# Paid social

URL: /workflows/plays/paid-social · Id: `play:paid-social`

> Paid social runs Ads targeted by Audience instead of query, first as a pooled test and at scale only for messages that already won.

Paid social targets [Ads](/business/nouns/ad) by [Audience](/business/nouns/audience) instead of by query, which reaches consumers who are not searching. It scales only messages that already won on free placements.

## Ratings
| Dimension | Rating | Reads |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Scalability | 5 of 5 | very high: higher grows further with spend or automation |
| Cost | 4 of 5 | high: lower costs less per Customer |
| Latency | 1 of 5 | very low: lower answers sooner |

## Budget
| Property | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tier | $1k |
| Minimum effective budget | $600 a month |

| Monthly spend | Yields |
| --- | --- |
| $600 | One click or lead test on Facebook and Instagram, or one Reddit test. |
| $3,000 | Two to four ad sets that exit learning on purchase objectives. |
| $10,000 | Adds TikTok and LinkedIn sponsored posts with fresh video each week. |

## How it runs
A first test runs at $600 on one click or lead objective, below what a purchase objective needs to exit learning. A message graduates from organic posts with a [Hypothesis](/business/nouns/hypothesis), a stop rule and at least the minimum budget.

Launches and raises wait the ad-spend delay window. A raise above twice the current spend waits one business day.

## Processes
Runs as [Experimentation](/workflows/processes/experimentation), accountable to the [Marketing Team](/agents/marketing).

Also sold as a Service: [Demand generation](/systems/integrations/upstreams#demand-generation).

## Fits
| Fits | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Family | demand |
| Shelf | Seed: finds the first Customers (Launch) |
| Moves | [Acquisition payback](/agents/finance#cac-payback) |
| Motions | [b2c](/business/motions/b2c), [b2b](/business/motions/b2b) |
| Venues | [Facebook](/workflows/plays#facebook), [Instagram](/workflows/plays#instagram), [TikTok](/workflows/plays#tiktok), [LinkedIn](/workflows/plays#linkedin), [Reddit](/workflows/plays#reddit), [X](/workflows/plays#x), [Pinterest](/workflows/plays#pinterest) |
| States | [Live](/business/lifecycle/states/live), [Repeatable](/business/lifecycle/states/repeatable), [Scale](/business/lifecycle/states/scale) |

## Loop
| Step | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Hypothesis | Messages that already won the pooled test pay back faster at scale than untested messages. |
| Measure | [Acquisition payback](/agents/finance#cac-payback) over 30d, at least 50 observations |
| Learn | The learn step reads the Readout, records Evidence and a Decision, and drafts the next Variant. |

## Example
A meal-planning app tests three hooks on the [Studio](/business/nouns/studio)’s shared accounts for free. The winner, “dinner for four under $12”, gets $800 on Instagram and returns 41 trials at $19 each, so the budget moves to $3,000.