UPDATE: We tried sharing a sponsored post, tagged with brands collab tag, directly to our brand page rather than through Creator Studio, and the reach was normal. The only downside is it can’t be scheduled to a different time.
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MENLO PARK, Ca. — As Facebook continues the rollout of its new page experience, longtime brand managers have seen a steep decline in sponsored post reach on their pages.
If Facebook has switched one or more of your Facebook brand pages to its new experience, the first thing you’ll notice is that you no longer have access to post to the page from your personal profile.
The same is true for any group’s created by the Facebook page.
Instead, Facebook has created a separate profile, specifically for that page.
Users now need to switch profiles before accessing their page to post, manage and view engagement. For a social media manager in charge of multiple pages, this requires significant profile switching.
But the most noticeable and concerning change comes with sponsored posts through the Meta Brands Collaboration manager, which allows pages to tag posts that are sponsored from other brands. The transparency allows visitors to know who is behind the content.
One brand we manage, Kaukauna Community News, a small community news site in Wisconsin, saw reach on its sponsored posts drop nearly 95 percent following the switchover.
Before the change, sponsored posts typically had a reach of about 1,500 on the page which has about 7,500 followers. After the switch, the reach dropped to less than 100.
Reach for sponsored posts in the associated Facebook group, with about 11,000 members remained steady at about 3,000 per post.
We quickly found the easy workaround was to not use the brands collab tag. In that format, reach returned, however the transparency of who is responsible for the post is lost.
We’re also testing posts made directly on the page or through Creator Studio.
Time will tell if this is a new feature glitch or an effort by Facebook to push brands into more paid advertisting.
The changes come as Meta brands Facebook and Instagram take aim at rival TikToc to maintain their share of the online advertising market.
