless it is boosted, you aren’t going crazy. That is happening and it’s because of the Facebook algorithm.
But there is a reason it is happening and there are ways to beat the algorithm and get your posts seen by the right people at the right time even with the decline in organic reach. Here is an explanation of what is happening to organic growth and how to beat the algorithm.
There’s too much content
Everyone publishes content on Facebook now and everyone wants their content to be seen. That has created a very crowded Facebook newsfeed. Facebook noticed that people were becoming overloaded with content and that organic reach was declining despite the algorithm.
Getting your content seen on Facebook has become an intense competition. Every company is battling to have their content seen by their people. The problem is, many people are fans of companies that directly compete with each other.
Because of that direct competition, Facebook had to make a choice on which content was seen. That choice was driven by two things: content and relevancy.
Facebook wants to give you the content you want
The extreme influx of new content forced Facebook to make decisions on which content was seen organically and which content wasn’t seen. Facebook has always had the goal of delivering people the content they want to see when they want to see it.
This means that whatever content is the most relevant to the Facebook user, that will be the content they will see. Facebook only wants to show people the content that they believe they want to see. Loading the newsfeed with everything that gets published every day is too much. It would drive people from Facebook.
In a nutshell, the relevancy measure is there to help you and Facebook users. There is no point in someone seeing your content if they won’t take action on it. Of course, that doesn’t make it any less frustrating for digital marketers.
Thankfully, there is a way to surpass the algorithm and get the reach you want.
More Facebook ad spend equals more reach
It’s not the ideal solution, but it’s the only one that seems to work every time. While video content and live video content have still managed to perform well organically despite the algorithm, Facebook is turning it’s platform into a largely pay for play model with companies.
Truth is, if you want your content seen, you have to pay for it. Facebook wants to make sure the users see the content from their friends, family, and pages they regularly visit first. If you want a spot on the newsfeed, you are going to have to pay for it.
As Facebook’s ads manager and ad tools have gotten more sophisticated, digital marketers have long been suspicious of the motives. There were rumblings of Facebook wanting to make advertisers hand over more and more money and unfortunately it seems like those rumbling were true.
While Facebook does still reward great content with good organic reach, if you are a brand, you have to pay to be seen. Facebook knows their worth. They know that their users are valuable and they know that brands have little choice but to pay to reach their followers.
Of course, you can still spend time on video and live video in an effort to cut advertising costs. There are plenty of ways to be creative and engage your Facebook followers. Embrace creativity and you will be able to beat the algorithm.
If you want to learn more about advertising on Facebook, my done-for-you system can help.