Paid Social
Paid social is any social media content you pay a platform to distribute to a targeted audience, as opposed to unpaid organic reach.
Paid social refers to advertising on social media platforms where you pay to put content in front of a defined audience through bidding and targeting. Unlike organic posts that rely on followers and the algorithm, paid social lets you reach people by interests, demographics, behaviors, or custom and lookalike audiences. It matters because organic reach has declined sharply, so paying is often the only reliable way to scale beyond existing followers. Performance is measured with metrics like CPM, CPC, CTR, ROAS, and conversion rate. Campaigns run across Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Pinterest Ads, and more, and are tuned through testing creatives, audiences, and budgets.
Examples
- A Meta Ads campaign targeting women 25-34 interested in fitness.
- A LinkedIn lead-gen ad shown to marketing managers at SaaS companies.
- A TikTok Spark Ad amplifying a high-performing organic video.
Related terms
Retargeting is advertising that shows ads to people who already interacted with your brand, such as site visitors or video viewers, to bring them back.
A lookalike audience is a new ad audience the platform builds by finding people who resemble an existing source list, such as your customers or followers.
A boosted post is an existing organic post you pay to show to more people, the simplest entry point into paid social.