How paid social differs from search advertising
Both are paid traffic, and both are billed by the platform to your card. The day-to-day work is quite different.
- Search starts with keywords; social starts with an audience.
- Search ads are mostly text; social ads lean on images and video.
- Search ads can run for months with small edits; social creative tires faster as the same people see it again.
- Search answers a query; social interrupts, so the offer has to be easy to say yes to.
- Social platforms offer native lead forms, so a response may never touch your website.
A provider managing paid social spends a lot of its time on audiences, creative refresh, frequency and the handoff of form data, and less on bid tinkering.
Creative and copy formats in rotation
Paid social runs on creative, and creative wears out. Part of the work is keeping a steady supply in the formats each platform supports.
- Single image ads, the simplest to produce and test.
- Short video, often with captions, since many people watch with sound off.
- Carousels, a few cards that can walk through steps or services.
- Document ads on LinkedIn, which let people page through a guide in the feed.
- Text and conversation ads on LinkedIn for some offers.
Copy matters as much as the visual. The first line of primary text, the headline and the call-to-action button each get tested. Ask the provider whether they produce creative themselves, adapt what you supply, or brief a designer.
What you supply for paid social
- Access to your Meta business portfolio (formerly Business Manager) or LinkedIn Campaign Manager, as a partner or user.
- Admin or editor access to your Facebook Page, Instagram account or LinkedIn Company Page.
- Access to Google Tag Manager or your website, for the pixel and Insight Tag.
- Your logo, brand colors and any photos or video you are happy to use.
- A description of your buyer: role, company size, industry.
- Customer or prospect lists for audiences, if you have consent to use them that way.
- A monthly ad budget.
- Someone to approve ads and give feedback on the leads that come in.
Questions about paid social campaigns
What is the difference between a lead form and a landing page?
A native lead form opens inside Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and is often prefilled, so it is quick to submit. A landing page sends people to your site, where more drop off but those who finish have read more. Many advertisers test both. See landing pages and forms.
Do I need the Meta pixel and the Conversions API?
If you send people to your website, yes, ideally both. The pixel records events in the browser; the Conversions API sends them from a server, which helps when browsers block scripts. Set up with matching event IDs, Meta counts each event once. Native lead form submissions are recorded by Meta without either.
What is a special ad category?
Meta requires it for ads about housing, employment, credit or other financial products, and social issues or politics. It restricts targeting by age, gender and ZIP code and limits lookalike audiences. Whether your offer falls in a category is your decision, ideally checked with your own counsel.
A few details about your business is enough to begin. A service partner replies to you directly.
Get startedOther services
Google and Microsoft ads
New account setup or cleanup of an existing one, then ongoing management. You keep admin access to the account the whole time.
Lead capture forms
Forms with the right fields, consent wording you supply, thank-you pages and connections to your inbox or CRM.
Lead tracking and follow-up
Conversion tags, CRM routing and follow-up reminders set up so each inquiry is recorded with its source and assigned to someone.