Paid Social

Definition

Paid social is advertising on social media platforms — primarily Meta's Facebook and Instagram. Instead of targeting what people search, you target who they are, using interests, location, and audience signals to interrupt the feed with your offer.

In depth

Paid social works on interruption rather than intent. A homeowner scrolling Instagram isn't searching for a deck builder, so you reach them with a compelling photo or video and a clear offer. You target by geography, demographics, and a lookalike audience built from your past customers, then use retargeting to follow up with people who visited your site but didn't call. Success is measured by cost per lead and the quality of the leads the creative produces.

For a contractor, paid social is a demand-creation engine, not a demand-capture one. Paid search catches the homeowners already looking; paid social plants the idea in the ones who aren't yet — and keeps your name in front of a whole neighborhood for a low cost per click. It shines for showing finished projects, building social proof, and feeding retargeting so the people search sends you don't slip away.

The mistake is expecting paid social to close jobs like search does — the intent simply isn't there yet, so leads cost less but need more nurturing. We pair strong project creative with a lead-magnet offer and a real follow-up sequence, and we judge it on booked consultations down the funnel, not on cheap clicks at the top.

Worked example

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