Organic vs paid social media: why you need both

Organic vs paid social media is no longer an either or decision for marketers who want predictable reach, consistent visibility, and meaningful engagement.

Organic social media marketing still matters, but the landscape has shifted. Algorithms have changed. Competition has increased. Audiences are consuming content differently. And relying on organic activity alone is no longer enough to deliver the brand awareness, traffic and leads that businesses expect from social.

This does not mean organic as part of your social media strategy is ineffective. Far from it. Organic content remains the engine of trust, community, and long term brand presence. But when brands want to reach new audiences, accelerate outcomes, or give high value content a chance to break through, paid support becomes essential. In this blog we break down what organic social media can and cannot do, where paid adds the most value, and how a blended approach helps marketers get more from the work they are already doing.

What organic social media marketing is today – and why it has changed

Organic social media marketing refers to all the content a brand publishes without a media budget attached. Posts, stories, reels, carousels, comments, replies, all count as organic. For years, organic social media strategy revolved around showing up consistently, engaging with followers, and growing reach through frequency and quality.

But the landscape looks very different in 2025.

Platforms now prioritise:

• Creator content over brand content.
• Friends and personal connections over business pages.
• Short form video formats with high time in feed.
• Paid placements over organic impressions to maintain revenue.

Even excellent content struggles to achieve the reach it would have had three years ago. Brands often only reach a small percentage of their audience when posting organically. This is not because the content is wrong. It is because the system itself has changed.

What counts as organic content today

Organic content now includes:

• Short video clips.
• Educational posts.
• Community updates.
• Storytelling carousels.
• Images or behind the scenes moments.
• Thought leadership insights.
• Comment participation and conversation building.

Organic content still matters. But its job has changed. Organic now builds depth and personality, while paid provides the reach.

The benefits and limitations of organic social media

Organic social media still provides significant value for marketers, but only when paired with a realistic understanding of what it can achieve on its own.

Benefits of organic social media:

1. Builds long term brand familiarity.
2. Allows for deeper storytelling that paid formats cannot always support.
3. Encourages community conversation and audience participation.
4. Offers low marginal cost once the content engine is established.
5. Makes the brand feel human, accessible, and approachable.

Limitations of organic social media marketing:

1. Reach is limited and inconsistent without paid support.
2. Organic content struggles to break out of existing follower circles.
3. Testing is slow because performance depends on timing and algorithm mood.
4. Organic campaigns cannot be reliably scaled to match business goals.
5. Content often fails to reach high intent audiences at the right moment.

Organic social media is essential, but it is not enough on its own. This is why an integrated approach matters.

Organic vs paid social media – how they support each other

Marketers often view organic and paid social as competing priorities. The truth is the opposite. Organic and paid are most effective when treated as one system working toward the same goals.

What organic does best

Organic content is ideal for:

• Building trust.
• Educating audiences.
• Humanising the brand.
• Showing behind the scenes.
• Supporting long sales cycles with ongoing visibility.
• Demonstrating expertise or personality.

Organic social creates the brand a customer wants to spend time with.

What paid does best

Paid social is ideal for:

• Reaching new audiences quickly.
• Boosting visibility for high value content.
• Testing messages, formats, and audiences at speed.
• Scaling campaigns that are already performing well.
• Driving measurable actions such as leads, downloads, or sales.

Paid social ensures your best content is actually seen.

Why you need both

When brands rely only on organic, their visibility shrinks. When they rely only on paid, they lose trust and personality. Combining both allows marketers to:

• Build an always on presence.
• Reach both warm and cold audiences.
• Increase consistency of performance.
• Improve ROI on content already being created.
• Amplify campaigns without reinventing them.

Paid does not replace organic. Paid lets organic content work harder.

Organic vs paid social media – designing a strategy that expects paid support

Most social media strategies fail because they treat paid as an optional extra. In reality, paid should be factored into the strategy from the beginning.

Start with the organic plan

A strong organic social media strategy includes:

• Clear content pillars that align with marketing goals.
• Formats chosen based on what performs best for the brand.
• A consistent posting rhythm that audiences can rely on.
• Themes that support brand education, product value, and community.

Organic sets the stage.

Then layer paid intentionally

Paid is not about boosting everything. It is about choosing where spend makes the most impact.

Paid should be used to:

1. Amplify high performing organic posts.
2. Promote important campaigns or announcements.
3. Reach new audiences with proven creative.
4. Support seasonal or time bound pushes.
5. Target high intent users who do not yet follow the brand.

Consider adopting a simple three layer model

1. Layer 1: Always on organic content.
   The foundation of brand presence.
2. Layer 2: Always on low level paid.
   Helps key audiences see your best content consistently.
3. Layer 3: Campaign bursts.
   Built around launches, promotions, events, or high value moments.

This model ensures that organic content has the support it needs to perform and that paid spend is used strategically, not reactively.

How much should you invest – and where should the budget come from

The right budget varies by business size, funnel goals, and industry. But the consistent truth is simple: even modest paid investment dramatically improves organic results.

Budget principles for organic social media support:

1. Start with a small test budget and scale what works.
2. Treat paid social as part of the cost of using the channel, not an add on.
3. Reallocate low performing spend from channels with declining ROI.
4. Focus spend on high value content, not everything.

Marketing leaders often think paid requires big numbers. In reality, a small but consistent spend can make a noticeable difference within weeks.

Paid support is not about creating more content. It is about getting more from the content you already have.

Measuring performance when organic and paid work together

Reporting must show the combined impact of both sides. This helps justify spend, demonstrate ROI, and strengthen future business cases.

Core organic social media metrics include:

1. Reach.
2. Impressions.
3. Engagement rate over time.
4. Clicks to site or key pages.
5. Saves, comments, and deeper interactions.

Core paid social media metrics include:

1. CPM.
2. CPC.
3. CTR.
4. Conversion events such as leads, sign ups, or purchases.
5. Assisted conversions from awareness to action.

Build reporting that tells one story

Organic and paid should be reported together as one channel. The narrative should show:

• What organic achieved on its own.
• What paid delivered when amplifying organic.
• How both contributed to pipeline, traffic, or conversions.

This combined reporting model is exactly how you can demonstrate value internally.

Organic vs paid social media – common objections and how to respond

Marketers encounter predictable objections when requesting paid budgets. Here is how to respond with confidence.

Objection 1: “Organic is free, why pay.”

Organic is low marginal cost, not free. If content is only seen by a small percentage of followers, the cost of creating it is not being recovered. Paid ensures it reaches the right people.

Objection 2: “We tried paid before and it did not work.”

Paid fails when targeting, creative, or objectives are misaligned. When done correctly, paid does not replace organic. It amplifies the best parts of it.

Objection 3: “We do not have the budget for both.”

You do not need two budgets. Paid should support the existing organic plan, not create parallel work. Small budgets used intelligently go a long way.

Objection 4: “We do not want to annoy our audience.”

Paid does not have to feel intrusive. When you promote content that is already performing well organically, your ads feel like value, not noise.

Final thoughts

Organic social media marketing is essential for building trust, brand presence, and long term visibility. But it has natural limitations. Paid social is not a replacement for organic. It is the support system that helps good content reach more people, more often, at the moments that matter.

If you want your organic strategy to work harder, start by layering small, strategic paid support behind your best performing posts. Over time, you will see the difference in reach, engagement, and pipeline.

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Related reading:

• Social media and the evolving role of HQ marketing teams
• The power of social media content repurposing
• Social media and search engine success: what you need to know