Desk fact
Weekly
Winner / killer report. Fatigue does not get a second quarter.
03 · Paid Social
Paid social agency where creative is the media plan.
Social spend dies in creative, not in targeting settings. We run always-on testing — hooks, offers, UGC, motion — and only scale ads that move CAC or contribution, not ads that win awards. Structure stays simple. Signal gets fixed in week one. Creatives are written for the market that will see them.
Cheaper acquisition. Faster creative learning. Less fatigue.
MetaLinkedInTikTokCreative sprints
- P&L desk
- Reply in one business day
- 30-min working session
Desk fact
Matrix
Hook, offer, format — with a kill threshold.
Desk fact
CAPI
Pixel plus server-side when the stack allows. Signal is the job.
Direct answer
What does a paid social agency do?
A paid social agency runs Meta (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn, TikTok, and often YouTube Demand Gen so feed traffic becomes customers or SQLs. SpikeROAS treats social as a creative operating system: hooks, offers, UGC, and motion — scored against CAC or contribution, not awards.
I built this desk after watching accounts stall on the same three ads for sixty days while the agency blamed targeting. In 2026 the algorithm already found the audience. Advantage+ and Andromeda-era retrieval need volume, clean conversion signal, and new creative. They do not need forty ad sets fragmenting learning.
Creatives do not travel. A hook that wins in one market is a hypothesis in the next. We simplify structure, fix CAPI when we can, and produce enough work that the platform has something to chew — then we kill what the market already refused. If your last shop delivered a monthly refresh and a CPM slide, that is the gap.
Related: performance creative, performance marketing, lead generation, and Tergar Meta result.
Fit
Who this Meta and LinkedIn desk is for
DTC, apps, and B2B teams who need pipeline from feeds — not a brand campaign that never hits CRM. We run the platforms that sell in your market, not a logo wall.
DTC & ecommerce
Catalog, Advantage+, and creative diversification. If the product cannot be understood in two seconds, we fix the ad before we optimize bids.
B2B on LinkedIn + Meta
LinkedIn for SQL quality, Meta for efficient reach and retargeting. Different jobs. We do not romanticize one platform.
Lead gen in the feed
Lead ads vs landing pages is a test, not a religion. Instant forms that dump junk into CRM will be killed.
Who we will not take
- Brands that will not produce or approve creative on a weekly cadence.
- Accounts that want thirty interest stacks like it is 2017.
- Teams that refuse CAPI or a conversion definition the algorithm can learn from.
- A pasted creative pack from another market with a language swap and a hope.
The leak
Why Meta and TikTok accounts stall
Creative starvation
Three ads for sixty days. Frequency climbs. CPA follows. The targeting was not the problem.
Fragmented learning
Forty ad sets, none of them exit learning. Broad plus a few well-fed sets beats a museum of audiences.
Broken signal
Client-side Pixel only, privacy gaps, no CAPI. The platform is optimizing to a rumor.
Lead quality ignored
Cheap leads that sales will not call. We agree SQL before we scale a lead form.
On the desk
Platforms and jobs on this desk
Each platform has a job. We do not run TikTok because a slide deck said always-on social — and we do not skip LinkedIn because Meta is cheaper.
Meta (Facebook & Instagram)
Prospecting, retargeting, Advantage+, catalog when it fits. Reels-native and static in the same test matrix.
LinkedIn Ads
Job-title and account lists for SQLs. Thoughtful frequency. Creative that does not look like a banner from 2014.
TikTok
Native motion and UGC. If the category cannot win on TikTok in your market, we will not force a cultural channel for a finance motion.
YouTube / Demand Gen
When the job is intent-adjacent reach that search can catch. Pairing matters more than a view rate.
Creative operations
Hook libraries, UGC, static, motion. Weekly scorecards. Losers leave. Winners get children, not trophies.
Pixel + CAPI
Event coverage, server-side where the stack allows, and event quality that is not an afterthought in month six.
The work
What we actually do
- Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube under one testing cadence
- Hook / offer / format matrix with kill rules
- Advantage+ and Andromeda-era setups without giving up control
- Audience and incrementality checks vs branded search
- Creative production that is scored, not presented
Deliverables
You leave with
- Creative testing roadmap (30/60/90)
- Weekly winner / killer report
- Fatigue and frequency alerts
- Landing and offer pairing by audience
Ready to brief the Paid Social desk?
If they are tired, we will say so in the first ten minutes.
Cadence
How the work runs
01
Audit fatigue
What is still spending after the market already said no.
02
Install the matrix
Hooks, offers, formats — with a kill threshold.
03
Scale the survivors
Budget follows winners. Everything else is a lesson.
First 90 days
First 90 days in paid social
Days 1–14
Audit fatigue
What is still spending after the market already said no. Pixel/CAPI gaps. Creative inventory vs frequency.
Days 15–45
Install the matrix
Simplify structure. Ship the first hook/offer/format slate. Fix signal. Launch with a kill threshold.
Days 46–75
Iterate weekly
Winner/killer report. Fatigue alerts. New hooks every cycle. Budget follows survivors.
Days 76–90
Scale the survivors
Only the ads that moved CAC or contribution keep spend. Everything else is a lesson in the memo.
The fork
Paid social: this desk vs a typical Meta shop vs in-house
Creative velocity and conversion signal beat another audience brainstorm. Hire us when you need a test engine, not a community manager with an ads login.
| Factor | SpikeROAS | Typical agency | In-house |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creative | Test volume with kill rules, paired with media | Client-supplied assets, monthly refresh | Brand studio cadence, not a test engine |
| Structure | Few well-fed sets, Advantage+ with a reserve test layer | Dozens of ad sets, 2018 interest stacks | Copied from the last agency |
| Signal | Pixel + CAPI as a week-one job | Pixel snippet, we will get to CAPI | Engineering backlog |
| Success metric | CAC, contribution, SQL quality | CPM, CTR, hook rate only | Often blended and late |
| Markets | Local hooks, language, and offers. Same kill rules. | One creative pack, currency swapped | Strong where the team sits; thin elsewhere |
| Account ownership | Yours. Always. | Sometimes theirs | Yours, by definition |
Pricing philosophy
No fake menu. An honest gate.
Social retainers are priced on platforms, creative load, markets, and spend — not a fake Meta package that cannot fund tests.
- If you cannot refresh creative weekly, do not hire a social desk. Hire production first — or us for both.
- LinkedIn CPCs are a different animal than Meta. We will not pretend they are interchangeable.
- Accounts stay in your Business Manager.
- A hook that won in one country is a test in the next, not a template.
The call
What happens in 30 minutes
- Bring Ads Manager access or a creative sample of what is live.
- Know your CAC or SQL target — even if it is currently missed — and where you sell.
- We will tell you if the problem is creative, signal, or the offer.
Client result · Minneapolis
Meta ads for Tergar.
Traffic was steady. Sales were not. We tightened Meta audiences and creative, kept Google on high-intent search, and fixed the conversion path. Last 30 days in Ads Manager, across the highest-spending campaigns: website leads from $3.35 to $3.52, website purchases from $6.14 to $26.08, $9,261 spent, 216,510 reach. Across the program: +16% total sales, 502 orders (+9%), returning customer rate 45.68%.
- Meta structure split for website leads and website purchases — not one blended campaign
- Creative tests with a kill threshold; tired ads left the account
- Conversion-path and offer work so CPA could stay in range
Best lead CPA
$3.35
top campaign; range to $3.52
Best purchase CPA
$6.14
top campaign; range to $26.08
30-day spend
$9,261
1.14M impressions · 216.5k reach
FAQ
Questions we get about Paid Social
What does a paid social agency do?
A paid social agency plans, produces, and optimizes ads on Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, and similar feeds so spend becomes customers or SQLs. SpikeROAS runs structure, CAPI, and a weekly hook / offer / format matrix with kill rules — not a targeting brainstorm.
Do you produce creative in-house?
Yes — static, motion, and UGC systems, paired with the performance creative desk. Creative is not a separate vendor bolted on at the end of a media plan.
LinkedIn or Meta for B2B?
Usually both, with different jobs. LinkedIn for SQL quality, Meta for efficient reach and retargeting. We do not romanticize one platform because a podcast said so.
What is a Meta ads agency vs a paid social agency?
Meta ads is Facebook and Instagram. Paid social also covers LinkedIn, TikTok, and often YouTube. SpikeROAS runs the mix your P&L actually needs — not every logo on a partner slide.
Do you set up Conversions API?
Yes, when the stack allows — Shopify, GTM server-side, or similar. CAPI is a week-one job, not a parking-lot item. Without signal, Advantage+ is guessing.
How many ads do you test?
Enough that the algorithm is not starving — typically a hook / offer / format matrix with weekly replacements. Volume without a hypothesis is noise. We kill losers on a rule, not a feeling.
Can you work inside Advantage+?
Yes. We use Advantage+ where it wins, with a manual reserve layer for tests. We do not give up a kill list because Meta named a campaign type.
Do you run lead ads?
When they beat a landing page on qualified cost. Instant forms that fill CRM with junk get killed. SQL definition comes first.
Do you run paid social worldwide?
Yes. Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube where they sell. The testing cadence is global. The ads, language, and offers are local. We will not paste one market's winners into another.
Usually paired with
Other desks on the same P&L
Performance Creative
Ads designed to be tested, killed, and scaled — not presented.
Performance Marketing
Full-funnel paid that scales only when unit economics hold.
Lead Generation
Sales-accepted conversations. Not a CPL screenshot.
Conversion Rate Optimization
Make the traffic you already bought pay rent.
Industries
Where this service actually runs
Further reading
How we actually run it
Next step
Show us the ads that are still spending.
If they are tired, we will say so in the first ten minutes.