Introduction to Social Media Advertising
Social advertising questions cover platform selection, objectives, auction mechanics and creative refresh. The exam wants platform choices justified by audience and funnel role, not by habit.
Platform and objective fit
Each network sells a different attention mode. Meta (Facebook, Instagram) offers broad reach and strong interest/behaviour targeting; LinkedIn offers professional attributes such as job title, seniority, company size and industry; YouTube sells video attention; TikTok rewards native, fast-paced creative. Choose the campaign objective that matches the metric you will judge: reach, traffic, leads, conversions, engagement.
Delivery is an auction with quality signals
Most social ads are auctioned per impression. Bid, estimated action rate and ad quality interact, so weak creative or negative feedback raises effective cost. Frequency caps and refresh cadence prevent fatigue, and organic posts can be amplified as paid when they already prove resonance.
Worked example
A B2B team compares a €9 CPL on a broad social network with a €38 CPL on LinkedIn. Only 4 of 60 social leads are qualified, versus 18 of 40 LinkedIn leads, so cost per qualified lead is €135 versus €84. Reasoning: judge on qualified lead cost, not headline CPL.
Traps that cost marks
Reporting likes as business outcomes; never refreshing creative and blaming the platform for rising CPM; boosting posts without an audience or objective; forcing a landscape video into a vertical feed; assuming a cheaper CPL is a better channel.