Dive Brief:
- Facebook's admission late last year that organic reach was in decline upset many brands and marketers, and the social giant's suggestion that brands purchase news feed ads to ensure their posts were seen lead many to believe the move was meant to drive ad revenue.
- However, a new study from EdgeRank Checker shows that the decline of organic reach began in February 2012 and saw its biggest drops in November and December of 2013, prior to Facebook's announcement.
- Ultimately, users adding more friends and liking more brands, thus placing more content in their newsfeeds, contributed to the start of the decline before Facebook made any sort of algorithm changes
Dive Insight:
Perhaps the most interesting part of the research was that the smallest percentage of organic reach decline occurred after the algorithm change. The main point this study makes is that brands and marketers may not be as aware as they believe they are about their organic reach. Also, it could be that Facebook was unwilling to admit until recently that the strong decline in organic reach was due to their algorithm changes.