Paid vs. Organic Social Media (and Why You Need Both)

Traveling into New York City is a complex system of different options. Between buses, cars, ferries, trains, walking bridges, and even helicopters, there's many different ways a person can enter the Big Apple. Framing traffic in this way likely seems like a simple concept, which makes thinking about the system of channels you want for your brand that much easier to digest.

A digital marketing strategy must have a similar variety of channels to transport consumers from Point A to Point B. One of the most important avenues for brands is social media content, which is all about meeting the customer where they're at and guiding them through their conversion journey. A key player in making that initial introduction with the right audience? Paid social media.

What is paid social advertising?

Paid social advertising is when a brand puts money behind content on social media, whether it be an Instagram Story, Facebook Post, Pinterest Pin, or other types of content.

Your organic posts show up only on the feeds of those that follow you, and because social platforms use algorithms to curate their users’ feeds individually, your posts aren’t guaranteed to show up on each one of your follower’s feeds.

On the other hand, paid social media posts will get in front of the audience you decide to target. With paid social, brands can target an audience based on age, location, demographics, interests, aspirations, relationship status, if they’re a parent, and more.

Why is implementing paid social into your digital marketing strategy important?

Paid social gets your brand in front of new people, and getting those new people to follow you on social media is a big win. According to a Sprout Social report, 91% of consumers visit a brand’s website or app after following their social account, while a stunning 89% will actually buy from the brand and 85% will recommend it to someone.

The major advantages of paid social media lie in four key factors:

1. Speed
2. Campaign Sustainability
3. Powerful Targeting
4. Retargeting

Let's unpack those...

1. Speed. Organic social media posts are at the will of a platform’s algorithm, which means it can take days before your followers see your post—if they see it at all. When your brand is running a campaign, those days can cost you important leads.
2. Campaign Sustainability. With paid social, you directly control how long your brand campaigns run, which will correlate with how long your posts bring in visibility, leads, and conversions.
3. Powerful Targeting. When you put money behind a social post, you have more control over who sees it, meaning you can get your brand in front of people who are actually interested in buying your product. The key difference between success and failure is sometimes simply getting your brand in front of the right audience.
4. Retargeting. When you pay for social ads, you can retarget your ideal audience and control the frequency that consumers come into contact with your brand online. In a digital marketing plan, reach without frequency is not only ineffective, it’s often a waste of money. Generally, it takes three or more exposures to your advertising message before a consumer will bite, according to Mail Shark. With paid advertising, you can ensure an audience sees your offer enough times for them to take action.

With paid social media, you have more control over who sees your post, how many times they see it, for how long, and when they see it again.

What are different kinds of paid social media?

Paid social media posts will look different on each platform, meaning brands should consider which platform their target audience uses most when deciding which to run social ads on.

Once that decision is made, brands can use ad tools native to the specific social media platform in order to run PPC campaigns. Digital marketers are able to create, schedule, and post ads that will reach a specific audience as they scroll through their preferred social outlets.

Check out some examples of paid social media posts:

• Photo Ads
• Video Ads
• Stories Ads
• Messenger Ads
• IGTV Ads
• Instagram Shopping Ads
• Explore Page Ads
• Carousel Ads
• Collection Ads
• Playable Ads
• Promotions

How should brands use organic social in 2021?

The power of paid social media posts does not negate the importance of an organic social media presence. While paid posts may get more eyes on your brand, organic social posts often have the ability to drive deeper engagement with your content, which will help you build your online community. Organic posts are also vital to display brand validity and convince consumers of your brand's expertise in your given industry.

A strong social presence that enforces your brand’s authority is extremely important, as 57% of consumers will follow a brand to learn more about new products or services and 47% will give you a follow in order to receive company news according to Sprout. Keeping those followers up to date and informed builds trust, which in turn builds brand loyalty.

When doing brand or product research, it’s extremely likely consumers will head to your social media profiles to get a feel for who you are, what you post, and what you sell. Hootsuite reports 44.8% of global internet users used social media to search for brand information in 2020. If those consumers enjoy the organic content you’re putting out there, they’ll likely follow and support your brand.

Deciding whether a post should be organic or paid is fairly simple. When creating a post, you should decide if you want it to be seen by existing customers or if you want it to reach new audiences.

With that being said, brands shouldn't consider their paid and organic social media strategies as two completely separate entities. For example, if a brand's organic post is performing well, it's a good practice to put some money towards the post to "boost" it and have it reach even more people.

Striking a balance between paid and organic social media takes experimentation, but is essential for an effective social strategy. The key to finding this balance is realizing that you don't need to inundate your social profile with content in order to have a successful social presence. In fact, creating less content with more purpose behind it is a much better use of your time, creativity, and budget.

What does a comprehensive social media marketing strategy look like?

A comprehensive social media marketing strategy consists of a cohesive blend of paid and organic social media efforts. In our current digital world, conversions are made with social ads. While organic posts serve as a landing page for customers curious about your brand, paid social will actually move the needle for brands looking to reach conversion goals and see the most return on their investment.

An important aspect of creating a comprehensive plan is ensuring that verbiage, tone, and sentiment match across the board. When coming in contact with your brand on social media, customers shouldn't be able to distinguish between the paid and organic posts, as most will come across both types during their journey.

While paid and organic social posts will look different from the backend, your social presence should always appear as one cohesive message.

Paid Social Trends for 2021

Paid social media practices are perpetually evolving. As with each channel in their digital marketing strategy, brands should always be looking ahead to be aware of the best ways to reach customers as times, behaviors, and technology change.

Check out three trends in paid social that brands should consider implementing into their digital marketing strategies.

1. Enhanced Targeting. According to the Socialbakers' Social Media Trends Report Q4 2020, brands around the world are spending more money on social media ad spend, with peak ad spend jumping 50.3% in the last quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. In North America, brands increased social media ad spend by 92.3% during the 2020 holiday season compared to the previous one. With this heavy influx of cash being funneled into social media advertising, social platforms are responding with increased personalization and targeting for brands. Brands can expect paid social media to become even more sophisticated and effective in coming years.
2. Ads on Stories. As audiences flock to them, social Stories have become increasingly important for digital marketing over the past few years. According to The Keenfolks, Facebook has now caught up to Instagram with the level of engagement seen with Stories Ads. Stories Ads are uniquely powerful in that you’re able to take over a consumer’s full screen and interact with them in a meaningful way. Brands can expect Stories Ads to continuously increase in popularity in the coming years, eventually overtaking news feed ads as the prominent form of paid social.
3. Pinterest Ads. While Pinterest’s advertising capabilities aren’t as advanced as on Facebook or Instagram, the opportunities on the platform are worth considering. Opportunity on Pinterest is particularly ripe for those who aim to target women, as 60% of Pinterest's global audience are women, according to HubSpot. Even more compelling is that 97% of top searches on Pinterest are currently unbranded results.

Ready, Set, Paid Social!

Experimenting with paid social ads will feel like hopping on the express lane compared to sitting in the slow-moving, heavily trafficked channel of pure organic content. In a comprehensive social strategy, your organic posts will still be along for the ride, but they'll take up way less fuel to get you where you want to go.