Facebook is like the champion that gets pitted with newer, feistier, and trendier contenders. But while competing social media platforms continue to put on a good fight, Facebook still manages to rise above—owing to the ever-active users on the platform. Yes, they have the most active users worldwide. Yes, Facebook is still king. It still has a lot of life in it, and as a brand, a business, or a content creator, playing in an arena with 86.75 million Filipino users which grows 8% year after year is the market you would want to tap on and maximize—that is if you are willing to pay.
Arguably since the birth of Zuckerberg’s powerhouse platform in 2004, users such as businesses, brands, and individual creators rely heavily on organic reach, or the number of people who see posts at no cost. However, ten years later, organic reach started to decline, affecting significant results for end users. In 2014, organic reach was estimated at around 16%. Four years later, that number dropped to around 2%, and as we speak, many users see lower numbers. Though we occasionally see pages managing to punch through the wall, and getting a healthy market share in terms of organic reach, through viral posts, trend hijacking, and other digital marketing strategies, this is largely the exception rather than the rule.
So, why did it happen? Is organic reach on Facebook really “dead”?
The answer is not quite yet. But it’s already on life support because of multiple factors playing around. One of which is the rise of Paid Advertising. With Facebook’s algorithm becoming more and more sophisticated, as with any service, upgrades tend to entail cost. As businesses, every inch, and every corner should generate income. Hence the need to grow the dominance of the paid advertising model by prioritizing paid content over organic content in user’s feeds.
That’s what happened in 2014. It was deliberate. When Facebook’s parent company, now called Meta, announced the reduction of organic reach in business pages in favor of promoting paid content, it became clearer that Facebook is becoming a pay-to-play platform. Do you want to reach a wider audience—a premium audience, at that? Then, you would have to pay for it. This simple idea ensures that content from brands and businesses remains behind the gated copious playground of paid promotion.
The rumble inside the engagement-first algorithm test tube
Another factor that greatly affected organic reach is the constant and sometimes gut-punching algorithm changes and prioritization of paid content. It’s called the “engagement-first” algorithm. This simply means that content that generates likes, shares, and comments from friends and family will continue to bury brands and businesses’ content in the newsfeed unless they pay. People gravitate towards content of the people they know, rather than content from pages that aim to sell or promote. Needless to say, Facebook’s focus is on “meaningful interactions” or content that fosters conversation and engagement among users. It’s an emotional platform, which is why content that target the emotional center of an issue performs better than generic content.
This is also how user-generated content or UGCs started to become a thing—a paid promotion loophole because again, word-of-mouth is still an effective marketing and advertising tool. If you get people to talk about you, through close-circle interactions, that’s a free ad for you, and this is the part where you could say the best things in life are free because in this case, you just gained popularity or revenue without pulling out a dime from your pocket.
With more brands, businesses, influencers, and content creators vying for attention on Facebook, the platform is becoming increasingly crowded. The sheer volume of posts competing for space in users’ newsfeeds means that organic posts are more likely to get lost in the shuffle. Even if a post gets decent engagement, it’s often not enough to ensure it reaches a significant portion of a brand’s follower base.
Additionally, Facebook is continuously optimizing the newsfeed to deliver the most relevant content to each individual user. This means that users may only see a fraction of the content from the pages they follow. As a result, businesses are seeing a dwindling return on organic efforts, with many opting to invest in paid advertising to gain visibility.
Content-type Shift
There is a reason why TikTok and YouTube are steadily speeding up their climb to the top—video content. Vlogging, b-rolls, short and long-form videos, and live streaming tend to get more engagement. If you are an established personality, brand, or business, “get more engagement” is an understatement. That’s because videos can easily rack up significant engagements through views, alone. The more a content video is compelling, the higher the chances of it seeing success with organic reach. The only catch is the sheer volume of videos other creators upload on the platform. This is why most videos use clickbait and place the hook during the first 5 seconds of their videos. 5 seconds or less is the only amount of time you have to hook your audience and compel them to make other clicks on your content and your page. #Engagement
Facebook puts a premium on mobile-first experience. This means more users engage with the platform on mobile devices, with limited screen space. Mobile experience prioritizes bite-sized audiovisual content, videos, stories, and sponsored content. This is why unless boosted or promoted, static or image-based content find themselves at a disadvantage.
All in all, the key point here is “pay to play”. If you want to succeed in a platform that houses 3.07 billion users worldwide, including paid advertisement promotions and carefully crafting campaigns that target specific audience demographics through compelling content in your digital strategy is necessary.
In summary, while organic reach may not be completely extinct, it is certainly on life support. If your brand or business is still relying on organic reach as a primary strategy on Facebook, it’s time to reconsider your approach and embrace the reality of a paid-first social media landscape.
