What is paid social advertising?
Paid social is advertising bought on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest and X, placed in feeds, stories and short-video formats. Advertisers target by interests, demographics, their own customer lists and lookalike audiences, and usually buy through each platform's self-serve tools rather than open programmatic exchanges.
Paid social platforms are walled gardens: they own the inventory, data and measurement. They increasingly rely on AI-driven automated campaigns that choose audiences and placements for the advertiser, and on Conversions API server-side tracking to recover data lost to App Tracking Transparency.
Risks include fake accounts and engagement, scam ads and limited independent verification; many brands now also work with influencer marketing creators whose audiences need vetting for fake followers.