Facebook is updating the way organic reach is reported, which may result in some Pages seeing lower figures than before. Before you panic, it’s important to note that the number of people who actually see and engage with your content should not change – Facebook is simply updating organic reach counts to be consistent with paid reach counts.
Previously, organic reach was based on how many times a post was delivered in the News Feed. Now Facebook will update the organic reach measurement of Pages to a stricter definition that only counts as ‘reach’ once a post enters a person’s screen.
As explained by Facebook:
“This is a change in the way that we measure reach, not a change in News Feed distribution, and other engagement metrics will remain the same. This will provide Page owners with a more precise measurement of their audience and offer a more consistent measurement methodology across both our paid and organic reach reporting. Since this is stricter reporting, some Pages may see lower reach figures than before.”
To ease the transition over the next few months Facebook will provide both metrics in the insights section (‘previous organic reach’ and ‘new organic reach’).
Based on the changes, Facebook appears to be prioritising more accurate reporting which is good news for business who want to better understand how the Pages are performing.
As an industry member that places Facebook advertising for a number of clients, being able to show return on investment is vital, and we look forward to seeing how this rolls out.
