On 11th January, Facebook announced that it plans to alter its algorithm so that you will see more from friends and families, and less from publishers, brands and celebrities. This change is going to be a gradual process and all it will do is increase the weight they put on meaningful interactions.
Facebook will aim to predict which posts will spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people, and prioritise this content to appear in users’ News Feeds. “These are posts that inspire back-and-forth discussion in the comments and posts that you might want to share and react to – whether that’s a post from a friend, or a news article or video prompting lots of discussions,” Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s News Feed chief, explained.
According to Facebook, showing more posts from friends and family and updates that spark conversation means they will show less public content, including videos and other posts from publishers or businesses. Therefore, brands that produce content that users react to and that sparks interactions between friends could still see their content featured prominently in the News Feed, whereas those that publish content that isn’t so engaging will likely suffer. Going forward brands will want to ensure their Facebook content aligns with what the new update is looking for. (Source: Econsultancy)
All Response Media Viewpoint
After discussing this with Facebook directly, they have stated that they are not making any changes to ads ranking at this point in time. However, if a page post is getting less organic reach due to this ranking change, it may see a slight impact on the ad’s auction, if boosted. It’s important to note, however, that engagement is a very small part of ads ranking: Facebook relies on many other data points to determine what ads people see to ensure relevancy and value. As Facebook’s ads auction already optimises for user value, they are encouraging advertisers to continue focusing on driving real business outcomes. This means that when optimising towards an acquisition objective they will not be affected at all. Facebook has taken the time to directly answer the questions below:
Will this change impact the performance of my ads or the ways they are ranked?
Facebook: No, ads should see little or no impact from this change, as Facebook’s ads auction already optimises for user value. Their systems will continue to take into account relevancy and feedback to deliver ads to the right people based on your business objectives.
As a result of this change, should advertisers start optimising for PPE (Page post engagement) over real business outcomes?
FB: No. Advertisers should continue to focus on achieving real business outcomes. Facebook’s systems will continue to take into account relevancy and feedback to deliver ads to the right people. Engagement is only a very small part of how they rank ads and they encourage advertisers to not shift their strategy based on this News Feed ranking change.
Will this change affect Instagram as well?
FB: No. This ranking change affects Facebook News Feed only.
