Paid Social
Paid social is paid advertising on social platforms like Meta and TikTok, where you bid in auctions to reach targeted audiences.
What is paid social?
Paid social is paid advertising on social media — Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat — where you pay to reach an audience instead of relying on organic reach. Ads are delivered through an auction where you bid on a CPM or CPC basis, and you can target by demographics, interests, and behavior, plus custom audiences and lookalike audiences.
Why does paid social matter?
For an online store, paid social is often the fastest way to create demand and scale sales without waiting for organic traffic to grow. Because the platforms measure clicks, add-to-carts, and purchases, you can steer by ROAS and real profit rather than reach alone. That makes the channel measurable and scalable, as long as tracking is in place.
Common use cases
- Prospecting: Reach cold audiences with video or catalog ads that introduce the brand and products.
- Retargeting: Re-engage visitors who viewed a product or abandoned their cart with dynamic product ads.
- Product launches and sales: Push promotional offers to relevant segments within a fixed window.
- Scaling winners: Increase budget on ads with low CPA and high ROAS.
Shopify perspective
Install the Meta and TikTok sales channels so your product catalog syncs automatically and enables dynamic product ads. After iOS 14.5 and App Tracking Transparency, the browser pixel loses signal, so enable Meta’s Conversions API (server-side tracking) to send purchases back to the platform’s algorithm. Use consistent UTM parameters so you can compare paid social against other channels like PPC.