As most marketers know, organic reach on social media has declined for brands across the board over the past few years. While brands continue to use social media to connect with consumers and build active communities of followers, statistics show the reach of their content lagging lately despite more frequent posting and a stronger emphasis on sharing engaging, valuable content. A powerful integration of paid and organic content strategies could help increase those numbers.
Leveraged strategically together, these methods can help brands mitigate the loss of organic reach; improve customer satisfaction, engagement, sentiment and loyalty; create brand awareness among new audiences; and potentially boost sales. Here, members of Forbes Agency Council share tips for combining paid ads with organic social media content to see exponentially better results.
Forbes Agency Council members share concrete ways to integrate paid and organic content strategies.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.1. Test With PPC, Then Apply High CPC Keywords To SEO
Integrating search engine optimization and paid search can benefit a brand in the long run. If you’re new to this, try these two strategies: First, test with pay-per-click ads for real-time learning, and then apply the high cost-per-click keywords to your SEO to lower your ad spend. Second, use SEO to expand your reach, and utilize PPC to bring back high-purchase-intent traffic. - Yan Zhang, XYZ Advantage
2. Combine PPC And Organic Keyword Strategies On A Landing Page
If you are looking for creative ways to get more return on investment from major content projects and get your go-to-market strategy off to a strong start, consider a hybrid approach such as pay—per-click integrated with organic. For example, combine your PPC and organic keyword strategies within a landing page, centered around a value-up-front content piece (such as a lead magnet). - Chelimar Miranda, Medical Advantage
3. Boost A Useful Podcast, Interview Or Advice From An Expert
One way is by boosting a podcast clip, interview or any other type of useful tip coming from an expert. Integrating paid ads with such clips will keep audiences interested for longer periods of time. It will have a great impact on overall reach and engagement. Consumers will not just be willing to watch one video, but will instead go to your YouTube or other social channels and have more chances to convert. - Kamaljit Singh, AMZ One Step
4. Use Paid Ad Data To Include Strong Keywords In Headlines
One effective method is to utilize paid ad data and determine the strongest keywords that could be used to create impactful headlines. These keywords should be evaluated in terms of click-through rates and be incorporated into the top headline/page title; this will help your content resonate more with your users. - Tom Hileman, Hileman Group
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5. Start With A Message Map Before Creating Paid Or Organic Content
Your message map will have a key message at its center stating how you will solve the greatest problem of your targeted audience. Around the key message are supporting messages. This content will help you create marketing messages that will resonate with your audience, whether you’re paying to reach the audience or not. - Nancy Marshall, Marshall Communications
6. Promote Existing Content To Boost Engagement And Conversion Rates
The easiest way to integrate paid ads with organic content is to increase the engagement and conversion rates of existing content. If a particular post works well and attracts the attention of your target audience, you can increase it with PPC. When you promote organic publications, not only can they reach a wider audience, but they can also provide data about your audience that you may not have had before. - Dmitrii Kustov, Regex SEO
7. Ensure Alignment Between Brand Message And Its Content Backdrop
Contextual targeting is imperative. Better yet, go directly to the publication to ensure alignment between your brand message and its content backdrop to increase your brand authority. For example, sharing your expertise on medical devices will attract much more engagement within respected healthcare industry content than in, say, sports-related content, even if both are targeting healthcare pros. - Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
8. Advertise Articles In Key Publications That Mention Your Brand
In public relations, if you get a great mention in an article from a key A-list outlet that is perfect for reaching the brand’s demographic, use it! Use that article to create an ad that includes, “As seen in … .” - Jessica Kopach, The JKO Agency
9. Track Beyond The Silos
If someone clicks an ad and then goes directly to your site and purchases, who gets the credit? Both demand generation teams and SEO teams want a gold star. When an ad campaign is launched, organic traffic needs to be tracked, and one may be feeding the other. Switching your attribution model to a linear or full-impact model will tell a better story. - Bernard May, National Positions
10. White Label Your Creator And Influencer Partners’ Content
White labeling your creator and influencer partners’ content is a great way to leverage organic content through your brand’s owned accounts or on your partners’ accounts. With white labeling, your partners create authentic content that speaks to their captive audiences, it receives high-quality engagement and is then amplified through paid media to expose similar audiences to that content. - Justin Buckley, ATTN Agency
11. A/B Test Custom Paid Social Ads To Optimize Organic Content
Every content asset you create should include a launch bundle with both organic and paid social to promote it. But rather than boost organic posts, create custom paid social ads and do A/B tests to optimize results. Then, use the learnings from those tests to update and optimize your organic content. - Beth Newton, alpha | BRAVO
12. Put Ad Dollars Behind Organic Influencer Content To Amplify It
Influencer marketing allows you to leverage organic and paid content together in a smart, strategic way. It’s critical to identify the right influencers to partner with your brand to ensure that both the creator and an appropriate portion of their followers align with your target audience. Then, putting ad dollars behind organic influencer content amplifies its impact among the right audience. - Cooper Munroe, The Motherhood Inc.
13. Extend The Reach Of Organic Content From The Backend With Paid Ads
One concrete way to integrate paid ads with organic content is by publishing content organically and then extending the reach of those organic publications from the backend with paid ads. By doing this, you ensure your content gets to be viewed organically on social media and then, with a paid push, also gets displayed in front of hyper-targeted users who wouldn’t have been reached organically. - Jonathan Durante, Expandify Marketing Inc
14. Run An Ad To Promote Sign-Ups For An On-Demand, Customer-Focused Webinar
One real example in the B2B marketing world is running an ad to promote sign-ups for an on-demand webinar featuring a customer story. You can then run an organic bylined article featuring a newsworthy write-up of the key findings of the webinar and quotes from the spokespeople. It’s a clever way to integrate awareness, lead generation, inbound marketing and customer advocacy into one campaign. - Azadeh Williams, AZK Media
