What’s the Difference Between an Organic Post and a Paid Ad?

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Short answer: Reach.

Longer answer: There are a few key differences between organic and paid posts (besides just that one is paid for!). Let us explain.

Organic Posts

Organic posts are created for your existing audience. This includes people who follow or like your companies profile/page/account. 

They are free to create and you have free reign over their content. You can offer deals, post updates, ask questions and much more. Depending on the platform, these posts can take many diverse forms. Perhaps the best part about organic content is that is allows you to speak directly to your current audience. 

Generally, the only people that will see this content are the people who follow your page. The only exception occurs when a member of your audience decides to share the post with their personal audience. In that case, their friends and followers who may not know of you will see your post.

Paid Ads

A paid ad is a post that appears to people who do not necessarily follow your page. It’s a great way to easily grow your audience and expand your reach to new consumers. 

Depending on the platform, paid ads can take on a number of different forms. They can be a simple photo with text or a full piece of sponsored InMail on LinkedIn. Generally you will need post text as well as some sort of media.  Media can include pictures, GIFs, videos, slideshows, etc.

The best part about paid ads is that they don’t just throw your content into the world wide web. Marketers can target paid ads to reach very specific audiences. For example, you can target your snowplow manufacturing tips eBook to 30-50 year old males in the United States who live in cold climates and work in engineering. Only people who fulfill that target market will see your ad.

Note that the more specific you get, the more the ad will generally cost and the smaller an audience it will reach. That’s because the people it will reach are much more likely to convert, giving you a better ROI.

Paid ads can also be used to remarket to past customers. If you have an email list of customers who have done business with you, or IP data on customers who have visited your site before, you can pay to show them ads that follow them around the internet. A MARKETER’S DREAM!

At the end of the day, the main difference between organic and paid posts is still reach, or how many people are seeing your content. A small company with 60 Facebook followers can only reach those 60 people through organic content. But with paid advertising they have the potential to reach thousands.

Is your marketing effectively reaching thousands? Ineffectively reaching millions? Let’s talk about it! Click below to schedule your free consultation and company marketing review. 

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