Paid Social Advertising
Paid social where the creative does the targeting: Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok run with enough creative volume to keep learning, and measurement that survives the loss of the pixel.
Overview
Paid social inverted a few years ago. Detailed audience targeting used to be the lever; now the algorithms find the audience and the creative is what decides who gets shown the ad. Teams still spending their time on audience settings and almost none on creative volume are optimising the part that no longer moves.
The practical consequence is that a paid social programme is a creative production problem wearing a media buying costume. We run it that way: a steady supply of distinct concepts, tested properly, with the winners scaled and the losers killed on a schedule rather than on a feeling.
Who this is for
- Advertisers whose returns fell after the iOS tracking changes
- Teams running the same three creatives for months and wondering why performance decays
- B2B companies paying LinkedIn prices without a matching qualification process
How we approach paid social advertising
The specific pieces of work a typical engagement covers. Scope is agreed up front — nothing here is a surprise line item later.
Creative strategy and volume
A pipeline of genuinely different concepts, not colour variations of one idea. Creative fatigue is the main cause of decaying paid social performance and the only real cure is new work.
Structured creative testing
Enough budget per concept to reach a decision, with rules agreed in advance for what gets scaled and what gets stopped. Most accounts kill winners early and keep losers too long.
Account simplification
Consolidated campaigns so the algorithm gets the conversion volume it needs. Fragmented accounts with twenty ad sets rarely leave the learning phase.
Platform-native production
Vertical video and platform-appropriate formats. A repurposed television spot on TikTok is recognisable within half a second and is skipped in one.
Measurement after the pixel
Conversions API, geo holdout tests and incrementality checks, because platform-reported returns have been optimistic since tracking changed and comparing platform numbers is comparing two different fictions.
B2B qualification
On LinkedIn especially, filtering before sales gets involved. High cost per click makes the difference between a lead and a qualified lead expensive.
From first call to measured result
The same sequence every time, so you always know what happens next.
Diagnose
Review the account, the creative history and the measurement. We look for whether the problem is creative, structure or attribution, because the fixes are unrelated.
Rebuild measurement
Conversions API and a baseline test so there is something honest to judge later work against.
Test creative
Several distinct concepts into a simplified account structure, with decision rules set before launch.
Scale and refresh
Scale what works and keep new concepts entering on a fixed cadence, because every winning ad has a shelf life.
Outcomes, not deliverables
A pile of artefacts isn't progress. These are the changes the work is meant to produce — and what we report against.
Performance that stops decaying
A steady creative pipeline prevents the slow monthly decline that most accounts accept as normal.
Numbers you can act on
Incrementality testing separates the sales the ads caused from the sales that would have happened anyway.
Faster learning
Consolidated structures reach statistical confidence sooner, which means less budget spent finding out.
Creative you own
Concepts, cuts and source files are yours, and the ones that work usually earn their keep in organic and email too.
Common questions about Paid Social Advertising
The things people ask before they get in touch. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
How many creatives do we need each month?
For a meaningful spend, expect four to eight genuinely distinct concepts per month, each with a few variations. That sounds like a lot until you see how quickly the good ones fatigue. Below that the account spends most of its life running tired creative.
Why does the platform report more sales than our own system?
Platforms use view-through and modelled conversions and each claims credit generously, so the sum across platforms usually exceeds actual sales by a wide margin. That is why we run geo holdout tests: they measure what would have happened without the spend, which no attribution window can tell you.
Is LinkedIn worth the cost for B2B?
When the deal size justifies it and the qualification is tight, yes. At many times the cost per click of other channels, LinkedIn punishes weak targeting and weak follow-up harder than any other platform. If your sales process cannot handle the leads well, the money is better spent elsewhere first.
Do you produce the creative or just run the media?
Both, and we would rather do both, because the split between strategy, production and buying is exactly where paid social programmes lose their momentum. If you have an in-house studio we brief it and handle the testing framework instead.
Thinking about Paid Social Advertising?
Tell us what you are trying to change. If we are not the right fit we will say so, and point you somewhere better.
Looking at the wider picture?
Paid Social Advertising usually sits alongside other work in Performance Marketing & Paid Media. Browse the full area to see what it connects to.