Paid social advertising is when you pay social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or Pinterest to show your ads to specific people, and you should use it when you need fast, targeted reach or leads that organic posts and search cannot deliver on their own.
Unlike search ads (where someone is actively looking), paid social is interruption-based: you put a message, offer, or story in front of the right audience while they scroll. That makes it great for building demand, promoting time-sensitive offers, filling a pipeline, or staying visible in a crowded Orlando market where people compare options quickly.
What paid social actually includes
Paid social usually shows up as “Sponsored” or “Ad” placements in feeds, Stories, Reels, short-form video, in-stream placements, and sometimes inbox placements (platform dependent). You can target by location (city, ZIP codes, radius), demographics, interests, behaviors, and platform signals, plus you can upload customer lists for remarketing and build lookalike audiences. If you want social ads built for leads, calls, and booked appointments, this sits inside our PPC services.
When paid social is the right move
Use paid social when your offer needs visibility, not just ranking. In practice, that means you have something clear to sell (a service, a promotion, an event, a consultation) and a simple next step (call, form, booking). It is also a strong fit when you want to reach people within a tight geography, like specific Orlando neighborhoods or a radius around your office, or when you want to stay in front of past site visitors who were not ready to convert on their first visit.
| Business goal | When paid social fits | Common channels | What we track |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get leads fast | You need calls, form fills, or booked consults this month and you have a solid offer | Meta (Facebook/Instagram), LinkedIn (B2B), TikTok | Leads, cost per lead, lead quality, booked rate |
| Promote a limited-time offer | Seasonal demand, slow weeks, new service launch, reopening, or an event | Meta, TikTok, Pinterest | Clicks, landing page view rate, conversion rate, cost per result |
| Stay top-of-mind | Longer sales cycle (legal, healthcare, higher-ticket home services) where people need multiple touches | Meta, YouTube placements via social video, LinkedIn | Reach, frequency, engaged visitors, assisted conversions |
| Retarget warm prospects | You get site traffic, but many visitors do not convert on the first visit | Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn | Return visitor conversions, cost per booked action, view-through trends |
If you want the “why” behind this split, it helps to understand the difference between social reach and intent; our FAQ on organic social vs. paid social breaks it down in plain terms.
When you should not use paid social yet
Paid social can burn budget when the foundation is weak. If your landing page is slow, your offer is vague, your follow-up is delayed, or you cannot track calls and forms accurately, you will struggle to tell what is working. In that case, we fix the conversion path first (page, tracking, follow-up) and then scale spend with confidence.
How we recommend starting
Start simple: one audience, one offer, and 2–4 creative variations. Let the platform learn for a couple weeks, then shift budget toward what drives qualified leads, not just clicks. In Orlando, we often build separate ad sets for tight-radius “near me” coverage and broader city-wide targeting, because lead quality can vary a lot neighborhood to neighborhood.
Two practical guardrails: (1) follow platform rules for restricted categories (housing, employment, and many financial products have targeting limits), and (2) keep healthcare ads compliant by avoiding sensitive-personal-attribute language and staying factual. If you are running remarketing, our FAQ on how retargeting ads work is a helpful next step for setting expectations.
If you want help picking the right channel mix and building ads that match your brand voice and creative, our social media marketing services can support the content side while the ad engine drives measurable results.
