Social media often gets split into two camps: paid vs organic. But the magic really happens when they work together.
While organic social builds trust and community, paid social helps you reach new audiences and amplify what’s already working. In this blog, we’ll explore the difference between the two, why you don’t have to choose one over the other, and how a social media strategy which carefully considers both approaches is best.
Paid Vs Organic Social Media: What’s The Difference?
Let’s start with the basics.
Organic social is everything you post on your brand’s social media channels, without putting money behind it. It’s the day-to-day content you’re creating to show up consistently, connect with your community and share your brand’s personality. Organic social is all about building trust and creating authentic relationships with existing and potential customers. It’s a cost-effective way to promote your brand and reach a wider audience on a small budget, so is perfect for small businesses or start-ups. However, organic reach has unfortunately been declining in recent years, and a study by Neil Patel at Demand Curve found that average organic reach dropped by around 62% between 2020 and 2023.
Paid social is content that you pay to promote. These are your targeted ads, boosted posts and campaign content that’s designed to reach new customers or drive clicks, sales and leads.
By spending money on advertising you are trying to get directly to your customers through the platform’s targeting capabilities.
By spending money on paid social, you are more likely to reach your desired audience, and therefore have a better chance of converting them into paying customers. This is unlike organic social, which is not as easy to target specific users. However, paid social can take a big chunk out of your advertising budget. According to Search Engine Land, paid social spend spiked 13% year-over-year in 2024.
Both play a very valuable role in any social media strategy, but they work best when they’re aligned.
Why the “Either/Or” Approach Doesn’t Work
Treating paid and organic social as separate entities can limit your results overall. Marketing channel effectiveness studies show that businesses achieve 40% higher ROI when combining organic and paid social media efforts. A joint effort really is most effective.
Organic without paid can mean you’re creating amazing content that doesn’t get seen as much as you’d like. You might be nurturing your existing community (which is very important!) but are struggling to reach new people at scale. Growth can be a little bit slow and unpredictable, especially with the ever-changing social media algorithms.
Paid social without organic could get you reach and clicks, but it’s hard to build trust. If a potential customer that is new to your brand clicks on your paid content and is taken to a social media feed with no story and no consistent content, there’s a high likelihood that they will see your brand as untrustworthy and you may lose that customer.
The best strategies recognise that organic and paid work best together. Paid social can help amplify what’s already working organically, and organic and help strengthen your paid efforts. It’s not a question of one or the other, it’s about creating a strategy that plays to the strengths of both approaches.
A Match Made In Heaven
How paid social can support organic social:
Boost what’s already working: If a post performs well organically, it’s a good sign it’s resonating with your audience. Putting some paid spend behind it could help you reach more of the right people.
Increase visibility for important messages: If you have a product launch or event coming up that you’d really like more people to see, paid ads can help break through the noise.
Find new people, then keep them engaged: Paid social is a great way to get fresh eyes on your brand, but the real magic happens when someone clicks through and finds a feed full of personality, community building and consistent content.
How organic social can support paid social:
Build trust: People are more likely to trust your brand if your organic presence feels authentic. Think of it as your “shop front”, it can reassure people that view your ads that there are real humans behind the brand.
Support customer journeys: If someone discovers your brand through a paid ad, organic content keeps the conversation going. It helps nurture leads, answer questions, and show what your brand’s all about.
Give you insight into what’s working: Not sure what messaging to put budget behind? Organic performance can give you some great insights. Look at which posts are getting the most saves, shares, and comments to see what is performing well, and take a look at your audience demographics for help with targeting.
Final Thoughts: It’s Not Paid or Organic — It’s Paid and Organic
It’s easy to feel like you need to pick a side, but in reality, paid social and organic social work best when they’re supporting each other. Organic builds trust, paid builds reach. Together, they create a much stronger brand presence and extend your reach to brand new customers.
Need help finding that sweet spot between the two? We can help. Get in touch today to book in a friendly, no-obligation chat with a member of our team.
