Social Ads: Meta and LinkedIn

On social platforms people are not looking for you. The ad has to interrupt a scroll and be interesting enough to act on. That makes creative (the image or video and the first line) the biggest lever.

Choose the right objective

Platforms optimise for what you ask for. Ask for clicks and you get clickers; ask for leads and you get people likely to fill in forms.

Audiences

• Core audiences: location, age, interests and behaviours. Keep them reasonably broad; modern platforms find buyers better with room to learn.
• Custom audiences: website visitors (via the pixel), people who engaged with your page or videos, and customer lists (only with permission and as the platform's terms allow).
• Lookalike audiences: people similar to your best customers or leads.
• LinkedIn targeting: job title, function, seniority, company size and industry. Powerful for B2B, but clicks often cost several times more than on Meta, so it suits higher-value offers.

Retargeting: the most efficient social ads

Most visitors leave without acting. Retargeting shows them a follow-up ad: a case study, a review, or "get your fixed price in 2 minutes". Small audiences, low cost, high intent. Cap the frequency (how often one person sees the ad) so it helps instead of annoys.

Creative that works

• Hook in the first second or first line: a problem the viewer recognises ("Still taking bookings by phone?").
• Show, don't tell: a before-and-after of a real site, a 15-second screen recording of a booking flow, a client quote with a photo (with permission).
• One message, one action.
• Design for phones and sound off: vertical or square formats, large text, captions on video.
• Make several versions: 3 to 5 creatives per ad set, and replace the ones that tire (falling CTR, rising frequency).

Lead forms: quality over quantity

Instant forms inside the platform are easy to fill in, which also means many low-quality leads. Add one or two qualifying questions (budget range, timeline), and follow up within hours. Measure qualified leads and customers, not form fills.

Special rules

Ads for housing, employment, credit and some other categories have restricted targeting in many regions, and every platform has policies on claims, before-and-after images, personal attributes and sensitive topics. Read the current policies before launching; rejected ads and suspended accounts cost far more than the time it takes.

Exercise

Plan a retargeting campaign for website visitors from the last 30 days: the audience, the objective, three ad ideas (hook, visual, call to action) and a frequency cap.

Check yourself

• Why does the campaign objective matter so much on social platforms?
• What makes retargeting efficient?
• How would you improve the quality of leads from an instant form?