Paid social campaigns in a few sentences
You pick who should see the ad. You write and design something that gives them a reason to stop and respond. The platform shows it to people in that audience, and you pay for the impressions or clicks.
Then the upkeep starts: watching how often the same people see each ad, swapping in new creative before it wears out, checking that lead forms and tracking still work, and passing every response to whoever follows up. That is paid social management, run in Meta Ads Manager or LinkedIn Campaign Manager inside accounts you own.
Audiences, built and maintained
Audience work is a large share of paid social management, and it differs by platform.
On LinkedIn, targeting draws on profile data: job titles or functions, seniority, company size, industry, and lists of named companies you upload. The risk is making an audience so narrow the campaign barely delivers.
On Meta, the useful audiences are often your own: people who visited your site, people who engaged with your ads or page, and customer lists you upload, which Meta hashes before matching. Lookalikes built from those lists find similar people. Broad targeting, letting the algorithm find responders, is also common now.
Audiences need upkeep. Customer lists go stale, website audiences depend on the pixel firing, and exclusions keep existing customers from seeing prospecting ads.
Who owns the business portfolio and ad accounts
On Meta, your Facebook Page, Instagram account, ad account, pixel and customer lists live in a business portfolio, which Meta used to call Business Manager. That portfolio should belong to your business, with at least two people from your company as admins. A provider is added as a partner with the permissions it needs.
On LinkedIn, the Campaign Manager ad account and Company Page should likewise be yours, with the provider added as a user at a chosen role.
If a provider builds everything inside its own portfolio, the pixel history, audiences and lead form data may not come with you when you leave. Settle ownership in writing before setup starts, and keep billing on your own payment method.
Questions about paid social campaigns
Do I need the Meta pixel and the Conversions API?
If you send people to your website, yes, ideally both. The pixel records events in the browser; the Conversions API sends them from a server, which helps when browsers block scripts. Set up with matching event IDs, Meta counts each event once. Native lead form submissions are recorded by Meta without either.
What is a special ad category?
Meta requires it for ads about housing, employment, credit or other financial products, and social issues or politics. It restricts targeting by age, gender and ZIP code and limits lookalike audiences. Whether your offer falls in a category is your decision, ideally checked with your own counsel.
Can you produce the ad creative?
That depends on the service partner and the scope you agree. Some produce images, short video and copy; some adapt material you supply; some write briefs for your designer. Mention in your quote request what material you already have, and the partner will say how they would handle it.
A few details about your business is enough to begin. A service partner replies to you directly.
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Search campaigns
Keywords grouped by intent, ads written for each group, and tracking that shows which searches turned into inquiries.
Campaign pages
One page per offer or ad group, so the message a buyer clicked on is the first thing they read.
Lead tracking and follow-up
Conversion tags, CRM routing and follow-up reminders set up so each inquiry is recorded with its source and assigned to someone.