Platforms
2 mins read

70% of publishers say Facebook delivers the best reach for content: “There aren’t any real alternatives”

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7 out of 10 publishers contend that Facebook still provides the greatest reach for content compared to other social platforms, according to a survey of 124 publisher executives conducted by Digiday this month.

While the best reach is achieved using paid or promoted campaigns, Facebook decimates the competition even for unpaid or organically posted content, with 45% of respondents saying Facebook delivers more than any other platform. Google AMP, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram all trail Facebook with around 10% of the vote.

The Facebook apocalypse only hurt publishers that gamed the algorithm. It’s still our most important social platform in terms of our ability to reach our audience.

Daniel Hallac, Chief Product Officer at New York Media

“Facebook also has the obvious advantage of scale on its side,” says Mark Weiss, from Digiday Research. “With billions of active users — more than Twitter, Snapchat and Apple News combined.”

According to one publisher who recently spoke with Digiday, Facebook “is the only game in town” for publishers trying to effectively and quickly buy reach. “Outside of Facebook if a publisher is interested in paying for reach, there are not any real alternatives,” another publisher executive commented.

Not just via promotions, publishers are seeing considerable traffic coming organically from the platform.

“We’ve actually grown our reach significantly on Facebook since the initial algorithm change,” Emily Cohn, Insider Inc.’s Executive Growth Editor, told Digiday. “Good stories that are worth sharing still do incredibly well on that platform.

“A lot of our Facebook reach is purely organic from people just sharing good content. It’s not from our coming from our pages,” said Daniel Hallac, Chief Product Officer at New York Media.

Whether it be for organically posted content or promoted campaigns, the numbers show that Facebook still delivers the greatest reach for publisher content.

While rising costs for paid content on Facebook has definitely impacted publishers, Hallac concludes, “Facebook still provides the best bang for your buck.”