What Is Paid Social? Targeted Advertising on Social Media Explained

Social media advertising lets a small business put its offer in front of the people most likely to buy, even on a modest budget. You decide who should see the ad, where they live and how much you want to spend each day, and you can stop or change the campaign at any time. In the UK it is usually called paid social. This guide explains what paid social is, how targeted advertising on social media works, how it differs from search ads and which businesses it suits.

Targeting means choosing who sees your ad. Before a campaign starts, you work out who is likely to want your product or service: their age, where they live, what they are interested in and what problem you solve for them. The ad platform then shows the ad to people who match that description, so less of the budget is spent on people who would never buy.

Paid social is advertising on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and Pinterest. Facebook and Instagram ads are run from one place, Meta Ads Manager, and are often the first choice for small businesses selling to consumers. LinkedIn suits B2B services, because you can target people by job title, industry and company size. Paid social is one part of social media marketing, alongside the unpaid posts you publish on your own pages.

Targeted advertising, in the wider sense, is any advertising shown to people chosen by data about them. On social networks, that data comes from what users tell the platform and what they do there. You can select an audience by location, age, gender, interests and behaviour, and combine several of these. Platforms also limit what you can target: Meta, for example, removed detailed targeting options linked to sensitive topics such as health, religion, politics and sexual orientation in January 2022.

When people sign up to a social network, they give some details about themselves, such as age and location. As they use it, they follow pages, join groups, watch videos and react to posts. The platform uses this activity to understand what each person is interested in, and advertisers can use it to reach the right audience without seeing anyone’s personal data.

A campaign usually combines several kinds of audience. You can target new people by location and interests, reach visitors to your website or people who have engaged with your page, upload a list of existing customers (with their consent) or ask the platform to find people similar to your best customers. In the UK, placing advertising cookies or tracking pixels on your own website needs visitors’ consent, which your cookie banner should ask for, as the ICO guidance on cookies explains.

• Where the ads appear. PPC search ads appear in search results on Google and Bing and on partner sites, and are set up in Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising. Paid social ads appear in feeds, stories and videos on social networks.
• What triggers the ad. A search ad shows when someone types a query that matches your keywords. A social ad shows to people who fit the audience you chose, whatever they are doing on the platform at the time.
• How ready people are to buy. Search ads reach people who are already looking for a product like yours. Paid social reaches people who may not be looking yet, so it is good at creating interest and works best with a clear, eye-catching offer.

Many businesses use both: search ads to catch existing demand and paid social to build it. Our guide to SEO vs PPC covers the search side in more detail.

Before you spend money on paid social, check that your customers use the platforms and that your product can be shown well in an image or a short video. If they do, the channel suits a wide range of businesses, from sole traders to large brands:

• online shops;
• restaurants, cafés and pubs;
• coaches and personal trainers, from fitness to careers;
• gyms, studios and leisure centres;
• travel companies and holiday lets;
• event organisers, venues and entertainment businesses.

Main advantages:

• You reach the people you choose. A well-built audience means most of the budget goes on people who could become customers.
• You can adjust quickly. The results show within days which audiences, images and messages work, so you can change the targeting or the ad while the campaign runs.
• No large following needed. A campaign can reach thousands of people even if your page has only a few followers.
• Messages for each group. You can show different ads to different audiences, for example new visitors and past customers, and speak to each in their own terms.

Disadvantages:

• Lower intent to buy. People open social apps to chat and be entertained, so fewer of them buy straight away than people who click a search ad;
• Ad rules and review. Each platform checks ads against its own policies, and some products and topics have extra restrictions or need approval. The same audience also sees your ads again and again, so images and text need refreshing regularly.

Paid social works best when you know who your customers are, have an offer that is easy to show in a picture or a short video and send people to a page that makes the next step clear, such as a landing page built for the campaign. If you would like help with the set-up, see our Facebook Ads management and Instagram advertising services, or our PPC management if search ads suit your business better.