In May 2019, Facebook announced that they are making a change to their video algorithm.
As part of their effort to improve the News Feed, Facebook is changing how it serves up the most relevant videos for its users. The new changes will affect how Facebook distributes video content, including in News Feed and Facebook Watch, as well as in its “More Videos” recommendation feature.
Moving forward, just like YouTube, one of the most important factors in deciding what videos to serve up to an audience will be the completion rate of a video, or the percentage of users who watched a video to the end.
The following is the criteria that Facebook is using to determine how to rank your videos when serving them to viewers:
The first criteria Facebook will be using is loyalty and intent. Videos that people seek out and return to week after week will receive additional reach over videos that are not viewed to completion and may not have much engagement.
Next is video and viewing duration. While Facebook still wants to capture viewers’ attention for at least one minute, they are giving greater recognition to videos that keep people engaged, especially on videos that are at least three minutes long. That’s a big shift from the shorter videos that typically received more reach on the platform.
Last is originality: Facebook gives more weight to original content than content that was created by somebody else or was repurposed from other sources with limited added value. They are going to more strongly limit distribution and monetization for content that was not created by you. This is part of an effort to de-emphasize viral videos and memes and to award content creators.
Learn more about what this means for your business and how to develop an effective Facebook Marketing Strategy in the full course: https://bit.ly/2VEFWUE