Boosting Facebook Posts: Will It Kill Organic Reach?

I recently received an email from a client asking about boosting Facebook posts.

She was under the impression that giving in and finally hitting “boost” would kill the small organic reach her posts received. In fact, that’s exactly the opposite of what happens.

Facebook is constantly changing their news feed algorithm, and organic reach takes a hit every single time. It stinks, but ads are a sure fire way to give your organic reach the jump start it needs.

Before we dig into why your organic reach increases when you invest in Facebook Ads, let’s examine how organic reach actually works.

Facebook organic reach can range anywhere from 2% – 23% of your Facebook community, depending on follower count and the type of content being shared.

NOTE: Some businesses see higher numbers because their product is fun to look at (clothing companies, baby or pet products, delicious food brands, etc).

Regardless of your business type, your organic reach depends solely on one important factor: action.

The only way your low reach number gets increased is through engagement (action taken on your post).

• A follower has to engage with the post (like, comment, share).
• The engagement triggers a variable in Facebook that announces the action in the follower’s friends’ timelines.

Here are some examples of posts my friends have engaged with and therefore, became visible to me:

 

Ok, back to the topic at hand: advertising on Facebook has no negative bearing on your organic reach.

Facebook is only going to show your content to a certain number of your followers until more of them indicate they want to see it. To indicate that, they have to take action.

If that never happens, organic reach just sits where it is.

Here’s how boosting Facebook posts actually works:

• Choose your audience and hit boost.
• Facebook will show your post to users who aren’t yet following your page.
• Facebook will also show your post to some of your followers who don’t normally get reached organically.
• Don’t worry – your followers who would normally see the post (for free) will still see it!
• The boost only adds to that number.

Take a look at how this business page’s organic reach went up when we boosted one of the posts:

 

When a sponsored post comes across my feed, and I like, share, or comment on it, the page who sponsored the post pays for that engagement.

BUT! And here’s the kicker:

…When my friend sees that I engaged with that post because it shows up in their news feed, any action they take is free (organic).

Here’s an example:

When Louie Bossi’s Ristorante Bar Pizzeria boosted the post below, and my Facebook friends Shara and Lauren commented on it, the post reached me in my feed, with a note about their engagement across the top:

Based on this page’s average engagement, I’m pretty confident that one of them engaged with the post when they saw it sponsored in their timeline.  That would mean that Louie Bossi boosted this post and paid to reach them.

However, the post reached me organically, thanks to their comments. That’s organic reach the restaurant didn’t pay for.

If I like, comment or share this post, Louie Bossi/Facebook will further extended that reach to my followers. You can see how this becomes a pattern of increased organic reach.

Taking the time to determine your target Facebook audience, and then boosting posts to ensure those users see your content can only increase the percentage of your organic reach. If you’re worried about losing organic reach, fear no more.

If this blog wasn’t proof enough, let me remind you that I love talking about placing and optimizing Facebook Ads. Feel free to reach out to me here and we can talk about how best to use ads to increase your success with Facebook Marketing.