Introduction to Paid Social Advertising

We come across social media ads dozens of times per day, every single day. Who would’ve thought, back in 1941, when the first ever commercial aired on television, that 84 years later we would be surrounded by paid media. Advertising is not just a way of increasing sales or promoting your brand anymore. It’s a story-telling tool and a medium through which businesses can imprint on our subconsciousness. 

Paid Social – What and Why?  

Explained in the simplest way, paid social ads are sponsored posts promoting a brand. It is a top-funnel (TOF) digital marketing strategy in which brands advertise their products by paying social platforms to promote their content. Despite being classed as a TOF channel, with good optimisation, it can contribute to the entire funnel. Paid social ads can appear in various forms and on different channels and will usually display a “sponsored” label in the feed.  

Most platforms have their own advertising services, with Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, X and Pinterest among the most popular ones. The goal for your social media ads is to seamlessly fit within the feed by imitating the tone of voice and look of an organic post, so it doesn’t take away from the user experience. We’ve all fallen victim of “doom-scrolling” and having our attention captured by a funny video or a creative Reel, before realising what we are watching is just a well-designed ad. This is where things get wild. Even though we are not actually paying attention to the content on screen, our brains subconsciously take in all that information, actively filtering through it. This comes back later, when you’re shopping or when you start thinking about buying those shoes you saw somewhere but not sure where.  

As of 2025, there are about 5.24 billion people active on social media platforms globally. That’s nearly 64% of the world’s population. Yes, this might include people having multiple accounts, but it represents the real, massive scale and power that social media entails. With that in mind, would you really want to miss out on all those potential customers? 

How to Get Started with your Paid Social Ads 

So, you want to start your paid social activity, but you don’t know where to begin? Navigating the various platforms and different strategies can be a walk through a minefield, no matter how established your brand is. The best way to go about it is to start small, then expand your strategy as you go: 

1. Pick your primary social platform – Start with a platform that has the largest audience relevant to your brand. In most cases, Meta is the best place to start, as it entails Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, with over 3.35 billion users. Once you’re up and running, you can focus on expanding onto other platforms like TikTok or Pinterest.
2. Outline your goals and KPIs – What is your goal? Do you want to increase brand awareness, sell products directly through eCommerce activity or focus on conversions on your website. Only when defining what you want the outcome of your campaigns to be you can move forward.
3. Understand your audience – Who are the people buying your products? What tone of voice do they use? Some platforms offer automatic targeting tools, such as Meta’s Advantage+ which is very helpful, but you still need to know who your customers are. Creating buyer personas can help you with interest targeting, whereas existing data you may have, such as website visitors or past purchasers can be used to create Lookalike audiences and reach users who display similar behaviours and are in the same demographic.
4. Think about the creative – While strategy is key, you need to also capture the viewer’s attention! Think of your brand and use creative such as videos and single images that are visually memorable to convey your message, without having to decipher it. Think of your copy, tone of voice and length. If you can’t decide between two versions, A/B test. Testing will help you understand what resonates with your audience.
5. Decide on budgets – Once you have your strategy and targeting in place, you will have a better understanding of what budgets you need to maximise performance and how much you can spend. It’s all about balance; spending too little will impact performance, but putting all your spend into one campaign can waste your money if it’s not well optimised.
6. Tracking and attribution – Make sure your pixel is installed on the website and that you’re tracking events. This will enable you to track the effectiveness of your ads and optimise spending. If using Meta, consider setting up Conversion API.  

Ready to start advertising on social media? 

Paid social holds massive potential, with many objective and targeting capabilities, making it a versatile platform that can work with most businesses. The variety of social media platforms offering paid advertising enables brands to pick and choose depending on where their target audience spends the most time. While starting paid social activity can be intimidating with all the possibilities, it is key to start small, narrow down your audience, decide on your goals and creative. Most importantly, your strategy doesn’t have to be perfect to get started, make the first step and adapt as you collect data and learnings.  

Want to get your paid social activity off the ground? Get in touch with our social media team for a quick chat about how we can take your advertising to the next level!