Paid Social Advertising: Strategies and Winning Examples for 2025

By Alexandra Kazakova
17 min READ | Mar 16 2025

🎯 A $2M+ monthly paid media budget.

🎯Over 300 creative assets produced every month.

🎯A 20% drop in user acquisition costs in just three months.

This isn’t talk—it’s what inBeat helped achieve with paid social for Hopper. And it worked because of strategic execution, not guesswork.

Paid social isn’t a maybe—it’s a must.

It’s how brands get noticed, grow fast, and bring in better customers for less. But most businesses burn cash on ads that don’t work.

This article covers paid social strategies that actually work, with real examples to back them up.

You’ll learn what works, why it works, and how to make it work for you.

Let’s get started.

PS: Need high-performing social media ads without overspending? inBeat connects you with top-tier content creators to power your paid social campaigns—get started here.

TL;DR:

Paid social media advertising is essential for brand growth, customer acquisition, and lowering costs when executed strategically.

Key advantages: Expanded reach, precise targeting, increased website traffic, enhanced lead generation, measurable ROI, and real-time performance tracking.

Winning campaign examples: Mercedes-Benz, Dove, Spotify, Whisker, JBL, Fujifilm, Old Spice, Converse, and Honda successfully leveraged paid social ads for engagement and sales.

Ad types: Image ads, video ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads, dynamic product ads, story ads, messenger ads, and influencer-branded content.

Effective strategy steps:

• Define clear objectives & KPIs (awareness, engagement, conversions).
• Segment your audience using data and lookalike targeting.
• Choose the right platforms based on campaign goals (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.).
• Create compelling creatives & messaging optimized for each platform.
• Set smart budgets & bidding strategies (CPM, CPC, CPA).
• Leverage retargeting & personalization for higher conversions.
• Test & optimize continuously to prevent ad fatigue.
• Monitor analytics & attribution to track performance and refine strategies.

Best practices: Use authentic influencer collaborations, rotate creatives frequently, and segment audiences precisely to maximize engagement.

Cost breakdown: Facebook CPC ~$0.44, TikTok CPC ~$1.00, LinkedIn CPC ~$5.26.

Final takeaway: Success in paid social requires consistent testing, data-driven decisions, and audience alignment to achieve high ROI.

What Is Paid Social Media Advertising?

Paid social media advertising involves promoting content on social platforms to reach more people than you would with just regular posts.

Brands run ads to boost their social posts and get their message out to a wide range of people.

Why should you do it?

“First: It’s faster. Paid ads can give you immediate feedback. I can turn an ad on and within minutes have people flooding into my funnels.” - Russell Brunson, Marketing entrepreneur, author

Besides, this type of advertising lets you target specific groups of people using detailed criteria like their behavior, age, and interests, helping you get better results from your campaigns.

But how does it compare to organic posts?

Paid Social vs. Organic Posts

Let's break down the key differences:

Benefits of Paid Social Media Advertising

Let's summarize the benefits of paid social ads:

• Expanded reach: With over 5.24 billion people using social media in 2025, paid ads help brands reach way more people than just their followers.
• Precise targeting: Thanks to smart algorithms, advertisers can zero in on users by their interests, where they're from, and what they like, making sure the right folks see their messages.
• Increased website traffic: Roughly 73% of marketers say social media marketing helps bring more people to their websites. This stat highlights that paid ads are indeed very effective at driving traffic.
• Enhanced lead generation: About 65% of marketers find that social media helps them get leads, with paid campaigns often bringing in higher-quality prospects.
• Measurable ROI: Social media ads make up about 28.8% of all digital ad spending. Implement metrics tracking correctly, and you’ll see clear numbers to gauge returns. Improve your future strategies with A/B tests and lookalike audiences, and you’ll scale that ROI even more.
• Real-time performance analytics: Paid campaigns on social media provide instant feedback, allowing marketers to track how ads are doing and tweak them quickly for the best results.

10 Winning Examples of Paid Social Media Campaigns

Let's explore top paid social media campaign wins:

#1. Mercedes-Benz's Take the Wheel

To engage a younger demographic, Mercedes-Benz collaborated with five prominent Instagram photographers, each given a new CLA model to document their experiences.

The photographer with the most likes kept the car.

“Take the Wheel is a natural fit for the CLA buyer who is a digital native, looking for their 15 megabytes of fame. What makes this unique is that, unlike most of the other Instagram initiatives, we’re not looking to push a marketing message out through the platform. Instead we’re utilizing Instagram in a more holistic way, as visual storytelling and interpreting the CLA.”, Bernie Glaser VP of Marketing at Mercedes-Benz USA

This strategy yielded 87 million organic impressions and 2 million likes, significantly enhancing brand visibility among younger audiences.

#2. Dove's #SpeakBeautiful Campaign

Addressing negative online self-talk, Dove partnered with Twitter to launch the #SpeakBeautiful initiative.

By analyzing and responding to negative tweets about body image, the campaign encouraged positive conversations. This effort resulted in a substantial increase in brand engagement and reinforced Dove's commitment to self-esteem advocacy.

#3. Spotify's 'Wrapped' Feature

Spotify's annual 'Wrapped' campaign offers users personalized insights into their listening habits, encouraging them to share these summaries on social media.

This user-centric approach creates engagement but, more importantly, it’s free organic promotion. Millions of people are actively participating and sharing their 'Wrapped' stories each year.

4#. Whisker's Litter-Robot LR4 Launch

Pet care company Whisker’s collaborated with influencers across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to promote their Litter-Robot LR4.

@lyssielooloo Juni is the classiest little woman especially with the @Litter-Robot 4 🛸 truly my favorite cat product I have ever purchased! #thelitterrobot #ad ♬ original sound - ConcreteCr0tchKiss

This influencer-driven strategy effectively reached a broad audience, resulting in heightened product awareness and increased sales. In fact, it got over 68 million views, and the CPM decreased considerably, reaching just $7.27 per thousand views.

#5. Vancouver Whitecaps Integrated PPC

The Vancouver Whitecaps campaign synchronized geo-targeted search ads with social and display channels.

Localized messaging drove fan engagement and ticket sales, generating over one million dollars in revenue.

This integration across channels confirmed that a cohesive, data-driven approach elevates overall campaign performance.

#6. JBL's 'JBLiens Ear-n-vasion' Campaign:

In December 2023, JBL launched the 'JBLiens Ear-n-vasion' campaign to challenge Apple's dominance in the true wireless stereo market.

Aiming to expand its contact database, Fujifilm utilized HubSpot and targeted paid social ads to promote its Instax camera.

This approach led to a 259% increase in contacts, showcasing the effectiveness of integrated marketing automation and paid social strategies.

#8. Old Spice – “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

Old Spice reinvented its image through a witty, television‐and‐digital paid campaign that transformed an established brand.

The campaign featured memorable, tongue‑in‑cheek messaging that resonated across demographics and attracted widespread attention.

Old Spice has effectively utilized paid social media campaigns to rejuvenate its brand and engage with a younger audience. A notable example is the 2010 "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign, developed by Wieden+Kennedy. This campaign featured Isaiah Mustafa and was launched online during Super Bowl weekend, quickly becoming a cultural sensation. The strategic use of paid placements on platforms like YouTube and Facebook amplified its reach, resulting in over 26 million views on YouTube and a significant increase in sales.

In addition to this, Old Spice has continued to invest in paid social media efforts. For instance, in 2024, the brand partnered with rapper Flavor Flav to promote their Total Body Deodorant. This collaboration included sponsored content on platforms like Instagram and YouTube, aiming to highlight the product's lasting freshness and appeal to a diverse audience.

#9. Converse “Domaination”

Converse broke with traditional paid search by pinpointing low-volume, teen-related search queries.

The team built dedicated microsites for how-to topics that resonated with youth culture.

This method lowered bid costs and spurred organic traffic while strengthening brand recall.

#10. Honda Civic Campaign

In 2016, Honda launched the "Dreamer" campaign to promote the redesigned Civic Sedan. This campaign included paid targeted media on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The social media strategy featured marquee video ads on Instagram and a debut on Snapchat with a National Filter, along with collaborations with influencers to enhance engagement.

Types of Paid Social Media Ads

Below is an overview of various ad formats, their applications, and solid examples you can learn from:

Image Ads

Simple, effective, and to the point—image ads grab attention fast. Use sharp visuals that match your brand and speak to your audience. A clear call to action (CTA) gets clicks.

Video Ads

Video ads tell a story in seconds. AI tools make it easy to turn static images into moving content, so you don’t need a big budget. More engagement, better reach—especially on platforms that push video.

Carousel Ads

Show multiple images or videos in one ad, each with its own link. Great for showcasing different products or telling a step-by-step story.

Slideshow Ads

Like video ads, but lighter. Slideshow ads turn still images into motion without heavy file sizes—ideal for audiences with slow internet.

Dynamic Product Ads

These ads automatically show the right products to the right people based on what they’ve browsed. Personalized, data-driven, and built for conversions.

Story Ads

Full-screen, fast, and immersive—Story ads blend into Instagram and Facebook feeds naturally. Perfect for time-sensitive deals or behind-the-scenes content.

Messenger Ads

Ads inside the Messenger app that let brands start real conversations. Useful for customer support, lead generation, or building stronger connections.

Branded Content & Influencer Ads

Brands team up with influencers to promote products in an organic way. It’s all about trust—leveraging their audience for more reach and credibility.

Pro tip: Before launching your social media ads, visualize them using inBeat's free Ad Mockup Generators. These tools allow you to preview and refine your ads across various platforms, ensuring they resonate with your target audience and align with your social media goals.

Paid Social Advertising Strategy

To kickstart your paid social advertising strategy, follow these essential steps:

Step #1: Define Clear Objectives & KPIs

Start by aligning your business goals with campaign objectives. Use SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—to set clear expectations. Define what success looks like before running ads.

Establish KPIs to track performance:

• Awareness: Impressions, reach, share of voice
• Engagement: Click-through rate (CTR), time spent, social shares
• Conversions: Cost per acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), customer lifetime value (CLV)

Pro tip: Set KPIs that reflect both short-term wins and long-term impact. Awareness metrics mean nothing if they don’t lead to engagement. Engagement is wasted if it doesn’t convert. Tie every metric back to revenue.

Need better tracking? Use our free toolkit to analyze ad performance, optimize influencer collaborations, and refine targeting. Get real data, not guesswork.

Step #2: Understand & Segment Your Audience

Start by digging into who your audience really is—age, interests, habits, and what frustrates them. Don’t just skim the data. Run surveys, analyze site behavior, and use social listening to spot trends.

Use custom and lookalike audiences to sharpen targeting. Facebook’s Audience Insights and LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences help you find people who actually engage.

Retarget visitors, past buyers, and high-intent users. Then scale with lookalike models that reflect your best customers.

Remember: Quality beats quantity every time.

Pro tip: Regularly update your audience segments. As market dynamics shift, so do consumer behaviors and interests. Implement A/B testing with your audience segments to discover which demographics respond best to specific messages. This continuous refinement ensures your campaigns stay relevant and effective, maximizing your ROI from targeted advertising.

Step #3: Choose the Right Platforms

Select platforms that align with your campaign goals:

• Facebook & Instagram: Best for B2C, strong on visuals and high engagement.
• LinkedIn: Ideal for B2B, targets professionals and industry content.
• Twitter: Quick updates, real-time engagement, broad and niche audiences.
• TikTok: Captures younger demographics, viral content potential.

However, no channel is set in stone so match your choice to your objectives. Consider whether your target audience is more likely to engage on B2C platforms like Instagram or B2B venues like LinkedIn. Tailor your strategy to the platform that best reaches your demographic.

For example, inBeat Agency used Instagram for Miro’s B2B campaign promoting its templates:

Посмотреть эту публикацию в Instagram

Публикация от Ash Warren (@_ashleighwarren)

Pro tip: Don’t spread your budget thin across every platform. Double down on the ones where your audience actively engages. Use platform-specific ad formats—like LinkedIn’s Lead Gen Forms or TikTok’s Spark Ads—to maximize impact. Test small, analyze results, and scale where performance justifies the spend.

Step #4: Create Compelling Creative & Messaging

Make sure your visuals and videos are top-notch and include a clear call-to-action that tells your audience what to do next.

Remember: A great image or video can really increase engagement and conversions.

Remember to try out A/B testing with your creative content, as we suggested above. Play around with different formats, like images versus videos, tweak your call-to-action text, and mix up the design to see what works best and really clicks with your audience.

Pro tip: Optimize creatives for each platform’s user behavior. A high-production video may work on YouTube, but a raw, native-style clip can outperform it on TikTok. Shorten copy for Instagram, emphasize authority on LinkedIn, and use motion to stop people scrolling on Facebook. Tailor creative to match both the format and audience expectations.

Step #5: Budgeting & Bidding Strategies

Set your budget based on your campaign goals. Big budgets push awareness. Smaller, targeted spends drive conversions. Use a mix of daily and lifetime budgets to stay in control while letting algorithms optimize.

Know your bidding options:

• CPM (Cost Per Mille): Pay per 1,000 impressions—best for brand awareness.
• CPC (Cost Per Click): Pay per click—good for driving traffic.
• CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Pay per conversion—keeps costs efficient.
• Automated bidding: Let AI find the cheapest way to hit your goal.

Pro tip: Avoid setting and forgetting your bids. Monitor performance daily and adjust based on real-time data. If CPCs rise without better conversion rates, shift to CPA bidding. If CPMs drop but engagement stays flat, refresh your creatives. Platforms reward active budget management—those who optimize frequently get better ad placements at lower costs.

Step #6: Leverage Advanced Targeting & Personalization

Try reaching out to visitors who seemed interested but didn’t make a purchase. Show them dynamic ads featuring products they've looked at before, and keep it fresh without overdoing it to avoid overwhelming them.

Use the data you've collected to send messages that hit the mark. Tailor your offers based on their previous purchases, how they interact with your site, or items they've left in their cart. Make sure your messages match their actions to make your ads more relevant and effective.

Pro tip: Use sequential retargeting to guide users through the funnel. Show an awareness ad first, then follow up with a product demo, testimonial, or limited-time offer. Tailor each step to their previous interaction—someone who watched 75% of your video needs a different message than someone who clicked but didn’t convert.

Step #7: Implement Continuous Testing & Optimization

Try out different parts of your campaign to see what works best. Test headlines, designs, and who you're targeting to find what gets more clicks and sales. Even small tweaks can make a big difference over time.

Use tools from platforms like Meta, Google Ads, and LinkedIn to help you test and track results. Look at heatmaps and session recordings to fine-tune your approach. Adjust your bids, update your ads, and tweak who you're targeting based on what the data tells you.

Pro tip: Don’t rely on a single winning ad. Performance fluctuates as audience fatigue sets in. Build a pipeline of variations and rotate them before engagement drops. Use automated rules to pause underperforming ads and scale high-converting ones without manual intervention.

Step #8: Monitor Analytics & Attribution

Track performance in real time with dashboards. Use Meta Ads Manager, Google Analytics 4, and LinkedIn Campaign Manager to monitor impressions, engagement, and conversions. Spot drop-offs early and adjust before performance tanks.

Know how attribution works.

• First-click shows what sparks interest.
• Last-click tracks the final step.
• Multi-touch models spread credit across the journey. This model tells you what actually drives conversions.

Pro tip: Attribution data can mislead if you don’t account for dark social and cross-device behavior. Track assisted conversions, analyze UTM-tagged traffic, and compare platform-reported results with GA4. If direct traffic spikes after an ad campaign, you may be underreporting paid social’s impact.

Best Practices for Paid Social Media Ads

Paid social success depends on execution details. These best practices go beyond basics, ensuring your campaigns stand out:

• Authenticity wins: Users spot forced ads instantly. Work with influencers who align with your brand naturally. Scripted promotions fail, but organic endorsements drive real engagement.
• Effects boost retention: Use fast cuts, ASMR audio, and green screens. Motion grabs attention, but adapt effects to platform norms.
• Creative brief first: Define brand voice, content style, and messaging before picking influencers. Avoid retrofitting your brand into their content.
• Micro-segmentation matters: Broad targeting wastes budget. Use first-party data to refine audience slices. Test high-intent micro-groups, then scale.
• Burnout prevention: Rotate creatives frequently. Ad fatigue kills performance. Maintain an asset pipeline to refresh content before engagement drops.

How to Make Paid Social Ads Work: Targeting, Testing, and Optimization

To get the most out of your paid social ads, aim to create targeted campaigns that really connect with potential customers through social platforms.

Be precise when you segment your audience, and use advanced targeting tools to make sure your ads hit the mark.

Try using dynamic product ads and videos to increase engagement and conversions.

Always test and tweak your campaigns using real-time data to improve your performance.

Keep an eye on changes in social media algorithms and user behavior to stay competitive in digital advertising. All of this will help you help you meet your marketing goals and keep your ROI strong.

Now it’s your turn—apply these strategies, test continuously, and drive results.

P.S. The right paid social strategy can make or break your ad performance. Want to see how inBeat’s micro-influencer network can help you cut costs and boost engagement? Book a demo today, and let’s scale your campaigns the smart way.

Frequently Asked Question

How does paid social work?

Paid social advertising uses audience insights to place targeted ads on social media platforms. It leverages platform algorithms to reach potential customers through demographic and behavioral targeting. Advanced options like custom and lookalike audiences help optimize campaign performance.

How do I make paid social ads?

Start with SMART goals and campaign objectives. Choose the right social media channels for your audience segments. Use a content calendar to plan creative content, including video ads, single image ads, and message ads — according to your goals, of course. Define audience segmentation using analytics tools. Set a total advertising budget and then a daily budget based on your marketing objectives.

Is paid social media advertising worth it?

Yes, if executed with a strong social media strategy, paid social is worth it. It delivers a healthy ROI by increasing brand awareness, generating qualified leads, and lowering customer acquisition cost. Shopping ads and influencer marketing can amplify these results.

How much do paid social media ads cost?

Costs depend on the type of campaign, audience targeting, and ad format. Social platforms like Facebook & Instagram, TikTok Ads, and LinkedIn Ads have different cost structures. Cost per conversion depends on competition and bidding strategies. Here's a breakdown of average costs across major platforms:

Facebook & Instagram:

• Cost Per Click (CPC): Approximately $0.44
• Cost Per Mille (CPM): Around $14.40

TikTok:

• CPC: About $1.00
• CPM: Approximately $10.00

LinkedIn:

• CPC: Around $5.26
• CPM: Approximately $6.59

Is paid social pay per click?

Some social media marketing campaigns use PPC, while others use cost-per-impression or cost-per-action models. Facebook Ad auctions, for instance, allow advertisers to choose different bidding strategies depending on marketing goals.

How long should a paid social ad be?

Ad length depends on the platform for video content and the type of content. For example, Instagram Reels, bumper ads, and TikTok Ads perform best when they capture attention within the first three seconds. Static images and feed ads require engaging images and compelling copy to convert social media users.