Social media advertising

What social media advertising is good at, and what it isn't

Search ads catch people who already know what they need. Social media advertising works a step earlier: it reaches people who match your ideal customer while they scroll, and gives them a reason to want what you sell. That makes it strong for things people buy on impulse or emotion (a haircut, a dinner out, a new sofa), for offers people don't know to search for, and for staying in front of someone who visited your site last week.

It is weaker when the need is urgent. Nobody browses Instagram hoping to find an emergency plumber. For those businesses I usually put Google Ads first and use social for remarketing and seasonal offers. Knowing which job each channel does saves a lot of budget.

How I choose the platform

Most of my social work in Canada is on Meta, because Facebook and Instagram together still reach the widest range of adults, from students to retirees, in cities and in small towns. One Ads Manager, one pixel, one budget. You can read about the setup on my Meta ads page.

The other platforms are for narrower cases:

• TikTok when your product looks good in a 15-second video and your buyers are mostly under 40.
• LinkedIn when one new client is worth thousands and you need to reach a job title, not a household.
• Pinterest when people plan purchases weeks ahead: kitchens, weddings, gardens, home décor.

TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest campaigns I deliver with a trusted partner who works on those platforms every day. The contract, deadlines and communication stay with me, so you still have one person to call.

The part most agencies skip: what happens after the click

A cheap lead that never picks up the phone isn't cheap. Before I scale a campaign I look at three things beyond the ad itself:

1. Tracking. The Meta Pixel and Conversions API should report real leads and purchases, not just page views. Without that, Meta's algorithm optimizes for the wrong people.
2. The landing page or form. A slow page or a ten-question form loses most of the people you paid to bring in.
3. Response time. Leads from social ads cool down fast. Many of my clients connect forms to a CRM so every enquiry gets a reply within minutes, not days.

Common mistakes I fix in Canadian ad accounts

Special ad categories also matter. Ads for housing, employment, credit and social issues come with limits on targeting by age, gender and location in many countries, Canada included. If you are a real estate agent, a lender or hiring staff, I plan around those limits from day one instead of discovering them when the ad gets rejected.

What a realistic first month looks like

Week one is setup: tracking, audiences, the first five to ten ads and your approval on every one of them. Weeks two and three are the learning phase, when results swing from day to day and the worst thing you can do is change everything at once. By the end of the month there is usually enough data to see which audience and which message bring enquiries at a cost you can live with, and that is where the budget goes next.

Working with me

I run your campaigns myself, remotely, from the first call to the monthly summary. You get a written agreement, the ad account stays in your name, and there's no minimum term: management can be cancelled with one month's notice. Reports come every two weeks, written so that you can read them in five minutes. If you are not sure social is right for you yet, a free consultation is a good place to start, and I'll say so if Google or SEO would pay back faster. Full fees for every channel are on the advertising pricing page.