Facebook is set to reduce the reach of brands organic news feed, in yet another move away from free advertising on the social network. Ron Soker, Head of mobile at cross-channel ad platform dmg, asks if this if there is a silver lining for brands looking to get the most out of their social media platforms.
Facebook’s plan to significantly reduce the organic reach of promotional content is at first glance bad news for brands and marketers.
By reducing the prominence of posts that promote discounts, deals and links that relate to external promotional content, Facebook claims that users will receive a better experience by seeing more content that they want from pages that they like, Facebook also promises that the number of ads they see in their feeds will not increase. While this may be true, Facebook’s overriding motivation is likely to make brands and marketers pay more to advertise.
Over the last few months, Facebook has reduced the organic reach of brand pages that didn’t pay to promote their posts. In August, Facebook announced that it is cracking down on posts it deems to be ‘click bait’.
As a result marketers have been left with a limited amount of options to promote content. In short, if brands want Facebook users to see their content they will need to spend more money on ads instead of promoted posts.
However, this is not all bad news for marketers. Paying for ads in order to get a better reach should encourage them to be use the platform with more wisdom. Promoted posts are not limited in size or content and compromise user experience. Well planned and targeted ads will ensure a better ROI for marketers, definitely better than promoted posts on ‘liked’ pages.”
By Ron Soker
Head of mobile
dmg