If you’re still relying on organic reach for growth, this number might give you pause: in 2025, the average Instagram post reaches just 3.5% of a brand’s followers. On Facebook, it is even lower at 1.65%. That means more than 96% of your audience might not even see your content, unless you pay for it.
Algorithms on major social platforms have increasingly become “pay-to-play,” prioritizing sponsored content and posts that generate instant engagement over your standard organic updates. This reflects a broader shift in how social platforms operate, prompting teams to reevaluate how they connect with their audience.
Organic Reach Has Collapsed
Organic reach is the percentage of followers who see your content without paid promotion. Once, that number was high enough to sustain entire content strategies. But not anymore.
In 2012, Facebook’s organic reach for brand pages was around 16%. Today, it hovers near 1.65%. Instagram’s reach has dropped to 3.5%, and the trend line is still heading downward. Even TikTok, once known for generous reach, now sees most posts reach less than 10% of followers.
Your posts compete in a crowded feed curated to favor ads, short-form videos, and personal updates. Even when your content gets through, it fights for fleeting attention among hundreds of others.
Why Organic Social Is No Longer a Growth Channel
Low reach limits your return, but this is about more than visibility. Social platforms are built to optimize their own business models, which often means brand content takes a backseat to ads and entertainment.
Algorithm updates can make a noticeable impact. You might fine-tune your content to match one format, only to find the feed shifting its focus a week later. As paid content becomes more prominent, organic posts often get moved further out of view.
Add to that the rising cost of paid reach. CPMs on platforms like TikTok, Meta, and Snapchat have steadily climbed year after year. According to Socialinsider, TikTok CPMs rose 19% in 2023 and another 8% in 2024. Engagement with ads has also dropped by 14% across industries. In short, you are paying more to reach fewer people and even fewer of them are engaging.
What to Do Instead
If social reach is limited, where should brands invest instead?
The answer many are turning to is simple: audience ownership. The more control you have over how and where you reach your audience, the less vulnerable you are to platform shifts.
Here are four ways teams are rethinking their strategy:
Focus on owned channels: Brands are doubling down on email lists, apps, and direct messaging channels. These offer higher engagement and no interference from algorithms.
Build in-app community: In fitness, beauty, and lifestyle apps, teams are adding social layers — from groups to activity feeds — that create belonging and give users a reason to return.
Invest in content that compounds: Instead of chasing fleeting reach on social media, more brands are publishing evergreen content on their own sites, newsletters, and podcasts where it can be discovered again and again.
Rethink growth KPIs: Teams are shifting their success metrics away from impressions and likes, and toward measures of meaningful engagement, retention, and contribution.
Beyond the 3.5%, A New Growth Mindset
Organic reach is shrinking, paid visibility is more costly, and user attention is harder to capture. But this opens a chance to build smarter.
Your next user might still discover you on Instagram. But what matters more is whether they stick around. To make that happen, you need channels you can control and spaces where people want to stay.
Because if only 3.5% of your audience is seeing your message, it is time to ask a bigger question: where should your audience live instead?