Programmatic or Paid Social: Which Should You Prioritize?

When it comes to digital marketing for your practice, there is no shortage of options. Two of the most powerful, programmatic and paid social, tend to compete for the bulk of a budget, attention, and strategy. While these two marketing tactics serve different purposes and play to different strengths, they can work even better together when used strategically!

If you are trying to decide where to invest your time and effort, here’s a breakdown of their key differences to help you understand what makes the most sense for your brand or campaign objective. 

Audience Targeting: Depth vs. Identity

Paid social thrives on identity-based targeting. Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok know a lot about their users! They know their job title, life events, interests, friends, and behaviors. These details make it easy to build user personas to serve ads that cater to who users are and not just their actions online. 

On the other hand, programmatic advertising  is driven by behavior. It focuses on how people browse, where they go, and what they’ll likely do next. Using real-time data and third-party insights, programmatic lets you reach users across the web rather than just on one social platform. 

If you're targeting users based on specific demographics or social behaviors, paid social might be your best choice. If you're focused on high-intent actions and broader reach, programmatic is a strong contender.

Ad Creative and User Experience 

Paid social is highly visual with graphic design and images and very interactive. You’re working within a social platform feed, so your ad has to blend into a user’s scroll while still standing out. It’s a great place to test carousels, stories, short-form videos, polls, and collaborative content with influencers. 

Programmatic offers a broader range of placements. You can serve display ads, video ads, native content, even audio ads on podcasts or streaming platforms. The experience is less “social” but can be just as engaging with rich media and dynamic creative optimization. 

The bottom line: paid social fosters relationships with your brand while programmatic gives you more scale and variety. 

Picking a Priority

Paid social offers predictable costs and clear ROI tracking, making it ideal for engagement and community building. Programmatic is more variable but excels in automation, scale, and retargeting. If you have a specific goal, let that guide your choice. For a full-funnel strategy, combine both! Target on social, retarget through programmatic, and maximize results by playing to each channel’s strengths.

Need help prioritizing your digital marketing budget? At Group 241, we believe good advice should be easy to find. If something here sparked a question, or if you're just sorting through your options, feel free to reach out. Whether we're working together or not, we're always happy to offer honest, thoughtful feedback. Drop us an email at hello@group241.com or schedule a free consultation here.