Paid search vs paid social: which and when?
Paid search wins on intent capture and conversion efficiency. Paid social wins on demand creation, reach, and creative-led discovery. Run both across the funnel, measured on reconciled outcomes.
Paid search captures people actively looking for what you offer, delivering high intent and conversion rates, while paid social reaches people who are not searching but can be prompted by creative. Search is demand capture, social is demand creation. They serve different funnel stages, so most businesses run both, using search to capture and social to create demand.
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Get your auditBook a call| Dimension | Paid search | Paid social |
|---|---|---|
| User intent | High, actively searching | Low, interrupt-based |
| Funnel role | Capture, lower funnel | Create, upper funnel |
| Conversion rate | Higher | Lower |
| Creative dependence | Copy and offer | Creative is the campaign |
| Reach beyond searchers | No | Yes |
| Cost per click | Higher | Lower |
| Attribution generosity | More reliable | Generous, needs reconciliation |
| Best for | Capturing ready demand | Building new demand |
- You want to capture people actively searching
- Conversion efficiency is the priority
- You are focused on lower-funnel demand capture
- Existing search demand for your offer is strong
- You need reliable, intent-driven conversions
- You want to create demand among non-searchers
- You have a strong creative engine
- You are building awareness and consideration
- You want broad, creative-led discovery
- Search demand for your offer is limited
Paid social's cheaper clicks are misleading if compared to search on cost per click, because search intent and conversion rates are far higher, and social attributes more generously. The two are not comparable on click cost, since they do different jobs. Judge each on reconciled cost per outcome in its funnel role, and remember social depends heavily on the creative engine while search depends on intent and account craft. Neither is inherently cheaper once outcomes are reconciled.
This is not a migration but funnel coverage. Most businesses run paid search to capture existing demand and paid social to create new demand, coordinating the two. Do not fund a social test by cutting search, since search captures ready buyers while social builds future demand, and do not expect social to convert like search on last click. Measure both on reconciled outcomes and balance by where your demand and creative strengths lie.
Numbers on this page are illustrative benchmarks or model outputs, not guaranteed returns. Actual performance depends on your account history, offer, margin, and competitive set. Nothing here is financial advice or a warranty of results.
Disclosure. iClick manages both paid search and paid social and favours neither by default. This comparison reflects that the two serve different funnel roles and must be measured accordingly, which iClick advises on rather than pushing whichever has cheaper headline metrics.
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