What does a paid social agency do?
A paid social agency plans, creates and manages your advertising on social platforms. At Vertical that covers strategy, audience planning, creative production, campaign setup, tracking, testing, daily optimisation and reporting. Because our creative and media teams work together, we can produce the volume and variety of ads that paid social needs and turn performance insights into new creative quickly. We also connect paid social with your email, CRM and website, so every channel works from the same audiences and insight.
Are you a paid social agency in London?
Yes. Vertical is a paid social media agency based at Battersea Power Station in London, working with ecommerce and B2B brands across the UK and internationally. Being UK based means we understand the platforms’ UK auction dynamics, seasonal peaks like Black Friday and January sales, UK consumer protection and advertising rules, and we are available in your working hours. Most of our work is run remotely, with in-person strategy sessions when that helps.
What is paid social advertising?
Paid social advertising means running paid ads on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat and LinkedIn. Unlike organic posts, paid ads let you reach specific audiences at scale, based on interests, behaviours, demographics or your own customer data. Ads can appear in feeds, stories, reels and other placements, in formats from single images to video and carousels. Paid social is especially strong for reaching people who do not yet know your brand, introducing products and driving sales, sign-ups or leads.
Which social platforms should we advertise on?
It depends on your audience, product and goals. Meta, covering Facebook and Instagram, suits most consumer brands thanks to its scale and targeting. TikTok is strong for reaching younger audiences and products that benefit from demonstration and personality. Pinterest works well for considered purchases in areas such as home, fashion and beauty. LinkedIn suits business-to-business marketing. We usually recommend starting with one or two platforms, proving results, then expanding where the data shows there is room to grow profitably without diluting results.
How much does a paid social agency cost?
Most paid social agencies charge a monthly management fee that scales with ad spend, sometimes with a setup fee for the first month. At Vertical, management for accounts spending up to around £20,000 a month typically starts from £3,500 a month, with creative production scoped alongside it, and fees step up as spend grows. We will always set out what we expect the account to return before we talk about fees, so you can judge the investment against new customers and revenue rather than against the cheapest quote.
How much should we spend on paid social?
Budget depends on your goals, margins, average order value and how quickly you want to grow. Platforms need enough spend and conversions for their algorithms to learn, so very small budgets spread across many campaigns tend to underperform. We work from what you can afford to pay for a new customer, then recommend a starting budget that gives campaigns a fair chance to learn. As results come in, we scale spend where performance is strong and pull back where it is not.
Do you work as an ecommerce paid social agency?
Yes, ecommerce is where most of our paid social work sits. We run paid social for Shopify, Shopify Plus and other DTC brands, with catalogue and dynamic ads, creative testing at volume, new versus returning customer tracking and reporting reconciled against your store’s actual revenue. Because we also run Klaviyo and email for many of the same brands, your paid audiences, exclusions and post-click journeys all work together rather than in silos.
Do you run B2B paid social?
Yes. For B2B brands we run LinkedIn Ads alongside Meta, with lead generation forms, landing pages, CRM integration and sales follow-up planned together. B2B paid social needs more care with qualification, so we optimise towards leads that turn into meetings and pipeline rather than the cheapest form fill, and we report on cost per qualified lead and opportunity rather than clicks.
Why is creative so important on paid social?
Targeting on social platforms has become more automated, so creative now does much of the work of finding the right people. The ad itself signals who it is for, earns attention in a crowded feed and persuades people to act. Creative also fatigues as audiences see it repeatedly, so performance drops unless new ads are introduced regularly. That is why we produce a steady flow of fresh concepts and variations, test them systematically and use the results to shape what we make next.
What are UGC ads and do they work?
UGC ads use content in the style of user-generated content, such as customers or creators talking about a product in their own words, often filmed on a phone. They tend to feel more native to social feeds and more credible than polished brand ads, which can help them perform well. They are not a guaranteed answer, though. We test UGC alongside other formats, including founder-led video, product demonstrations and static designs, and scale whichever approach works best for your audience and product.
How do you track paid social performance?
We set up platform pixels alongside server-side conversions APIs, so platforms receive accurate data even as browser tracking becomes less reliable. We check that purchase, lead and other key events are firing correctly and that values are passed through. Because platform reporting can overstate results, we also compare it with your own analytics, sales data and, where possible, incrementality tests. That gives a more honest picture of what paid social is really contributing to the business and where to invest next.
How long does it take to see results from paid social?
Campaigns usually start delivering data within days, but platforms need time and conversions to learn who responds best. The first few weeks are mostly about testing creative, audiences and offers to find what works. Results typically become more stable and efficient over the following months as winning ads are scaled and new creative builds on what has been learned. We agree realistic goals at the start and report regularly, so you can see progress as it happens and understand what is driving it.
How does paid social work with our email and CRM?
Your customer and subscriber lists can be used to build lookalike audiences, retarget engaged people and exclude existing customers from prospecting campaigns, so you are not paying to reach people you already own. In the other direction, paid social can grow your email list with lead generation ads and sign-up offers. Because Vertical runs email, CRM and paid media together, we make sure audiences and insights move between channels and each one benefits from what the others learn over time.
Do you produce the ad creative yourselves?
Yes. Our creative team produces static, motion, video and UGC-style ads designed for each platform and placement. We plan creative around clear concepts and hypotheses, then produce variations of hooks, messages, formats and offers to test. Where it helps, we work with creators and use your existing photography and video. Having creative and media buying in one team means we can respond quickly to what the results show, rather than waiting weeks for a separate studio to turn around new assets.
How does AI support your paid social work?
We use AI agents to monitor performance across accounts, detect creative fatigue, analyse which elements of ads are driving results and draft new copy and creative variations. That lets us test more and respond faster. Every new ad, budget change and recommendation is reviewed by our team before it goes live in your accounts, so AI speeds up the work while experienced people make sure everything is accurate, on brand, compliant with platform policies and aligned with your commercial goals.
