Meta and LinkedIn, and why they differ
Meta and LinkedIn are the two paid social platforms most B2B advertisers consider, and they suit different jobs.
LinkedIn Campaign Manager lets you target by job title, function, seniority, company size and industry. That precision is the reason to use it, and clicks there usually cost more.
Meta Ads Manager covers Facebook and Instagram. Its targeting is built on interests, behaviors and lookalikes of your own customer lists rather than job data. It can work for B2B offers aimed at owners of small businesses, who use Facebook in their personal time.
Many advertisers test one before adding the other. The choice depends on who your buyer is and how much you know about them, and a provider should ask about both before recommending either.
What a paid social engagement usually includes
Scope is agreed directly with the service partner, but most paid social work covers:
- An audit of your Meta business portfolio or LinkedIn Campaign Manager account, or a clean setup.
- Pixel and Conversions API setup on Meta, or the Insight Tag on LinkedIn, with test events checked.
- Audience planning: saved audiences, website visitors, customer lists and lookalikes where allowed.
- Campaign structure, objectives and budget settings.
- Ad copy and creative briefs, or finished creative if that is in scope.
- Native lead forms or landing page links, with form fields agreed.
- A way for form submissions to reach your CRM or inbox.
- Frequency checks and a creative refresh schedule.
- A regular summary of changes and what is being tested.
Questions worth asking a paid social provider
- Will the ad accounts and pages stay owned by my business, with you added as a partner?
- Do you produce creative, adapt mine, or work from my brief?
- How often do you expect to refresh creative, and how do you decide when?
- Do you recommend native lead forms or landing pages for my offer, and why?
- How will form submissions reach my CRM, and how will you test it?
- Will you set up the Conversions API, or the pixel alone?
- Does my offer fall in a special ad category, and how would that change targeting?
- What goes in your regular summary, and how do you use my feedback on lead quality?
Questions about paid social campaigns
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.
What does frequency mean in paid social?
Frequency is the average number of times each person in your audience has seen an ad over a period. Some repetition helps people remember you. Too much, with the same creative, tends to bring hides, negative comments and fewer clicks. A provider watches it alongside budget and audience size.
How do lead form submissions reach my CRM?
Usually through an integration. HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive offer connections for Meta and LinkedIn lead forms, and connector tools can send submissions to a CRM or shared inbox. A CSV download from the platform is the fallback. The connection should be tested with a real submission after setup.
You keep the accounts and the data. Ask a service partner to quote the hands-on work.
Ask for a quoteOther services
Search ads
Ads that show when people search for what you sell. Includes search term checks, negative keywords and budget pacing on a regular schedule.
Landing pages and forms
Single-purpose pages for your ads, with a clear offer, a short form, consent text and conversion tracking set up together.
Lead routing
Form fills and platform lead forms sent into HubSpot, Salesforce or Pipedrive with campaign source fields filled in.