The perpetual debate in digital marketing is the battle between the effectiveness of paid social media advertising and organic search. This is a critical topic of utmost importance for building awareness and communicating a brand’s distinctiveness.
As a seasoned marketing and branding expert, I don’t have a bias towards either method since they are both valuable tools in a marketers tool chest. Each situation can be different and depending on things like your burn rate and pressure to grow quickly from investors.
There is a misperception that organic social media is free. It isn’t. You must pay an experienced social media manager to spend their time building engagement and entertaining content. And often a VP of Marketing has to manage that person’s efforts, too.
There is also the perception that no one watches ads anymore. If that is true, why was $515 billion dollars spent in 2023 on advertising? Did the CFO’s of all those companies think it was wasteful but invested that money anyway?
Let’s delve into why paid social media advertising often wins when time is of the essence, and rapid growth in awareness is crucial.
The Velocity of Paid Social Media Advertising
Social media platforms are today’s digital equivalent of Times Square, bustling with attention-seeking content. If you need to break through the noise quickly, paid advertising offers the shortest path to visibility.
Here’s why:
- Instant Reach: Paid ads can target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, ensuring your message has a chance to reach the right audience almost instantly. At a CPM of $20/M on Facebook, I can get my messaging in front of a million consumers spending $50K. Organic growth, in contrast, is a marathon that requires time, effort, and a good dose of patience. A great social media manager can take years to get messages in front of a million consumers within your target. You may pay a social media manager $50K to do the work.
- Scalability: With paid ads, scaling your reach is as simple as increasing your budget. This flexibility allows brands to amplify their presence at will, adapting to real-time campaign performance.
- Measurable Results: Paid social media campaigns provide a wealth of analytics, offering immediate insights into performance metrics. This data-driven approach enables quick adjustments, maximizing ROI in a way that organic strategies often cannot match.
The Slow, Strategic Slog of Organic Social Media Growth
Growing a brand organically on social media is akin to nurturing a garden; it requires time, consistency, and expertise. It is an important part of the long game of brand building.
Here’s a closer look at the challenges:
1. Time-intensive: Building an organic following doesn’t happen overnight. It requires regular posting, community engagement, and a deep understanding of your audience’s preferences and behaviors.
2. Skilled Management: Effective organic growth demands a skilled social media manager. This individual must craft compelling content, engage with followers, and stay abreast of ever-changing algorithms. The investment in talent is substantial and often overlooked. Guiding or managing the social media manager requires a savvy senior marketing professional or a highly competent agency.
3. Algorithm Hurdles: Social media platforms prioritize content that keeps users engaged on their sites longer. Organic posts must compete with a plethora of other content, and unless they go viral, they often reach a fraction of your potential audience.
“Startups should view organic social media as a long-term investment. It builds an authentic brand connection. But paid social media amplifies your reach in the short term when you need users/customers quickly.”
Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern
Social Media as Entertainment
It’s crucial to understand that social media is inherently about entertainment.
Users log in to connect with friends, watch videos, and consume content that interests them. This entertainment-first mindset can make it challenging for brands to cut through the noise organically. Paid advertising, however, can place your brand front and center in this digital carnival.
1. Disruptive Yet Seamless: Paid ads are designed to integrate smoothly into users’ feeds, stories, and timelines. They can be tailored to match the tone and style of organic content, making them less intrusive and more engaging.
2. Leveraging Influencers: Paid campaigns can harness the power of influencers whose endorsements can rapidly elevate brand awareness. This strategy taps into these influencers’ entertainment value, aligning your brand with their established audience.
3. Creative Freedom: With paid advertising, brands can experiment with various formats—videos, carousel ads, sponsored posts—that might be more engaging than standard organic content. This creative flexibility allows for more dynamic and eye-catching campaigns.
“Too many startups get seduced by the shiny object of paid social. Build something remarkable first, then paid can accelerate an already successful organic strategy.”
Seth Godin, Bestselling author and entrepreneur.
The Investment Paradox
There’s a common misconception that organic social media growth is “free.”
The time and resources needed to achieve meaningful organic reach can be just as costly, if not more so, than a well-executed paid campaign. Organic social media, run by one person, isn’t quickly scalable. If you are a startup with PE investments in the business, you must get your product in front of millions rapidly. I wish this weren’t true, but it is reality.
1. Content Creation: High-quality content is essential for organic growth. This requires investment in graphic design, video production, copywriting, and more. The content must be compelling enough to capture and retain audience interest, which is no small feat.
2. Engagement Efforts: Responding to comments and messages and engaging with followers is time-consuming. It’s a critical aspect of organic growth that demands constant attention and resources.
3. Algorithmic Changes: Social media algorithms are notoriously fickle. What works today might not work tomorrow, requiring continual adaptation and strategy shifts. Keeping up with these changes often necessitates additional investment in training and tools.
“The dream is to go viral with organic, but the reality is paid social is critical for startups to get initial traction and data. Combine the two, but don’t rely solely on one or the other.”
Neil Patel, Co-founder of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics.
The Strategic Balancing Act
While paid advertising can deliver immediate results, it’s not a panacea. Brands must strike a balance between paid and organic strategies for sustained success.
Here are a few considerations:
1. Integrated Approach: Combining paid and organic efforts can create a synergistic effect. Paid ads can boost the reach of high-performing organic content, while organic engagement can enhance the credibility of paid campaigns.
2. Sustained Engagement: Organic growth fosters long-term relationships with your audience. While paid ads can drive initial awareness, a robust organic presence is essential for maintaining and nurturing these relationships over time.
3. Budget Management: Effective marketing strategies require careful budget allocation. While paid ads might dominate the initial push for awareness, ongoing investment in organic growth ensures the momentum continues.
Conclusion: The Case for Paid Social Media Advertising
In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, paid social media advertising offers a swift and scalable solution for brands needing to grow awareness quickly. It provides the immediacy, precision, and measurability that organic strategies often lack.
However, this doesn’t diminish the value of organic growth, which remains a cornerstone for building lasting relationships and credibility.
Ultimately, the decision between paid and organic should not be considered an either-or proposition. Instead, it requires a nuanced approach that leverages the strengths of both strategies. Brands that master this balance will achieve rapid awareness and cultivate enduring connections with their audience.
As Scott Galloway might say, the key lies in recognizing that marketing is both an art and a science. Paid social media advertising offers scientific precision and speed, while organic growth provides the artistic touch necessary for long-term success.
Embrace both, and your brand will catch the spotlight and hold it.
Connect with Jeff at The Marketing Sage Consultancy. Interested in setting up a call with me? Use my calendly to schedule a time to talk. The call is free, and we can discuss your brand and marketing needs. If you want to learn more about my new offering, The Trusted Advisor Board, you can click here to learn the details. Feel free to email me at jeffslater@themarketing sage.com or text 919 720 0995. Thanks for your interest in working with The Marketing Sage Consultancy.
Photo by Lance Reis on Unsplash
