Social Advertising vs. Organic Engagement: Which is Better for Your Business

 

When you think of coming to social media to market your business, doing it organically or through paid ads are two options. Both of them combined make a solid social strategy.

We say this because according to the State of Social Media Investment Report–

Four-fifths of social media marketers think customers will purchase goods more often directly from social apps than from brands or third-party e-commerce website platforms in 2023.

77% of consumers will likely choose an enterprise that provides a great social media experience.

This shows that social commerce is winning over the mighty e-commerce. In this scenario, coming up with a holistic social approach becomes important.

However, those in the initial stage of business or social presence face confusion about whether they should stick to organic efforts or go for social advertising.

The answer to this depends on your specific goals and target audience.

Both approaches have advantages, so let’s first understand them separately and then conclude which is better for your business: social media advertising or organic engagement.

Organic Engagement

Organic engagement comes out of organic efforts. These efforts start right from the point you create your social profile and everything in between you do to bring the audience.

All your posts, stories, reels, captions, hashtags, and audience interactions count as organic, which are recurring, meaning you must engage as long as you want a consistent presence on social media.

That means they are long-term efforts and resemble your goal if it is to make people aware of your brand.

The advantages of organic social strategy that fulfil different intents include:

• Building brand loyalty
• Increasing brand awareness
• Improving customer service
• Generating positive word-of-mouth
• Driving traffic to your website

Read also: Social media analytics: How to measure social campaigns’ performance.

Social Media Advertising

Social advertising, also called social media marketing, is showing people ads about your business. Though it is done in exchange for money, it allows you to reach a wider and filtered audience that is more likely to show interest in your offerings.

The best thing about paid social ads is their quick results or, can say, faster reach and a high chance of conversations.

The advantages of social media marketing that fulfil different intents include:

• Promoting a new product or service
• Generating leads
• Increasing sales
• Driving traffic to your website
• Increasing brand awareness

Which is better for your business?

Now you know what kind of intent you can fulfil with the set of advantages of the two approaches.

That means if you so desperately want to reach a wider audience for leads and conversions, social media marketing is what can help you.

On the other hand, if you aim to build long-term trust with the audience patiently, you can stick to organic engagement.

Here is a table summarising the key differences between social media advertising and organic efforts:

Features	Social Media Marketing	Organic Engagement
Cost	Paid	Free
Reach	Wider	Narrower
Targeting	Specific	Less specific
Goal	Short term	Long term

Usually, the combination of both approaches helps ace the social game. However, nobody understands your goals better than you, so it’s up to you what you choose.

Moreover, if you have a budget aspect, paid social ads may make you hesitate. Still, if you compare these ads with Google PPC ads, they are way affordable.

Here are some tips you can consider for paid and organic strategies to make your social presence effective.

Note: here are the Top 5 AI Video Generators to use for social media marketing

Tips to consider on social media

Set your goals

What do I want to achieve?

This is the question you need to ask yourself before starting a social campaign.

Leads, awareness, web traffic or whatever!

Keeping that in mind clearly will help unobstruct your way to social media success.

Define your audience

Who are you trying to reach with your social media campaign?

Males or females?

Millennials or Genz?

Any specific group of people will show interest in your offering; this is what you need to define.

Based on gender, age, region, etc., you can easily filter out the audience and target accordingly.

Create High-quality Content

Images or videos!

Reels or stories!

Whatever content you use to attract people. Try to keep it high quality- Not only in terms of visuals but also in terms of value and engagement.

Use Hashtags

Underestimating hashtags is not a wise approach. They help a lot in making the post reach a broader audience.

Be it any post, try using both trending and relevant hashtags.

Engage with audience

Continually responding and reacting to the audience’s messages or comments is very important. You should also engage with people on others’ posts or public posts. Commenting, replying, sharing your views, and participating in trends will also work out.

 Looking for a professional social media marketing service?

If you want to help marketing professionals ace your social game, you can consider reaching out to our team. Check out our packages or call us on  +91 901 276 4000