There are a few potential reasons why you may be noticing a decrease in your Facebook page’s reach lately. Let’s go through some of the most common causes and what you can do about them.
Facebook Algorithm Changes
One of the biggest factors affecting Facebook page reach is algorithm changes. Facebook is constantly tweaking their news feed algorithm to show users the most relevant and engaging content. When an algorithm update rolls out, it can cause significant fluctuations in reach and engagement for Pages.
Some of the recent algorithm changes that may have impacted reach include:
- Reduced distribution for Pages that post clickbait content or sensational headlines
- Demoting posts that generate comments expressing negative sentiment
- Ranking original content higher than reshared content
- Favoring content that sparks meaningful interactions and conversation
If your reach declined around the time of a Facebook algorithm update, this is likely the culprit. To adapt, focus on posting high-quality, original content consistently and encourage positive conversations in comments.
Decrease in Post Engagement
Facebook’s algorithm also looks at how well your content resonates with your audience. If your posts are getting fewer Likes, comments, and Shares lately, this signals to Facebook that your posts aren’t interesting to fans.
As a result, future posts may not get shown to as many people in the news feed. Try to boost engagement by:
- Posting content and topics your audience cares about
- Using visual media like images and video
- Encouraging reactions and comments with questions or prompts
- Responding to all comments to build community
- Optimizing posts for mobile
Increase in Unfollows
A spike in people unfollowing your Page can also cause your overall reach to decrease. There are a few potential reasons this could happen:
- Posting too frequently and overwhelming fans’ news feeds
- Sharing irrelevant or uninteresting content
- Having a negative sentiment toward your brand
Review your Page’s follower growth analytics in Facebook Insights. If unfollows are high, revisit your content strategy and focus on your most engaging post types and topics.
Using Restricted Page Settings
Some Pages intentionally limit their audience and reach by using these restrictive settings:
- Having a “Restricted Page” setting enabled
- Setting a min age limit higher than 13+
- Limiting visibility of posts to certain followers or locations
If your Page has these limits in place, it will restrict your potential reach. Consider opening up visibility if you want more people to see your content.
Limiting Ad Spend
Paid advertising is one of the most effective ways to increase Facebook page reach. If you’ve reduced your Facebook ad spend recently, this could directly impact how many people your posts get shown to.
Some options to boost paid reach include:
- Setting up a Continuous Ad Campaign for ongoing reach
- Promoting high-performing posts periodically
- Creating different ads targeting diverse audiences
Even a small daily ad budget can make a difference in sustaining or growing your Facebook page’s overall reach.
Increased Competition
As more businesses and creators jump on Facebook, the competition for news feed space keeps growing. If your niche or industry has seen an influx of new Pages lately, that makes it harder for Facebook to distribute all content from that sector.
To stand out:
- Focus on quality over quantity with your posts
- Offer unique value only your Page can provide
- Leverage Facebook ad targeting to reach untapped audiences
Shifts in Your Audience
Significant changes in your target audience’s demographics or interests could also cause a disconnect leading to declining reach. For example, if your audience is now mostly mobile users, but you’re still posting mainly desktop-optimized content, that content won’t resonate.
Keep a pulse on what your audience cares about and tailor content accordingly. Rely on Facebook Insights and surveys to gather intel on any audience shifts.
Banning Policy Violations
Finally, violating Facebook’s Community Standards or ad policies can get your PageRestricted or banned entirely. This drastically cuts all reach for the duration of the restriction or ban.
Avoid policy violations by:
- Following ad placement and content guidelines
- Avoiding posting harmful, deceptive or hateful content
- Being transparent in disclosures and disclaimers
Regularly monitoring notifications from Facebook can help you stay compliant. Request reviews of any misconduct penalties if you feel they were issued in error.
Diagnosing Why Your Facebook Page Reach Is Declining
Now that we’ve covered the major factors that can impact Facebook page reach, here are some steps to diagnose the possible cause for your Page specifically:
1. Check Facebook Insights Data
Dive into Facebook Insights for your Page and look at historic trends for your daily/monthly reach numbers. See if you can pinpoint any specific dates when there were significant drops. This can help correlate any algorithm changes.
Also look at engagement metrics like reactions, comments, shares, and clicks on links. See if these have risen or fallen around the same times as reach declines.
2. Review Your Follower Count Trends
Next look at your “Followers” data in Insights. Check if periods of declining reach align with any spikes in Unfollows. This can indicate issues with content relevance or quality.
Compare your Follower growth rates over time. Faster growth in the past versus slow growth now can signal rising competition.
3. Audit Your Content Strategy
Do an objective audit of your recent content and posting tactics. Check for things like:
- Decrease in posting frequency or quality
- Lack of variety in content types
- Content that doesn’t match follower interests
- Decline in community conversation and engagement
Identify any areas your strategy may be missing the mark with current followers.
4. Review Your Ad Approach
If you use paid Facebook advertising, look at how your ad spend, targeting, and creative may have shifted in ways impacting reach.
Check for factors like:
- Reduced ad budget
- Narrowly focused ad targeting
- Ad creative that underperforms
- High ad frequency causing ad fatigue
Test changes like expanded targeting, new creatives, and higher budgets to improve paid reach.
5. Check for Restrictive Settings
Log into your Page and click “Settings” to view all your preferences. Look for any limitations on:
- Age restrictions
- Location targeting
- Visibility settings like “Restricted Page”
- Categories related to your content or industry
Remove any unnecessary targeting or age restrictions that may limit your potential audience.
6. Study Your Audience Insights
Facebook Insights also provides data on your top follower demographics like location, age, gender, and language.
Compare this to audience data from 6-12 months ago. Have key demographics shifted significantly? This could indicate changing interests to adapt content to.
Conduct surveys with engaged followers to get direct input on what they’d like to see more of. Apply these learnings to refresh your content.
7. Review Policy Violations
Check your Page notifications and messages from Facebook to see if you have received any warnings, restrictions, or penalties for policy violations.
Common violations that limit reach include:
- Sharing prohibited content like hate speech, nudity, etc
- Running ads without proper disclosures
- Using engagement bait tactics to artificially inflate reach
Submit appeals if you feel restrictions were unjustified. Then adjust your strategy to prevent further violations.
8. Compare Competitor Content
Study what competing Pages in your niche are posting and how their followers are engaging.
Look for types of content and posting cadences resonating well. Benchmark this against your own Page’s content and community conversations.
Identify any gaps where competitors may be outperforming you and focus on improving in those areas.
Strategies to Increase Facebook Page Reach
Once you’ve diagnosed potential issues causing your declining Facebook page reach, here are some proven strategies to help recover or increase your reach:
1. Post More Consistently
Pages that maintain a regular and predictable posting cadence tend to see better distribution in the algorithm.Aim to post at least 1-2 times per day in the time slots when your audience is most active.
2. Diversify Your Content Mix
Post a variety of content formats like video, images, Stories, live video, and natively formatted links. This keeps your content looking fresh.
3. Refresh Old Content
Look through your Page’s posts from 6-12 months ago. Find evergreen content that still resonates and repurpose it into new formats like video or infographics.
4. Incorporate More Video
Video content can help improve reach as it tends to be engaging and eye-catching in the news feed.
5. Optimize Posts for Mobile
Most Facebook users access their feeds on mobile, so posts need to be formatted for small screens. Use large text, readable fonts and stack content vertically.
6. Include Engaging Visuals
Posts with images, graphics and video outperform text-only posts. Create visual assets to reinforce and illustrate your messages.
7. Add Interactive Elements
Boost comments and shares by including questions, polls, quizzes or calls-to-action that encourage reactions.
8. Promote Call-To-Action Buttons
Prompt visitors to take actions like signing up, downloading or shopping. Feature action buttons prominently in cover images or videos.
9. Respond and React to Comments
Being actively involved in all conversations helps build community. Prioritize replying promptly to comments.
10. Run Engaging Contests or Giveaways
Sweepstakes, contests and giveaways spur viral shares and help you connect with new audiences.
11. Collaborate with Influencers
Partner with relevant influencers to co-create content or get sponsored posts. Tap into their engaged follower base.
12. Advertise Your Best Content
Take your top-performing organic content and put some budget behind promoting it more widely.
13. Re-Target Website Visitors
Use custom audiences to remarket to people who’ve visited your website or interacted with content.
14. Make Content Shareable
Add social sharing buttons on your posts and site. Develop content tailored for going viral through shares.
15. Measure Performance Diligently
Stay on top of which post types and topics get the most reach. Double down on what resonates.
Recover Your Facebook Page Reach
Recouping Facebook page reach when it takes a dip may require some strategic adjustments to realign with algorithm changes or audience preferences. But with a methodical approach to diagnosing issues and testing solutions, you can regain visibility.
Be objective in evaluating how your content strategy and execution may have veered off track. Survey your followers directly for feedback to guide optimizations.
Leverage Facebook’s own analytics tools like Insights to derive data-driven insights. Measure the impact of any changes and keep iterating. With consistent effort, you can sustainably grow your Facebook page’s reach once again.