Reach Out: Combining Paid and Organic Social Strategies for Success | Pulse | Industry Insights | All MKC Content | ANA

Reach Out: Combining Paid and Organic Social Strategies for Success

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As audiences on major social sites continue to grow, opportunities (as with any other media type) for monetization grow as well. This is especially true for sites like Facebook and Instagram, where advertisers, according to Axios, are paying more for ads, and, as analysis from Ignite Social found, organic reach keeps dropping.

In 2022 no brand can eschew social media marketing, but some brands can't afford to go all-in on paid strategies, and an organic approach leaves little visibility. The solution? A combination of tactics to play to each's strength to get the most out of social media marketing efforts.

The resources here discuss how best to approach this hybrid approach.

  • Understanding the Role of Organic vs. Paid Social Media Strategy. Smart Insights, April 2022.
    This article is designed to help you leverage organic and paid social media when planning your social media strategy: "Both organic and paid social media landscapes are constantly evolving. New networks rise to prominence (e.g. TikTok), new technology increases user participation and real-time content (e.g. Periscope), and existing networks enhance their platform and product (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram launching 'buy' buttons).

    In 2022, organic reach is also continuing to shrink as the leading networks ramp up their paid social media channels to monetize platform investment. Now more than ever, marketers need to research and optimize the right organic and paid media options to achieve their goals."

  • Paid Social vs. Organic Social: Creating a Hybrid Strategy. Ad Roll, April 2022.
    Ad Roll explores paid social versus organic social media, and why it's important to have a hybrid strategy in place: "Social media marketing has evolved quite a bit over the past few years. Strategies used to be about engagement and creating a more genuine and personal presence online. Now, social media is used for the full consumer journey, including customer acquisition, remarketing, retention, and service."

  • Paid and Organic Social Media Are Better Together—Here Are 5 Reasons Why. Social Media Today, April 2022.
    Writing for Social Media Today, Hootsuite explains that "paid and social efforts must be integrated" for the best results, and provides five reasons why they work better together:
    • Paid and organic target different goals (in short, awareness versus engagement, respectively).
    • Organic reach is in decline.
    • Your organic insights can influence your paid initiatives — and vice-versa.
    • Marketers who integrate their paid and organic strategies are more confident in their social ROI.
    • The power of social stretches beyond marketing for companies with integrated strategies.
  • Organic vs. Paid Social Media Marketing: What's Better for Your Brand? Brand Watch, March 2022.
    This article helps you decide whether a paid or organic approach is best: "Should you be emphasizing an organic approach in your social media marketing or is paid the better option? Truth is, that's a false dilemma. Neither organic nor paid social media, on their own, will yield the desired results. Ideally, a combination of both is what you should pursue, with the emphasis tilting one way or the other over time.

    To determine how to proceed it's important that you understand the differences between paid and organic. Then, depending on your marketing goals, you will be able to pick the best approach that uses both organic as well as paid strategies.

    Part of this process entails setting the relevant KPIs that will help you monitor your progress and make the necessary adjustments as you go. In this article, you'll find the key differences between an organic and a paid approach as well as the most important KPIs to measure as you launch campaigns."

  • Organic vs. Paid Social Media: How to Combine Them for a Winning Strategy. Ad Espresso, January 2022.
    You shouldn't choose between organic and paid social media tactics. Both approaches can help you get to where you want to go. In fact, it will only help your case to use a combination of the two. More people and brands do so than you probably think. 2022 is on track to be a record-breaking year for ad spend on social media. 

    And it proves that social media ad spending is here to stay. Of course, there's another side of that coin too. Often, the only way that you're going to develop an audience is through organically building brand awareness and earning trust. It's hard to do that just purely through advertising. This goes through the pros and cons of organic and paid social media tactics, and how you can use both to your advantage.

Josch Chodakowsky is a director of research and innovation at ANA.


The views and opinions expressed in Marketing Futures Pulse are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.

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