Facebook Organic Reach Has Dropped to 34% Since January 2018

Attempting to make Facebook a more friendly place, full of content shared by friends and family, the social media platform is now offering brands 34% less reach organically.

A piece of research carried out by Roisin Linnie, Head of Social at Dublin based digital marketing agency, Wolfgang Digital, found brand pages are now organically reaching 34% less people since Facebook’s early January announcement.

When originally announced, the Facebook algorithm update caused quite a stir in the advertising world. However, that might feel like an absolute age ago to Mark Zuckerberg, who has since spoken in front of Congress about Facebook’s data practices in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

“On the one hand, the Cambridge Analytica Scandal shows us just how vulnerable our data is online”, Roisin Linnie says, “but it the impact that rouge data company had also shows just how bloody powerful an advertising engine Facebook really is”.

Roisin’s research also looked at Facebook ad spend since the start of 2016 and discovered brands are now spending 181% more than they were two years ago.

“Facebook is an incredible platform for advertising and the algorithm change doesn’t really impact that”, Roisin continues. “Brands that are already forking out for ads won’t have felt the pinch too much since January, but I’m afraid Facebook is now a ‘pay to play’ space”.