Solved: Choosing the Right Paid Social Platform (Data Inside)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out with your question. It's probably the most common one I hear, and also the one that leads most businesses down the wrong path, burning cash with very little to show for it.

You're asking which paid social platform to invest in. It seems like a logical first step. But tbh, it's the wrong question entirely. It's like asking a builder what brand of hammer is best before you've even decided what you're trying to build. The platform is just a tool. The real work, the stuff that actually determines whether you succeed or fail, happens long before you even open Ads Manager.

Most agencies will give you a bland answer about "testing" or a generic "Facebook for B2C, LinkedIn for B2B." That's lazy advice. The truth is, your success has very little to do with the platform and everything to do with three things: deeply understanding your ideal customer's pain, crafting an offer they can't ignore, and doing the simple maths to know what a customer is actually worth to you. Get those right, and you could probably make a success of ads on almost any platform. Get them wrong, and you'll fail everywhere.

So, let's put the platform question aside for a moment. I'm going to walk you through a different way of thinking about this. It's the framework we use for all our clients, from SaaS startups to established eCommerce brands, and it's what separates the campaigns that just about break even from the ones that fundamentally transform a business.

Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

The first thing I want you to do is take whatever document you have that defines your "Ideal Customer Profile" (ICP) and, metaphorically, set it on fire. I'm willing to bet it's full of useless, sterile information like "Companies in the finance sector with 50-200 employees" or "Women aged 25-40 who like yoga and sustainable brands."

This kind of demographic data tells you absolutely nothing of value. It's a recipe for creating generic, soulless ads that speak to no one because they're trying to speak to everyone. It leads you to target the interest "yoga" on Facebook, where you'll compete with every other brand selling leggings, mats, and retreats, and your message will be completely lost in the noise.

You need to stop defining your customer by who they *are* and start defining them by the problem they *have*. You need to become an obsessive expert in their specific, urgent, expensive, and maybe even career-threatening nightmare. Your ICP isn't a person; it's a *problem state*.

Let me give you some real-world examples from campaigns we've worked on:

-> For a legal tech SaaS client: Their old ICP was "Law firms with 10-50 solicitors." Utterly useless. Their new ICP, their nightmare, was "A senior partner terrified of missing a critical filing deadline because of disorganised document management, exposing the firm to a multi-million-pound malpractice suit and reputational ruin." See the difference? We're not selling 'document management software' anymore. We're selling 'career insurance for senior partners'. The ad copy writes itself, and the targeting becomes crystal clear.

-> For a high-touch service business (like a fractional CFO): Their old ICP was "Startups with £1M-£5M in revenue." Again, too broad. The nightmare is "The founder-CEO who lies awake at 3 am staring at the ceiling, because their cash flow projections are a complete shot in the dark and they're secretly terrified they're one bad month away from a payroll crisis, while their competitors are confidently raising their next funding round." We aren't selling 'financial strategy'; we're selling a good night's sleep and the confidence to face their board.

-> For a B2B software tool we scaled: We helped them get 4,622 registrations by focusing on the nightmare. The ICP wasn't "marketing managers." It was "The marketing manager who just got torn apart in a meeting because they couldn't attribute their ad spend to actual revenue, and their boss is starting to think the marketing department is just a cost centre." Our ads didn't talk about features; they talked about walking into the next meeting with a dashboard that proves their value.

This isn't just a copywriting trick. It's the entire foundation of a successful paid media strategy. Once you've isolated that nightmare, your entire world changes. You stop thinking about broad demographics and start thinking about context. Where does this person go when this nightmare is keeping them up at night?

Do they listen to niche industry podcasts like 'Acquired' or 'The All-In Podcast' on their commute? Do they subscribe to and actually *read* newsletters like 'Stratechery'? Are they members of specific, private Facebook groups like 'SaaS Growth Hacks'? Do they follow industry leaders like Jason Lemkin or Rand Fishkin on LinkedIn or Twitter? What software do they already pay for? HubSpot? Salesforce? Xero? These are your targeting options. This is the intelligence that allows you to show up in the right place, at the right time, with a message that feels less like an ad and more like a mind-reading miracle. This work is not optional. Do it first, or you have no business spending a single pound on ads.

How to Pay Facebook to Find Non-Customers

Now, let's talk about the biggest and most costly mistake people make on social platforms, particularly Meta (Facebook and Instagram). They fall for the siren song of "Brand Awareness" and "Reach" campaigns.

It seems logical, right? "I need more people to know about my brand, so I'll run a brand awareness campaign." This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how these platforms work, and it's a trap that has wasted billions in ad spend.

When you set your campaign objective to "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are giving the world's most sophisticated advertising algorithm a very clear, very simple command: "Find me the largest number of eyeballs for the lowest possible price."

The algorithm, being the ruthlessly efficient machine that it is, does exactly what you asked. It scours the billions of users within your targeting parameters and identifies the people whose attention is cheapest. And who are these people? They are the ones who are least likely to ever click an ad, least likely to engage with content, and absolutely, positively, guaranteed to never, ever pull out a credit card and buy something. They are the passive scrollers, the people who use the platform purely for distraction. Their attention is cheap precisely because they are not in demand by other advertisers who are looking for customers.

You are actively, deliberately paying the platform to find you the worst possible audience for your product. It's insane, but it happens every single day.

The best and most potent form of brand awareness for any small or medium-sized business is a competitor's customer switching to your product and raving about it online. It's a new customer having such a good experience they tell their friends. That only happens through one thing: a conversion. A sale. A lead. A sign-up.

Awareness is a *byproduct* of having a great product that solves a real problem, not a prerequisite for making a sale. You don't need someone to see your logo six times before they buy. You need them to see an ad that speaks directly to their nightmare and offers a compelling solution, *once*. For all of our clients, whether we're selling £50 subscription boxes or £50,000 software contracts, we almost exclusively run campaigns optimised for conversions. We tell the algorithm, "Go and find me people who are most like the people who have already given me money." The platform is brilliant at this. Let it do its job.

If you take nothing else away from this letter, let it be this: never, ever run an awareness campaign again unless you are a global brand like Coca-Cola or Nike with millions to burn on brand recall. Set your objective to 'Leads', 'Sales', or whatever your most valuable conversion event is, and let the algorithm find you buyers, not just viewers.

You probably should match the Platform to the 'Problem State'

Okay, with those two foundational myths busted, we can finally start talking about platforms. But we're going to approach it through the lens of our customer's "nightmare" and their state of mind, not just their demographics.

Think of your potential customers existing in two main states:

1. Problem-Aware & Actively Searching: They know they have a problem, and they are actively looking for a solution *right now*. Their boiler is broken. Their sales pipeline is dry. They need a handcrafted gift for a birthday next week. Their intent is incredibly high.

2. Problem-Aware & Not Actively Searching: They know they have a problem, but it's a dull ache, not a stabbing pain. They're tolerating it. They're not actively looking for a solution, but if the perfect one appeared in front of them, they would be interested. This is the state of most potential customers for most products and services.

This distinction is everything when it comes to choosing your starting platform.

For the Actively Searching: Google Search Ads

If your customer is actively looking for a solution, your first and often best port of call is Google Search. This is where intent is highest. People go to Google to find answers and buy things. You aren't interrupting their day; you are providing the answer they are literally typing into a search box.

-> For a local service business (e.g., electrician): You target keywords like "emergency electrician near me" or "electrical repair London". The user has an urgent, expensive problem, and you are the immediate solution. I remember a campaign for an HVAC company in a competitive area; even with a $60 cost per lead, it was wildly profitable because the lifetime value of a new customer was in the thousands.

-> For a B2B SaaS product (e.g., accounting software): You target keywords that show buying intent. Not "what is double-entry bookkeeping" (informational), but "best accounting software for small business" or "Xero alternative" (commercial). You're catching people at the exact moment they are evaluating solutions. This is how we helped a medical job matching SaaS reduce their Cost Per Acquisition from a painful £100 down to just £7. We focused laser-tight on the high-intent keywords on Google and combined it with smart retargeting on Meta.

For the Not Actively Searching: Social Media (The Art of Interruption)

This is where social platforms shine. Your job here is to interrupt someone's scrolling with a message so relevant to their latent "nightmare" that they stop and pay attention. The choice of platform here depends entirely on the *context* of that nightmare.

LinkedIn Ads: The Professional Nightmare

This is your playground if your customer's pain is tied directly to their job title, industry, or company size. The targeting capabilities for B2B are unmatched. You can get your message in front of the exact 'Head of Engineering' at a list of 100 target companies.

The mindset of a user on LinkedIn is professional. They are thinking about their career, their team, their targets. Your ad needs to speak that language. Forget lifestyle imagery; think graphs, case studies, and professional-looking videos that talk about ROI, efficiency, and risk reduction.

I recall one campaign we ran for a B2B software client targeting decision-makers on LinkedIn where we achieved a $22 Cost Per Lead. This might sound high to a B2C marketer, but for them it was a home run because each closed deal was worth five figures. In another case, we reduced the cost per lead for an environmental controls company by 84% by moving from broad targeting to a hyper-specific LinkedIn campaign aimed at Facilities Managers in specific industries. The context was everything.

Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads: The Personal & Aspirational Nightmare

Meta is where you go when the "nightmare" is more personal, interest-based, or aspirational. The user mindset is one of discovery, entertainment, and social connection. Your ad needs to feel native to that environment. Beautiful imagery, engaging videos (UGC-style often works wonders), and copy that connects on an emotional level.

The targeting here is based on interests, behaviours, and life events. This is where your deep ICP work pays off. You're not targeting "yoga"; you're targeting people who follow specific high-end yoga influencers, buy from specific sustainable brands, and have shown an interest in meditation apps. You layer these interests to build a highly specific profile of your ideal customer.

We've seen incredible results on Meta. For an eLearning client, we generated $115k in revenue in just 1.5 months. For an eCommerce store selling women's apparel, we drove a 691% Return On Ad Spend. For a B2B software, which many wrongly assume won't work on Facebook, we generated 5,082 free trials at just $7 per trial. It works, but only when you match the message to the mindset of the platform.

Other Platforms (Pinterest, TikTok, Reddit, etc.):

These are more specialised. Pinterest is fantastic for visually-driven products where the user is in a planning or aspirational mindset (e.g., home decor, weddings, fashion). TikTok's algorithm is incredible for discovery, but your creative needs to feel completely native and unpolished. Reddit requires you to become a genuine member of a subreddit community before you even think about running ads. They can all work, but they are typically places you expand to once you've found success on one of the larger, foundational platforms.

I'd say you need to fix your offer first, not your ads...

Let's imagine you do everything right. You've defined your ICP's nightmare perfectly. You've chosen the right platform. You've written an ad that stops them in their tracks. They click. And then... they land on a page that asks them to "Request a Demo".

And you've just failed.

The "Request a Demo" button is arguably the most arrogant, high-friction, and conversion-killing Call to Action in the history of B2B marketing. It presumes your prospect, a busy, important person, has nothing better to do than schedule a 30-minute meeting to be sold to by a junior sales rep. It offers them zero immediate value and positions you as just another commodity vendor clamoring for their time. It's the digital equivalent of a cold call, and people hate it.

Your platform and targeting can be perfect, but if your *offer* is weak, you will fail. The offer's only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. You must solve a small, real problem for free to earn the right to solve their entire problem for money.

So, you need to delete the "Request a Demo" button and replace it with something genuinely useful:

-> If you sell SaaS: The gold standard is a free trial or a freemium plan (with no credit card required). Let them use the actual product. Let them experience the transformation firsthand. When the software itself proves its value, the sale becomes a formality. This is how you create Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) who are already convinced, not just Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) for your sales team to chase.

-> If you're a service business: You are not exempt. You must bottle a piece of your expertise into a tool or asset. For a marketing agency, this could be a free, automated website audit that uncovers their top 3 SEO opportunities. For a corporate training company, it could be a free 15-minute interactive video module on 'How to Handle Difficult Conversations'. For us, as a paid ads consultancy, it's a completely free 20-minute strategy session where we audit their ad account and give them actionable advice. We give away real value to demonstrate our expertise.

-> If you sell eCommerce products: Your offer isn't just the product; it's the deal. A compelling discount for first-time buyers, a free gift with purchase, a bundle deal that offers incredible value. Something that lowers the risk and heightens the desire to buy *now*.

A great example of this principle in action would be a company that sells high-end brand films. Instead of selling "brand film production," which can be a tough sell, the offer could be reframed to solve a deep frustration: "We help talented architectural firms who are terrible at marketing win the high-value projects they deserve." The service could then be productised into something like the "1-Day Filming Process," with a clear name, deliverables, and a defined timeline. This makes a complex, expensive service feel simple, tangible, and far less risky to buy. That's the power of a great offer.

You'll need the math that unlocks growth

The final piece of the puzzle is the one most business owners ignore. They obsess over metrics like Cost Per Click (CPC) or Cost Per Lead (CPL), constantly trying to drive them down. "My CPL on Facebook is £5, but on Google it's £20, so Google is too expensive." This is a dangerously simplistic way to look at things.

The real question isn't "How low can my CPL go?" but "How high a CPL can I *afford* to pay to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer lies in its counterpart: Lifetime Value (LTV).

You need to know what a customer is actually worth to your business in terms of gross margin over their entire relationship with you. Once you know this number, you can make intelligent, aggressive decisions about your ad spend. The simple formula is:

LTV = (Average Revenue Per Account * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's run through a quick example. Say you run a SaaS business:

• Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): £500/month
• Gross Margin: 80%
• Monthly Churn Rate (the % of customers you lose each month): 4%

LTV = (£500 * 0.80) / 0.04 = £400 / 0.04 = £10,000

In this scenario, each customer is worth £10,000 in gross margin to your business. A healthy LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio is typically 3:1. This means you can afford to spend up to £3,333 to acquire a single customer and still have a very healthy business. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a customer, you can afford to pay up to £333 per qualified lead.

Suddenly, that £50 CPL from a hyper-targeted LinkedIn ad for a CTO doesn't seem expensive anymore, does it? It looks like an incredible bargain. This is the math that frees you from the tyranny of cheap leads and allows you to scale predictably. Use the calculator below to get a feel for your own numbers.

We'll need to look at a practical framework for you

So, where does this leave us? We've torn down the old way of thinking and built a new foundation. Here is a simple, practical framework for how you should move forward. This is your roadmap to choosing the right platform and launching a campaign that actually has a chance of success.

Step 1: Define the Nightmare. Before you do anything else, spend a day (or a week!) talking to your best customers. Don't ask them what they like about your product; ask them what their life was like *before* they found you. What was frustrating them? What were they worried about? Dig until you can articulate their problem better than they can. This is your new ICP.

Step 2: Craft Your High-Value Offer. Based on that nightmare, what is the most valuable, lowest-friction thing you can offer to give them an immediate taste of the solution? A free trial? A custom audit? A valuable resource? A compelling discount? This becomes the destination for all your ads.

Step 3: Calculate Your Numbers. Use the LTV calculator. Figure out what a customer is actually worth to you. This will give you the confidence to spend what's necessary to acquire them and stop you from making short-sighted decisions based on cheap but worthless metrics.

Step 4: Pick Your Starting Platform. Use the flowchart above. Base your decision on intent and context. Don't try to be everywhere at once. Pick one platform to master first. Get it working profitably before you even think about expanding.

Step 5: Launch a Conversion Campaign. Whatever platform you choose, set your campaign objective to Conversions (Sales, Leads, etc.). Write ad copy that speaks directly to the nightmare you defined in Step 1 and points to the high-value offer you created in Step 2. Start with a modest budget you're comfortable with, and prepare to learn.

This is the main advice I have for you:

This whole process can seem daunting, I know. It's a lot more work than just boosting a post on Facebook. But it's the difference between gambling with your marketing budget and making a strategic investment in predictable growth. It requires a shift in mindset from a tactical "what button do I press?" approach to a strategic "who am I serving and how can I provide overwhelming value?" framework.

Getting this right from the start can save you thousands of pounds and months of frustration. It's often where bringing in an expert can make a huge difference. An experienced eye can help you uncover your customer's true nightmare, spot the flaws in your offer, and build the campaign structure correctly from day one, dramatically shortening your path to profitability.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a look at your business and give you some tailored advice based on this framework. It's a great way to get a second opinion and a clear sense of direction.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh