Which Paid Media Platform Should You Choose For Your Business?

If you're looking to drive greater business growth, you're most likely thinking of conducting ads.  The two most common and prominent methods of paid media can be classified broadly into paid search and paid social. While it is great to invest in both, it is also true that your marketing budget isn't infinite. Ideally, your marketing strategy should conform to your budget. What this means is that even though you can invest in all forms of paid media, you may want to choose the options that would deliver faster on your business goals. 

Let's take a look at how paid search and paid social differ from each other and what you can achieve with each one.

Paid Search

Paid search refers to advertisements on search engines with the aim of appearing on the first page of the search engine results page (SERP). When people input search terms on their browsers known as queries, the search engine displays relevant results. Advertisements usually take the first three slots in these results. The rest of the businesses appearing on the SERP are organic search results. Organic search is the opposite of paid search because rather than paying for the position on the SERP, the businesses appearing have invested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in order to rank. 

Paid search is also called PPC (Pay Per Click), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and responsive advertising. Paid search is beneficial to businesses because it is highly targeted. The advertisements are shown to people who are looking for what the business offers what we at Rêveur refer to as “Pull-based marketing”. The buying potential of the audience that gets to see businesses through paid search is at an all time high. These people are either looking to purchase right now or pretty soon. On the flip side however, many of them may be comparison shoppers who tend to see your competitor's products and services alongside yours and then weigh their options. If your ad ranks best among your competition, you're likely to convert the search into a paid customer. Paid search is effective because its market share is 86.6% showing that a lot of people are buying through the search engines. Your ad options with paid search are fewer as you are not allowed unlimited designs and many of the ads are text only. Similarly, the chances of creating a marketing funnel through paid search is much lower than with paid social.

Paid Social

Paid social marketing involves conducting advertisements on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. Paid social involves reflecting business ads on newsfeeds. It is the opposite of organic social through which businesses market themselves for free on social media through targeted posts. In the case of paid social, businesses leverage the expertise of the algorithms to get their products, services or brands in front of the right people who are not yet aware of their business in what we refer to as “Push based marketing”. Paid social is regarded as intrusive advertising because it appears in front of social media users without any effort on their part. However, marketing on social media is highly targeted because users are shown ads that correlate with their behaviors and interactions on the platform.

Paid social has the potential to convert impulse buyers instead of comparison shoppers resulting in immediate buys for related products and services. Social media platforms also present a wide range of ad options that allows you to get exploratory on the appearance of your ads. Paid social is cheap on the average but can quickly get expensive if not monitored. The click through rate (CTR) on social is lower than search because of its intrusive nature and the fact that the platforms prefer users staying on them. You have a viable opportunity to build a marketing funnel through paid social advertising because you can reach all potential customers in their stage of the buyer's journey. If you want loyal customers and brand advocates, paid social would be the way to go.

If you want immediate sales however, paid search is a better option. In order to optimize your marketing budget, you have to choose which paid media aligns best with your business goals. As your budget expands, you can explore both paid search and paid social to achieve more results for your business.

Curious to know whether paid search or social is a better choice for your business? Get in touch with Rêveur, and we’d be happy to help!