Paid social that doesn't bleed CAC.
iOS 14 broke last-click attribution for every Meta advertiser. Server-side events and triangulated measurement are now table stakes — not premium add-ons. We build the measurement stack first, then run creative that converts.
Promo · Social
From USD 1,600/mo
You own the accounts
What you get
Six things every paid social client gets
Whether you are on one platform or three, these six deliverables are included in every IF Digital paid social engagement.
Server-side CAPI events configured in week 1
Meta CAPI, TikTok Events API, LinkedIn Insight Tag — all firing server-side. Event match quality score above 7.0 before we run a single paid impression.
Structured creative testing — one variable at a time
Hook, visual, offer, social proof format — isolated per test. When the whole ad changes at once, you learn nothing except which ad won. We learn why.
You own the ad accounts — always
We work inside your Meta Business Manager and TikTok Ads Manager. Not sub-accounts on ours. Your audience lists, conversion data, and history stay with you if we part ways.
CPL reduction typical 30–50% in first 90 days
Achieved through structural fixes: CAPI setup, negative-creative pruning, audience restructure, and creative rotation cadence. Same budget, lower cost per lead.
Three-layer campaign architecture, every account
Cold prospecting (60–70% of budget), warm retargeting (20–25%), and customer expansion (10–15%). Most SMB accounts only run layer one and wonder why ROAS is flat.
Triangulated reporting — not platform self-reporting
Ad platform (directionally optimistic), GA4 (conservative), and CRM pipeline (ground truth). All three columns in every report so you can see the spread.
Meta — retargeting + lookalike
Advantage+ for accounts with 50+ conversions in the last 30 days. Manual cold + warm + retargeting structure below that. We choose by data, not by Meta's nudges.
TikTok — UGC creative, native formats
CPAs 30–60% below Meta in many DTC categories. Creative needs to look native. UGC-style content consistently outperforms produced brand creative by 40–80% on TikTok.
LinkedIn — B2B pipeline, job-title targeting
The only place to target specific job titles at specific company sizes. For B2B services with deal sizes over USD 5,000, the math works. Pipeline, not brand building.
First 30 days
What we fix before we spend a dollar on ads
The structural issues burning your CAC cannot be solved by better creative. Six items, every new account, before bidding starts.
- 01
Account audit and CAPI diagnostic
Pull the current event match quality score, check for CAPI vs. pixel deduplication, review the 8-event AEM priority stack. Most accounts have at least one tracking bug firing on day one.
- 02
Server-side events configured
GTM server container or direct API integration — your choice. Browser and server events fire simultaneously with deduplication keys. Event match quality score tuned above 7.0.
- 03
Audience restructure
Cold prospecting, warm retargeting, and customer expansion layers built with exclusions. Custom audiences from site visitors, video viewers, and customer lists. 1%, 2%, and 5% lookalikes for cold.
- 04
Creative hook testing
Four to six hook variants, same body — find the winner, then build. On Meta and TikTok, 80% of people decide whether to stop scrolling in the first 1.5 seconds. We test hooks first.
- 05
Fatigue detection and rotation schedule
Frequency and CPA tracked on a 7-day rolling basis. When frequency crosses 3.5 and CPA rises 25% above baseline, the creative is flagged — not left to fully decay.
- 06
Monthly triangulated report
Ad platform reported revenue, GA4 attributed revenue, and CRM pipeline revenue. Highest-performing creatives explained. What we double down on. What we kill. Written, not a screenshot.
Pricing
Transparent fees.
You own the accounts.
Full account review, CAPI diagnostic, creative performance analysis, structural fix list.
- Event tracking audit
- Creative performance review
- Audience overlap analysis
- Written fix list, prioritized
Account structure, CAPI setup, first campaigns, 30 days of active management. One platform.
- Server-side events configured
- Audience architecture built
- Creative rotation framework
- Looker Studio dashboard
- 30-day active management
Flat retainer. Or 12–18% of spend above USD 10k/month. Ad spend paid direct to platforms.
- Creative rotation every 2–3 wks
- Weekly fatigue monitoring
- Monthly triangulated report
- CRM offline conversions
- No media markup
Common questions
- Which platform should our business be on?
- Meta (Facebook + Instagram) is the default for nearly every consumer-facing SMB — broadest reach, mature targeting. TikTok beats Meta on cost-per-acquisition for beauty, food, lifestyle, fashion under USD 80 AOV. LinkedIn is the only viable paid channel for B2B services targeting specific job titles. We recommend the one that fits your offer and unit economics.
- How much budget do we actually need?
- Meta or TikTok: USD 2,000+/month in ad spend. Below that, you cannot test enough creatives to find winners. LinkedIn: USD 3,500+/month due to higher CPMs. Anyone running paid social on USD 500/month is running it as a hobby, not as a channel.
- Will iOS 14 / ATT still hurt our tracking?
- Yes — but mitigated. Meta's Conversions API server-side events recover most of the signal Apple's ATT broke. Aggregated Event Measurement caps you at 8 events per pixel but works. We configure server-side events for every client in week 1 and tune event match quality above 7.0.
- How is paid social different from boosting posts?
- A boosted post is a single ad with default targeting. A real paid social campaign has audience segmentation, multiple creatives tested against each other, a structured budget allocation between cold-prospect and retargeting layers, and a measurement framework. Boosting almost never beats organic alone on ROAS; structured campaigns can return 3–8x.
Next step
Send us access.
We will find the CAC leak.
Grant read access to your Meta Business Manager or TikTok Ads Manager. We pull a 5-day audit covering CAPI setup, creative decay, audience overlap, and the three fixes that will move CPL first.
Audit my ad account →