Paid social

What is paid social?

Paid social refers to the use of paid ads on social media platforms. Unlike organic posts, which only reach your followers (and often just a fraction of them), paid social allows you to reach exactly the target audiences you want—whether or not they’re familiar with your brand.

Paid social platforms

• Facebook and Instagram (Meta): The most mature advertising platform, offering advanced targeting, a wide variety of ad formats, and the broadest audience. Particularly strong for e-commerce with Shopping ads.
• TikTok: A rapidly growing platform focused on short-form video. Popular with younger audiences, but expanding to all age groups.
• Pinterest: A visual platform that works well for fashion, home decor, food, and DIY products. Users are often in the research or inspiration phase.
• LinkedIn: A B2B platform for professional audiences. Higher CPC, but highly precise targeting by job title, industry, and company.
• Snapchat: Popular with younger audiences, featuring creative ad formats such as AR lenses and full-screen ads.

Ad Formats

• Image ads: A single image with text and a call-to-action button.
• Video ads: Short videos (5–30 sec.) that grab attention in the feed.
• Carousel: Multiple images or videos you can swipe through—ideal for showcasing multiple products.
• Collection/Shopping: A product catalog integrated directly into the ad, allowing customers to browse and buy.
• Stories/Reels: Full-screen format optimized for the mobile experience with high engagement.
• Dynamic Product Ads (DPA): Automatically generated ads based on your product catalog, typically used for retargeting.

Targeting

Paid social offers advanced targeting options:

• Demographics: Age, gender, location, language, and education.
• Interests and behavior: Based on user activity, likes, searches, and purchase history.
• Custom audiences: Upload your customer list or target website visitors using pixel data.
• Lookalike audiences: New users who resemble your existing customers—one of the most effective targeting methods.
• Retargeting: Show ads to people who have visited your online store, viewed specific products, or added items to their cart without purchasing.

Funnel Approach to Paid Social

The most successful paid social strategies cover the entire sales funnel:

• TOF (Top of Funnel): Broad audiences, video content, brand awareness campaigns.
• MOF (Middle of Funnel): Engaged users, social proof, product demos.
• BOF (Bottom of Funnel): Retargeting, dynamic product ads, limited-time offers.

Paid social and Shoporama

Shoporama has built-in support for the most important tracking pixels for paid social:

• Facebook Pixel + Conversions API (CAPI): Track visits, product views, add-to-cart, and purchases. CAPI sends data server-side, providing more accurate tracking regardless of browser limitations.
• TikTok Pixel: Track conversions from TikTok ads.
• Pinterest Tag: Measure the impact of Pinterest ads.
• Snapchat Pixel: Track conversions from Snapchat campaigns.
• LinkedIn Insight Tag: Measure B2B campaigns and build retargeting audiences.

In addition, Shoporama supports Google Tag Manager (both client-side and server-side), allowing you to implement advanced tracking and conversion measurement for all your paid social channels.