Organic Vs Paid Social Media: Which Is Best for Your Business?

If you’re running a business in 2025, there’s a 99% chance you’re on social media or you should at least be thinking about it. But the question is, should you be focusing on organic social media (the free, long-game approach) or paid social media (where you put money behind your posts for quick wins)? We get this question all the time, and our answer? Both.

A solid social media strategy isn’t about choosing one or the other. A solid social media strategy combines both to get the best results.

WHAT IS ORGANIC SOCIAL MEDIA?

This is any content that you post for free without paying to get it seen by non-followers/in front of specific audiences; regular Instagram updates, LinkedIn articles, tweets, TikTok videos. When you post organically, your content will first and foremost reach your followers, but it can also reach your followers’ friends or connections as well as an even broader audience if the algorithm decides to push your content.

It’s all about growing your audience naturally and keeping them engaged over time to help establish trust, showcase your brand’s personality and engage with your audience in a genuine way.

Advantages of organic social media:

• It’s free (who doesn’t love a freebie)! You don’t need an ad budget, however, what you do need is time and effort.
• Organic content needs to be engaging to work, and it will help to build both interest and trust with your audience.
• Great organic content can keep driving traffic for months or even years, leading to consistent, long-term results.
• Organic content is more authentic and people will engage with it more because it will feel more real and less salesy.

Disadvantages of organic social media:

• It takes time to build an audience and see results, especially consistent results, so growth may feel a little slow.
• Social platforms naturally prioritise paid content, meaning organic posts reach fewer people.
• Algorithms are constantly changing and if Facebook, Instagram or TikTok change their algorithms, your post reach can literally change overnight.

WHAT IS PAID SOCIAL MEDIA?

Paid social media, on the other hand, is when you put money behind your content to reach specific audiences and includes boosted posts, social media ads and sponsored content. Most platforms offer paid advertising options that allow you to target people based on things like demographics, who has visited your website and lookalike audiences. For example, an e-commerce store utilises retargeting ads to push those who have abandoned their carts to purchase.

Paid social is all about visibility, speed and scale. It helps businesses to get their content in front of the right people quickly and get results.

Advantages of paid social media:

• Wanting traffic, leads or sales? Paid ads give you fast results.
• Paid ads are highly targeted and you can reach the right audience based on their interests, behaviours and demographics.
• If an ad performs well, you can increase the budget and scale up quickly.
• If your goal is conversions, paid social is the way to go.

Disadvantages of paid social media:

• It goes without saying that paid social requires money and these costs can add up quickly.
• The moment you stop running ads, the results stop so they only have a short-term impact.
• It is very much a trial-and-error process- it takes testing and optimisation to get the best ROI.

SO WHICH ONE IS BETTER?

Honestly? Neither. You need both. Think of organic social media as the foundation of your brand’s online presence and paid social as the accelerator that gets you in front of more people at a faster pace.

Paid social amplifies what’s already working organically.

Organic social media is great for long-term relationship building with your audience, but it is slow. That’s where paid social can be useful because it gives you instant visibility. However, without some strong organic content to complement it, people may not trust your brand. Combining both means you get the visibility from the ads and the credibility from the organic.

If you have a post that’s already getting great engagement, pushing it with paid ads can supercharge its reach, and instead of experimenting with brand-new ad creatives, you can use what’s already working organically.

Your organic content keeps you in your followers’ feeds, keeping you in their minds, while paid ads can retarget those same people when they’re ready to buy. Someone might follow you for months, enjoy your organic posts and then finally convert when they see a well-timed ad.

Paid social gets your new followers, and organic social keeps them engaged. This is key to long-term growth.

HOW TO COMBINE BOTH FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT

1. If an organic post is getting great engagement organically, put some money behind it! This ensures even more people see it without you having to create new content from scratch.
2. Run small, highly targeted ad campaigns first and see what works best before you scale up your budget.
3. Focus on authenticity and pushing engagement organically, then use paid ads to drive specific actions like purchases.
4. People who already engage with your organic content are more likely to convert so paid ads can be used to retarget them with offers, discounts and reminders.
5. Don’t go all-in on ads without maintaining a steady flow of organic content or your brand may come across as too salesy.

If you’re serious about succeeding with your social media strategy, your best bet is a combination of both organic and social. Organic social will help you build trust and engage your audience while paid social gives you the reach and visibility you need to grow faster. When used together strategically, they create a powerful and cost-effective marketing machine.

So instead of the question being ‘which is better?’, ask ‘how can I use both effectively?’ That’s the real key to long-term social media success- finding the right balance between organic and paid social media.