When to Hit Boost: Using Paid Media to Amplify Organic Social Strategy
In today’s digital landscape, organic social media builds the relationship — paid media accelerates it.
While some brands treat paid and organic as separate silos, the most effective marketing strategies integrate them intentionally. If you’re already investing in organic content creation, community building, or influencer engagement, you’re sitting on a goldmine of opportunities to amplify your impact with paid media.
Here’s how — and when — to turn up the volume.
Start with a Solid Organic Foundation
Before you spend a dime on ads, make sure your organic content is doing its job:
Your grid or feed communicates your brand
You’re posting consistently with value-driven content that matters most to your audience
Your audience is engaging (likes, shares, comments, saves)
You’ve got at least a few posts that have outperformed the rest
Paid media works best when it’s built on something real and authentic!
Identify What’s Already Working
Instead of guessing what to promote, let the data guide you. Look at:
Engagement metrics: Which posts earned the most saves, shares, or comments?
Watch time (for video): What kept people watching until the end?
Clicks or DMs: Which posts led people to take action?
Once you’ve identified your organic top-performers, those become your paid-ready assets — the ones that deserve a broader audience.
Match the Objective to the Content
Don’t “boost” your content for the sake of it. Align each piece of content with the outcome you want to achieve. Here are some examples:
Educational Carousel: Consider using this type of content to drive website traffic or conversions (online purchases/leads).
Relatable Reel: Consider leaning into engagement as your goal.
Influencer/Content Creators: Reach or brand awareness are great objectives for these videos.
The possibilities are really endless when it comes to choosing the right objective. Just remember it should always align with what your end goal is.
Retarget and Build the Funnel
Organic content is really helping your business get discovered and feeding the top of your marketing funnel. Paid allows you to retarget those people who may have engaged but didn’t convert.
Platforms like Meta and TikTok give you so many opportunities to retarget people who may have engaged with your content or visited your website. Don’t leave this pipeline to dry out. Take advantage while you can!
The TL;DR
When a post outperforms your average content
When you want to expand reach without re-creating content
When building custom audiences for retargeting
When launching a campaign and want to validate creative
When testing influencer or UGC content at scale
Paid + Organic = Performance That Lasts
At the end of the day, paid media shouldn’t replace your organic strategy — it should amplify your best moments and accelerate what’s already working.
If you're ready to stop guessing and start scaling with purpose, we’d love to help.