Guide to Facebook Reach: What Marketers Need to Know

The onset of the global pandemic named Coronavirus has completely transformed the field of business marketing. Not just business marketing, but it has brought several major changes in Internet trends and social media usage.

More and more businesses are shifting to the online platform in recent times and there has been a huge increase in the number of Internet users effectively increasing the size of the marketplace on the Internet. 

The trend of social media networks and social media marketing was already in vogue and is further enhanced under recent circumstances. A lot of people are using social media platforms, like Facebook, for longer hours and businesses are trying to make the best use of this opportunity. 

Facebook: The Business Marketing Sensation

Facebook is the most popular platform for business marketing in recent times. Major enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses as well as startups are utilizing the platform for marketing purposes. The huge number of Facebook users all across the globe is the key reason behind this preference. 

Although, marketing on Facebook involves taking several factors into consideration and marketers must be well-aware of the algorithms and metrics and the latest market techniques to reap the benefits of Facebook marketing. Facebook reach is a key concern in the field of Facebook marketing. 

In this article, we have discussed Facebook reach in a detailed and comprehensive manner. We have discussed every important aspect of Facebook reach and how you can effectively enhance your reach on the platform through improved techniques and a better understanding of the latest trends and metrics. 

Important Things to Know About Facebook Algorithms to Increase Reach

Studies suggest that as of 2020, organic reach on Facebook is still on a declining index. The average reach of an organic Facebook post has gone down by 5.2%. (This was 5.5% in 2019 and 7.7% in 2018).

Along with that, the average engagement rate of an organic Facebook post was around 0.25% in 2020 and the number has dropped by the end of the year to about 0.08% for pages having more than 100k followers. 

Every Facebook marketing requires both organic as well as paid content and both of these contribute to the Facebook reach of that particular entity. The algorithm of branded organic Facebook content can be confusing without basic knowledge about it.

Facebook Algorithm: What Is it and What Does it Do?

Facebook algorithm is the key element that decides which posts appear on your Facebook newsfeed every time you open the site or app. It also decides the order of the posts showing up in a user’s feed.

It is basically a multi-layered machine learning model that delivers such rankings. It aims to feature those posts on a user’s feed which it considers to be the most valuable and meaningful to a user on a long-term basis. 

Instead of the previous norm of presenting Facebook posts in their chronological order, the Facebook algorithm now evaluates different relevant posts and arranges them in descending order of interest for an individual user. 

There are about 2.7 billion Facebook users who warrant constant upgrades and modifications to the Facebook algorithm. When it comes to achieving increased organic reach, it must be mentioned that the Facebook algorithm prefers content with high user engagements.  

How does the Facebook Algorithm Work?

• In the initial stage, it considers every post available in a user’s network and every post is scored on the basis of predetermined ranking signals.
• After this, it rejects or dismisses the posts with lower engagement potential. This is based on a specific user’s past engagement behaviors. 
• It also discards unwanted content and posts that are not preferred by a particular user/s (for instance, clickbait, misinformation, and any content type that was previously disliked).
• After this, a specially engineered and powerful neural network assess the remaining posts to enable a personalized scoring for every post (For instance: A user “X” is 20% likely to watch cooking tutorial videos from her Home and Lifestyle Group, but is 95% likely to send a heart to react to a dog video) and then ranks them in the order of such personalized preferences.
• The AI and machine learning-based technology then arrange a varied set of media types and post sources to ensure versatility and an interesting variety of posts on their feed.

Now, you may be wondering about the factors to consider and optimize your content to get a post on the top of the feed of your target audience. 

This will essentially depend on the kind of users you are targeting with a particular post. Along with that, Facebook uses several ranking signals that include factors like the speed of a user’s internet connection, their engagement behavior, and a lot more. 

Although when it comes to taking care of your ends to make your post preferable for the Facebook algorithm, there are four ranking signals which are the most essential when it comes to better rankings of a post on a user’s news feed. They are: 

1. Relationship: The source of the post that a user commonly engages with, that is whether it is from an individual, a business, or is it a news source or a public figure’s post. Engagement and interactions can be in the form of messages, tags, likes, comments, followings, etc.
2. Type of content: The Facebook algorithm also considers the type of media present in a post, and also the most common types of media a user interacts with (includes, photos, videos, links, etc.)
3. Popularity: The behaviour of the users who have already seen the post is also a factor of consideration, especially the friends and connections of a particular user.
4. Recency: Chronology is still not completely irrelevant and the Facebook algorithm still places newer posts higher on a user’s feed.

Tips to Make Best Utilization of Facebook Algorithm

It is agreeable that a dog’s cute video is unbeatable when it comes to Facebook reach. But if you apply the right techniques and strategies for your branded content on Facebook, you can effectively enhance Facebook reach. You must establish effective connections with everyone from your target audience.

This is primarily because posts from pages that a particular user has engaged or interacted with in the past will be placed higher in the user’s feed. Here are a few tips to keep in mind, to make the best use of the Facebook algorithm and effectively enhance the reach of your brand content and Facebook page.

• Make sure you give regular and timely replies to your audience.

• Make use of the “action-bumping logic” of the algorithm by encouraging your audience to reply to each other about a post. Facebook algorithm prefers posts that people want to share and discuss with their friends.

• Love reactions are more preferable to likes. The algorithm has given more weightage to reactions over simple likes in the recent past. So you must aim for content that can get love to react instead of one like. In such cases, marketers also go for social media sentiment analysis to optimize their content and get the preferred reactions.

• Recency or chronological order of posts is still very essential for the rankings of a post which means that the newest posts go higher up a user’s feed. That means, you need to figure out when the majority of your target audience is online and post content at such times.
• Remember that Facebook Stories are not a part of the newsfeed and they are not regulated by the algorithm. Although they are very effective in driving traffic and according to Facebook, 58% of people have said that they visited a brand’s page or website for more information after watching a story from the particular brand. A Facebook study indicates that people want the following from branded stories they see:

• 52% of people want stories that are easily understandable.
• 50% of people want to see new products and services on branded stories.
• 46% of people want tips or advice on brand stories.
• Having a business Facebook group is a very effective strategy as it becomes an alternative channel for connecting with your customers, fans, and community as well as an alternative channel for your content to reach the target audience.
• Going Live on Facebook can be another great way to enhance your brand’s reach on the platform. The Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 has led to the increased popularity of “Live” videos on Facebook in the U.S. by almost 50%.
• Studies also suggest that live videos have 6 times more engagement  than conventional videos on the platform. Quite naturally, it is a favourite of the Facebook algorithm. Virtual events have also become popular during this lockdown phase and brands must make the best use of them as well.

• Every Facebook user can choose 30 favourite pages and people. These 30 pages and people get an automatic free pass from the Facebook algorithm. Encourage your followers to prioritize your content in their own timelines, and become a favourite for an increased reach of your posts.
• Watch time and completion rates of a video are very crucial ranking signals to the Facebook algorithm. This is primarily because these metrics indicate that a user has enjoyed the content of the video and watched the entire video. Thus, it is a great choice to make long-form videos with high-quality content that users watch and engage with. 
• Along with the above tip on making long-form videos for users, it is important to note that Facebook, since 2019, has started to score and prioritize a few key signals for video content. They are:
• Loyalty and Intent: Videos that users search for and come back to.
• Video length and view duration: Videos that users watch past the 1-minute mark while having a length of more than 3 minutes.
• Originality: Original videos, which are not repurposed from any other source are of great value. 
• DO NOT ever post any kind of clickbait or any content that consists of misinformation or any harmful, graphic or violent content. Along with that,  keep in mind of the following points when you are posting certain content on the platform.

These are the things that you MUST AVOID: 

• Do not post content with links to websites or pages that contain scraped or stolen content and have no added value.
• Never post borderline content (something that should be prohibited but is not).
• Any kind of content with misinformation and any kinds of fake news.
• Do not ever post any misleading health information.
• Never post any manipulated videos that are or can be flagged as false or inappropriate by third-party entities.
• Making use of your employees is a very effective and efficient way to increase your reach. Your employees are your best advocates and have more credibility and authority with the Facebook algorithm even more than your brand page itself. They have their own set of followers and friends and have established credibility and authority amongst them as well. 

Facebook Analytics for Better Reach of Your Content

Now that you have an idea of the Facebook algorithm, the next thing to consider is Facebook Analytics. Knowing the ins and outs of Facebook Analytics can be a very effective way to enhance your Facebook reach and is a must-know aspect for marketers trying to successfully operate a Facebook marketing campaign.

Knowing about How Your Page is Doing

The “Overview Tab” of Facebook Insights is a lot more useful than you can guess. From displaying the key metrics of a business page to showing the key metrics for the five most recent posts of a page as well as a brief comparison of your page with other similar Facebook pages, you can get it all here.

The three key sections of Facebook Analytics that you need to take care of are: 

Page Summary

The Page Summary section of Facebook Analytics provides key metrics of a page within the span of the last seven days. These metrics include elements such as Page Likes, Post Engagements, and Page Reach. The section displays the percentage changes in comparison to previous periods and offers categorised graphs for the present period.

It is a very useful way of getting a quick yet comprehensive assessment of your Facebook Page performance.

5 Most Recent Posts on Your Page

This section is very essential to assess the performance of your recent posts and the types of posts that are performing well in recent times. It provides information about five of your most recent posts along with their published date and time, post captions, post types, reach, targeting, and engagement.

Pages to Watch

This is an excellent and effective way to assess the performance of your Facebook page amongst your peers as well as competitors. Pages to Watch offers you a quick comparison of your page with a few other similar and closely related pages that you may want or need to watch. It also shows you the top posts of a particular page from the current week when you click on that page. 

Things To Remember About Facebook Analytics

All that being said, here are a few more tips on Facebook Analytics and how to strategically and efficiently use this feature of Facebook for maximizing your reach and engagement. 

Tracking and Exporting Data

For detailed tracking of your data and a more in-depth analysis of the metrics of your page, Facebook allows you to export metrics of your page, posts, and videos in the CSV or Excel spreadsheet format. There is a lot of data (in vivid details) available in these spreadsheets.

Check out ‘More Insights’

This feature is available on the “Your 5 Most Recent Posts” section, where you can get better analysis and insights by simply clicking on the post title. You get a comprehensive and highly detailed breakdown of a post’s performance.

Get To Know What’s Trending

Discover what is trending by visiting the “What’s Working” section in Pages to Watch. You can click on any of the recommended pages, and a pop-up will appear with the top posts from that page which will be ranked on the basis of their engagement from most engaging to least engaging. 

Additional Tips to Enhance Your Reach

With the above tips, we guess your Facebook marketing campaign will gain great success and enhanced reach over time. Along with those, here are a few more personalized tips from our special team of Facebook marketers. 

Track Your Likes

Tracking your likes includes consideration of factors like:

• Total Page likes till date
• Net Likes
• The source of the likes and where these happened

Consider Other Factors Affecting Your Reach

There are a few other factors that affect your Facebook reach. As a marketer, you must be aware of these.

• Post Reach
• Reactions, Shares, and Comments
• Likes (once again and it is important)
• Number of Hides, number of “Report as Spam”, and number of “Unlikes.”
• Total Reach of your page

Final Words

Coming to conclusion, these factors and considerations will help you get a better idea of your page performance and let you know about the right steps to take to effectively increase your reach and make your Facebook marketing campaign a success.