Is Organic Reach Dead on Facebook?
[Ear muff warning]
“What the fuck Facebook?”
Step inside Born Fitness headquarters and it’s a phrase you were likely to hear just a few months ago. I assume we’re not the only ones who uttered those words after Facebook implemented yet another News Feed sorting algorithm.
For those not familiar, Facebook has drastically reduced a business’ organic reach per fan. The reasoning behind this is Facebook has grown to over 1 billion global users. The number of friends and page likes are higher than ever. As a result the noise has become almost deafening and Facebook is now determining what content you see and what you don’t.
A study done by EdgeRank Checker of 1,000 pages that posted almost 50,000 times confirms that the organic reach per page has decreased over the last 2 years:
- Feb 2012 = 16%
- Sep 2013 = 12.60%
- Nov 2013 = 10.15%
- Dec 2013 = 7.83%
- Mar 2014 = 6.51%
This shows almost a 60% decline. Rather than give up on Facebook here is what we did to continue to thrive.
Increase Reach and Engagement
This may be hard to hear, but you’re going to have to spend some money on Facebook and “boost” your post. If two Jewish brothers can do it, you can too.
All it took was $5.
We have been running tests on Facebook for boosted posts compared to non-boosted posts. The only way to determine if it will work for you is to test. Here’s the breakdown from two posts a day apart:
We increased our reach 1101%.
Was the content different? Not really.
Did we post at a different time? No.
Did we invest a ton of money and pay off Facebook? Last time I checked, one share of Facebook is a lot more than $5.
While it’s possible that one post was simple more popular than another, the reach goes beyond content popularity.
The purpose of this example is to show you what most likely the majority of your competitors aren’t doing right now. Remember, he who gets the most leads usually gets the most customers.
Target…Target…Target
At Born Fitness we allocate a percentage of each day determining who our customers are and how we can better serve them. We want to know their gender, age, location, fitness knowledge, etc.
By better understanding our customers we can also more effectively market to them. This includes on Facebook.
When you are creating a Facebook ad you are given these fields to complete
This may look basic, but under these categories lay hundreds of thousands of different targeting options. You simply need to find the ones that apply to your target market. Facebook has made dramatic improvements to their targeting options within the past year.
So you may be asking yourself, “What if I don’t have time to find out all of this information about my target market and existing customers?”
I’d first tell you make time. I’d then tell you to go to Similar Web for 10 minutes. Similar Web is a free analytics tool that can tell you a great deal about the people going to both you and your competitors’ sites. Then apply this useful information to your target audience on Facebook.
My advice: Always make sure your main focus is on channels that you control – your website, your newsletter, and your blog. Spend your time creating leads with your newsletter and native ads on your blog. This way you are in the driver seat and not someone at Facebook. By relying on a third party, you forfeit the majority of your rights to sell to that audience. Some may consider it unfair but it’s reality. Then determine if you have the budget and time to reinforce your reach using Facebook Ads.
