Overcoming Facebook Zero for Health: Strategies for Managing the Decline in Organic Facebook Reach

Background:  Facebook has become an important communications vehicle for many health nonprofits and government organizations. However, Facebook organic reach has been on the decline since 2012, and is likely to continue to decline – eventually reaching zero.  With Facebook increasingly becoming “pay-to-play,” health organizations will need to be strategic about what content they post and invest in advertising to reach more than the smallest percentage of their fans.

Program background:  In 2012, Facebook restricted organic reach of content published from Pages to about 16 percent of the fans of a particular Page. Since then, organic reach has declined even further, currently averaging around 6%, according to an Ogilvy analysis.¹ This means that for a Page with 10,000 fans, only about 600 fans would see any given post from the Page. Facebook’s stated rationale for the algorithm changes was to display only the most engaging content in the Newsfeed in order to keep people coming back to the site over and over again. However, the change will require that health nonprofits and government agencies advertise their posts to reach a level of fans needed to justify the staff time invested in creating Facebook content. This may be challenging, given that many may not be able to advertise, or may have very limited budgets to do so.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Community managers must adapt to this new Facebook environment to ensure that they reach as many of their fans as possible. Based on research, conversations with Facebook representatives and our own practice, Ogilvy recommends four overall strategies to overcoming the decline in Facebook reach:

1. Focus on engaging content.
2. Diversify your social platforms.
3. Make the case for paid media support.
4. Weigh the cost/benefits of Facebook participation.

The evaluation of these tactics in overcoming the decline in organic reach is based on Ogilvy’s success with clients, as well as industry studies of effectiveness. During the session, Ogilvy will present case studies where clients, including government agencies, have been successful in increasing their organic reach well above the 6% average, without using Facebook advertising. Ogilvy also will share strategies for maximizing impact with a small advertising budget. Ogilvy data on Facebook organic reach was calculated using the average organic reach by month for 106 Facebook brand Pages in markets around the world using post-level data. The Pages collectively represent more than 48 million fans.

Conclusions:  The decline in organic reach has large implications for all organizations with Pages on Facebook. It means that organizations must carefully consider the content they post to determine whether it will resonate with the intended audience. Organizations also should consider advocating for an advertising budget that will further enable them to reach existing as well as new fans.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Participants will leave with a better understanding of specific strategies to increase their Facebook reach with no or limited advertising budgets to maximize their use of this popular platform. ¹Manson, Marshall. (March 5, 2014) “Facebook Zero: Considering Life After the Demise of Organic Reach.” Social@Ogilvy.