If you’ve joined us for any of our HelpForce webinars, you’ll know that Google and Facebook are two internet giants that deserve your attention. Their huge market shares and constant presence in people’s daily lives make them valuable tools for dealers looking to gain leads and sales.
While it’s important to give these channels your attention and include them in your marketing efforts, it can be time-consuming to stay up to date on their constantly changing requirements (also known as their algorithms). At ARI, we stay on top of this ever-changing list so you can do what you do best: run your business and sell your inventory.
Recently, Facebook announced a groundbreaking new algorithm that will roll out in the coming months, solidifying what has been a constant theme for the past year: Facebook is pay to play.
In the original post by Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook’s CEO, he states that feedback from the community has led Facebook to reduce the number of posts from businesses, brands, and media that appear on users’ newsfeeds. While it’s nice to think the only reason for this change is because Facebook truly wants users to experience more social connections, we think there’s more to it. Here’s why:
For your small business, this change will further decrease the reach of your organic (unpaid) posts, and may even reduce the reach of paid posts in the future. Today’s organic post reach is small, only about 5% of your audience will see your unpaid post show up in their newsfeed.
By decreasing this reach even further, we expect more small businesses will make the transition from unpaid posts to paid (or boosted) posts, to make their presence on social media worthwhile and capitalize on their audiences.
However, this upswing in businesses paying for posts may actually mean that you’ll be getting less bang for your buck. Currently, just over 8% of businesses active on Facebook are taking advantage of the opportunity to advertise on it. With the predicted decrease in unpaid post reach, we project that number will go up. An increase in paying advertisers may mean that the 2,000 people a $20 ad bought you in the past may now reach only 1,000 people.
Limiting business posts on the newsfeed equals higher premiums for showing up on it.
Currently, no one besides Mark Zuckerberg and his team at Facebook knows for sure when these changes will really begin to take effect. From what Zuckerburg describes in his original post, we expect to see gradual changes over the next few months. As an active Facebook business advertiser, ARI will be keeping track of our numbers and keeping you up to date on any changes we see that may affect your small business.
