What Is Paid Social?

    Quick answer

    Paid social is advertising on social platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit and TikTok, where a business pays to reach a chosen audience.

    Paid social is the category of paid media that runs on social platforms. Instead of relying on organic posts reaching followers, a business pays the platform to show ads to an audience it defines, using the platform's targeting options, placements and ad formats. For B2B companies, the most common paid social platforms are LinkedIn and Meta, which covers Facebook and Instagram, with X, Reddit, TikTok and YouTube used in some markets and categories. Each platform offers different targeting data and ad formats. LinkedIn is built around professional profile information such as job title, seniority, company and industry, while Meta's targeting is broader and often relies on customer lists, website visitors, engagement and platform signals. Paid social is typically used to reach people before they search, to promote content or events, to collect leads and to stay visible to people who have already engaged.

    Reviewed by the Growleady team · Updated 26 September 2026

    How B2B Teams Use Paid Social

    A paid social campaign combines an audience, an objective, a creative format and a destination. The audience may be built from platform targeting, uploaded customer or account lists, website visitors or people who have engaged with earlier content. The objective tells the platform what to optimise for, such as reach, clicks, video views or leads. Formats include single images, carousels, short video, document ads and in-platform lead forms, and the destination is either a native form or a landing page. In B2B, paid social is usually managed as part of a wider system: the creative makes the intended buyer obvious, exclusions keep existing customers and open deals out of prospecting campaigns, and leads are captured with source data so sales can follow them through qualification. Audience features that depend on website tracking are shaped by consent settings, browser privacy controls and each platform's policies.

    Key Points

    • Paid social means paying a social platform to show ads to a defined audience, rather than relying on organic reach.
    • For B2B, LinkedIn and Meta are the most common platforms, with X, Reddit, TikTok and YouTube used in some categories.
    • Platforms differ in targeting data: LinkedIn uses professional profile fields, while Meta relies more on lists, website visitors, engagement and platform signals.
    • Campaigns combine an audience, an objective, an ad format and a destination such as an in-platform form or a landing page.
    • Website-based audiences and conversion data depend on consent settings, browser privacy controls and platform policies.

    Paid Social Example

    A B2B services firm runs two paid social campaigns. On LinkedIn, it promotes a practical guide to finance leaders at companies in its target industries and collects downloads through a LinkedIn lead form. On Meta, it shows short video case studies to people who have visited its service pages and to an uploaded list of past event attendees, excluding current customers. Leads from both platforms are sent to the CRM with the campaign name, qualified against the firm's ideal customer profile, and routed to a salesperson or a nurture sequence.

    Related Terms

    Paid MediaMeta AdsRetargetingSocial SellingICP (Ideal Customer Profile)

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    Paid Social FAQs

    Straight answers to common questions.

    What is the difference between paid social and organic social?

    Organic social is unpaid posting from a company or personal profile, which mainly reaches followers and their networks. Paid social is advertising, where the business pays the platform to reach a defined audience whether or not they follow the account.

    Which paid social platforms are used for B2B?

    LinkedIn and Meta are the most common. LinkedIn is often chosen for job-title, seniority and company targeting. Meta is often used for reaching broad audiences at scale, retargeting website visitors and showing video or visual creative. X, Reddit, TikTok and YouTube can suit specific audiences.

    Is paid social the same as social selling?

    No. Social selling is when salespeople use their own profiles to research, engage with and message prospects. Paid social is advertising bought from the platform. The two can support each other, but they are managed differently.

    Should paid social ads send people to a form or a landing page?

    Both can work. In-platform lead forms reduce effort because details are prefilled, while landing pages give more room to explain the offer and qualify interest. Many teams test both and compare the quality of the leads each produces, not only the number.

    What data does paid social need to work well?

    Useful inputs include a clear ideal customer profile, customer and exclusion lists, website or engagement audiences where consent allows, and conversion events that reflect real sales progress. The exact setup depends on the platform, website, consent framework and CRM.