Combining organic and paid social
Rather than viewing organic vs paid social media as an either/or choice, savvy brands recognize that the two work best hand-in-hand as part of a holistic social media strategy.
Each approach complements the other’s strengths and offsets its weaknesses. The real question isn’t which one to use but how to mix both effectively to achieve your marketing goals.
A useful way to think about it is through the marketing funnel (awareness → engagement → conversion).
Organic social media excels at the upper and mid-funnel stages. You build brand awareness, foster engagement, and nurture loyalty over time.
Paid social media shines at driving specific actions in the mid to lower funnel. You acquire leads, boost conversions, and target the right people at the right moment.
Most brands will start with a focus on organic social media, with the aim to weave paid ads into the mix later down the line. This is a good idea, especially for new brands who have to watch every dollar they spend.
Organic social is great for day-to-day audience engagement and keeping your community updated. Growing a community is easiest with a strong organic approach that also builds trust and brand loyalty.
It’s also ideal for customer service and feedback, which feeds into your wider brand personality.
If you can respond to customers and interact as part of your audience, then that’s another tick for the brand loyalty box.
Organic posts also help maintain your brand’s presence in between campaigns. You don’t always have to be running a sale or a product launch. Perhaps you just need to remind audiences you’re there.
For example, a small business might run Facebook ads for a spring sale one month, but in the months before and after, they keep posting organically to stay engaged with the audience they attract.
Organic sustains your visibility and keeps your audience warm at the top of the sale funnel so that when you do run ads or promotions, people are primed to respond.
Brands use paid social media to convert, which is usually why it comes later than organic posts. You might lay the groundwork with a month’s worth of organic content, raising awareness of a new product or feature, before forcing the issue with ads.
Indeed, if you’re planning to launch anything on social media, then ads need to be part of that strategy. Paid social can jump-start your visibility and quickly attract your first few thousand followers by promoting them into action.
Paid ads are also better for time-sensitive moments when you need to secure an audience fast.
Sometimes, you might have a short window to execute a sales strategy based on a limited edition item. You can’t wait around for organic content to slowly do its job.
Of course, reaching new audiences in a relatively fast time frame is another reason to choose paid ads. You can chooseyour demographic and track ROI in real-time during a campaign.
Paid ads also help organic posts go viral. If you’re riding on the wave of a high-performing organic post, a little boost from your advertising budget could help it go viral.