Facebook organic reach decline,do Facebook ads work? Implications for Facebook digital marketing strategy...
What began as a fairy tale for Businesses in building up large communities of fans on Facebook and advertising freely to them organically is sadly no more. With the resultant Facebook organic reach decline, what are the implications for small and medium enterprises and businesses trying to develop a digital marketing strategy? Do Facebook ads work? What strategies should you employ to increase Facebook organic reach?
Facebook Organic Reach Decline
In February 2014 Social@Ogilvy research indicated a total decline in Facebook's organic reach of 49 % on average from 12.05% in October 2013 to 6.15% in February 2014. Furthermore the research indicated a larger drop in in Facebook's organic reach for Brands depending on the number of likes dropping as low as 2.11 % for brands with more than 500,000 likes. Further research from Socialflow indicating a 42% in decline for 3000 media companies in the first half of 2016, prior to Facebook tweaking its newsfeed algorithm, with a further 10% drop to mid-July 2016 and Facebook sources have advised that one should assume that organic reach will eventually drop to zero. What are the implications for small and medium enterprises and businesses trying to develop a digital marketing strategy? What strategies should you employ to boost Facebook organic reach? Is Facebook paid advertising worth it?
Whilst the drop in Facebook organic reach for brands with larger numbers of likes was bigger than smaller pages the relative drop across pages has been consistent.
Furthermore what began with large brands has now spread to media companies and will most likely continue for all sectors of business and thus the Facebook advertising model has significantly changed from owned media driving earned to paid media driving earned. With ongoing changes to the Facebook newsfeed algorithm unless your content is relevant, engaging, liked, shared and commented on, the chances of your post appearing on a follower’s page organically are quite low. That being said one of the enormous benefits of using Facebook lies in its potential to develop earned conversation and engagement. Indeed research by Nielsen has shown that social ads with a friend’s endorsement are likely to generate 55% more recall vs non-social ads, and 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, with 70% trusting consumer’s opinions online. As such the old Bill Gates adage that ‘Content is King’ has never been more true. To understand this further it is necessary to look at how the Facebook newsfeed algorithm works.
Facebook Newsfeed Algorithm (Edgerank) Whilst Edgerank analyses more than 100,000 indicators and it is continually evolving via machine learning and Facebook business objectives, it principally it looks at the following:
Increase Facebook Organic Reach
The question then arises, what should you post, what medium and how frequently?
Generally speaking successful posts are short, visual and optimized (via Facebook page insights) and Facebook prioritizes photos/videos over links over status updates. It is also important to be aware that the model has also evolved from conversational to editorial which encompasses storytelling that is sensitive to trending topics, news and events happening in the present. User generated content is huge as exemplified by Lego's social marketing strategy. Analysis by Socialbakers looking at 4,445 brand pages and 670,000 posts show video as the most effective medium with an average Facebook organic reach of 8.7%, link text at 5.3% and text only at 5.8%. Cisco has predicted that 59%of all internet traffic will be video by 2019.(For further tips on video check out Fleur's blog here). As a small business if you are posting 3 or 4 times a day with no engagement then your posts will start to compete with each other leading to a decline in organic reach. Thus it is important to use tools such as Facebook page insights to monitor the best time of day, day and type of posts your audience like. (For tactics on how to gain a basic social media following check out Michael's blog here) Questions will also arise in relation to budget limitations and lack of audience attention. Thus all publishers need to be selective in what is published and promoted using strategies that address Customer engagement and provide Customer value whilst perhaps using Facebook paid advertising to target non brand advocates identified through Facebooks API and Facebook page insights, to kick start campaigns that will hopefully generate enough social capital to share organically.Hubspot also recommend encouraging fans to interact with your posts when seen, reallocating time and effort towards owned assets and maximal use of Facebook targeting capabilities using; ;conversion tracking; custom audiences; lookalike audiences; audience insights; website custom audiences and Facebook exchange. For tips on how to boost your organic reach check out Neil Patel's excellent article here. Do Facebook Ads work?
Whether Facebook advertising is worth it depends on; the size of your business and budget; what the objectives of your digital marketing strategy are (e.g. ROI in terms of likes, shares, CTR, brand awareness or sales conversions) and where your customers live in social media land. Rob Peterson outlines an interesting campaign by Castrol Motorcycle oil combining organic with paid showing it increased reach and engagement whilst with paid Facebook advertising they were also able to target their US demographic and increase the number of fans by 30%. It is also important to be aware of the difference between social media marketing and inbound content marketing strategies. The former is usually used by big businesses with large budgets developing brand awareness whereas the latter drives traffic to your website through social media such as Facebook. (For further tips on branding check out Clives blog here or email marketing check Daniels blog here ). A study by We Are Social indicates that there are 7.2 billion people in the world, 2.1 billion of whom actively engage in social media with the average user spending 2hrs 25min per day on social networks. Aaron Smith at Pew research in 2014 identified Facebook as the dominant social networking platform with 57% usage among American adults rising to 73% for the 12 to 17 age bracket and an intensification of daily visits to 64%. Emarketer published a study in November 2014 indicating that the average user spends 42.1 mins daily on Facebook.
Research by Shareaholic indicates that in the 4th quarter of 2014 the top 8 social networks drove 31.24% of overall traffic to websites with Facebook having a 24.63% share.
Furthermore research by Wolfgang Digital in 2014 showed that the average CTR for a Facebook newsfeed ad is 2.09% which is not far off Google AdWords 3% although the bounce rate for the former is higher.Interestingly, in its 2015 Social referrals that matter report, Shareaholic indicated that Facebook users tend to be less engaged and although having a lower referral rate Youtubers were more engaged with lower average bounce rates (43.19%) and higher average time on site and visits.
However stats and audiences may change over time and what's hot today could be history tomorrow. MySpace was huge 10 years ago but where is it now? Also with future trends in Virtual and Augmented Reality on the horizon, the social networks of the future may be far removed from those of today. If the only constant in the physical or digital Universe is change, why not embrace it?
AuthorJohn Cahill is a Serial entrepreneur with a background in IT, Digital Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Healthcare, Social Work and International pubs and hospitality.
19 Comments
Jackie Healy
1/29/2017 21:58:15
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Jean Rice
1/29/2017 23:02:10
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Jacqueline Cahill
1/30/2017 00:46:18
Great work Johnny !!
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1/30/2017 12:23:36
Thank you Ms. Cahill, your wisdom and encouragement much appreciated :-)
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Ciara Chaomhanach
1/30/2017 05:52:22
Very interesting read
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Maurice Rice
1/30/2017 09:39:09
Interesting research. You might like to check out one of the most widely read (and funny) bloggers on media and advertising. Must read for all in ad land - http://adcontrarian.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1
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collette kearns
1/30/2017 12:40:50
Great Read Johnny.
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1/30/2017 13:21:55
Hi Johnny,
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1/30/2017 15:54:10
Hey David,
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Tracy Barry
1/30/2017 15:35:51
Interesting read Johnny. Got any alternative suggestions?
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1/30/2017 15:56:52
Hi Tracey,
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Lisa
1/30/2017 21:38:57
Great blog very informed.
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John Cahill
2/11/2017 16:30:49
Tks Lisa,
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Gerry G
1/30/2017 22:50:44
I like the final punch line about embracing change :-) Its certainly all change in the world at the moment !
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John Cahill
2/11/2017 16:31:45
Tks Gerry G,
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