Paid ad campaigns and reaching a target audience using organic content are the two main strategies for social media marketing. There are advantages to each, but when and where you might use them can have a big impact on their success. When considering LinkedIn ads versus posting organic content, it is important to understand the difference between each strategy and what benefits they might bring to your business.

What are LinkedIn ads?

Each social media platform provides the ability to create targeted ads, and LinkedIn is no different. Here you can reach a target audience with ads based on their specific areas of interest, and of course there is a cost attached to this, with various different campaigns you can run according to your budget.

The benefits of LinkedIn ads are that they guarantee visibility, and very quick visibility at that. You can tailor the ads to suit the demographic you are targeting, and they are good for expanding your audience. Paid-for ads help with lead generation because you can grow email lists off the back of them, and you can also use the ads to link to specific landing pages of your site, so you don’t have to worry about subtly directing traffic in an organic way through SEO. It is also easy to track the effectiveness of LinkedIn ads as you can see where people have linked from when they arrive on your site.

What is organic content?

This is another term for content that you publish on your website or through social media. It is content published with the intention of attracting and engaging readers naturally, on the basis that the content is insightful and meets an interest that the reader has. This kind of content can include blog articles, videos, SEO-optimised web pages, polls and infographics.

Organic content is a great way to build authenticity, demonstrate your expertise and authority, and build your brand identity online. Content can be timely and reactive, making it fresh, important, trustworthy and influential. By developing a content strategy tailored to the different user demographics of each social media platform, you can ensure your content is suited to each audience and embrace different trends to improve engagement.

How do I decide between LinkedIn ads and organic posts?

If your business has a dedicated social media budget and is looking for quick results, an ad campaign is probably the best way to go – allowing you to reach more people and scale depending on your budget. However, there is a problem with ‘ad fatigue’ and people being put off by seeing the same ads on repeat. In this instance, you may need to invest a little further in keeping ads fresh and put some work into the creative side. If you are more interested in building longer-term, sustainable relationships with a target audience, organic content may be better.

Organic posts can be effective without much cost outlay, and at the same time they can build brand loyalty because the onus is on the audience to seek out the content and engage with it. It is true that ads can take time to have the impact you need, but you can change your approach each time and work on improving each ad campaign until you find what works. Organic content can also take time to be successful but has the added benefit of building long-term brand loyalty.

Finding a combination of using LinkedIn ads and LinkedIn posts together can also be successful. For example, you can prioritise organic content to build trust and rapport with your audience, while also using paid ads to promote your most important messages.

What about lead generation?

While public content sharing and engagement is undoubtedly an important part of your LinkedIn strategy, the real results come from lead generation – a.k.a. personal outreach. By connecting and engaging with your target audience on a personal level through LinkedIn messages, you can build solid relationships that turn into leads and, most importantly, sales.

At Bee Social Marketing, we specialise in personal LinkedIn outreach without the use of bots and automation, helping you to build better relationships with your target audience. When used in combination with a solid content strategy, our approach to LinkedIn lead generation is proven to generate meaningful results – helping you to land your dream customers and grow your business!

If you need further advice and support when considering LinkedIn ads and organic content, contact our team at Bee Social today.