Start here · Essential guide
How Paid Social Advertising Works: A Plain Guide
A plain-language look at how paid social ads work: auctions, budgets, placements and objectives, and why no one can promise a particular result.
Marketing and Business
Paid Social Advertising
How paid promotion works, explained without promising results.
A/B Testing Social Posts and Ads Without Fooling Yourself
How to compare two versions of a post or ad fairly: change one thing at a time, avoid tiny samples, and be honest about what a result can and cannot tell you.
Organic Versus Paid Reach: Understanding the Difference
What organic and paid reach mean, how they differ, and why neither unpaid posts nor ads can guarantee that a particular person will see your content.
Reading Ad Reports: Reach, Clicks and Conversions
What common social ad numbers such as reach, impressions, click-through rate, cost per click and conversions mean, and which ones are easiest to misread.
Setting a Sensible Budget for Social Ads
How to think about test budgets, spending caps and when to stop, so that a small social ad experiment stays affordable and nobody is promised a return.
Sponsored Content and Disclosure Basics
Why paid and sponsored posts should be clearly labeled, what disclosure generally involves, and why the rules differ by place, platform and type of arrangement.
Understanding Audience Targeting and Its Limits
What common ad targeting options mean, how accurate they really are, and the fairness and privacy concerns that come with choosing who sees an ad.
What Retargeting Is and Why Some People Dislike It
How follow-up ads work, why some people find them intrusive, what the privacy debate involves, and gentler ways for a business to stay in touch.
Why Ads Get Rejected and How to Avoid It
Common policy reasons social ads are rejected, how to review a draft against the rules before submitting, and what to do if a rejection seems mistaken.
Writing Ad Copy That Is Clear and Honest
How to write social ad copy that is easy to understand, makes only claims you can back up, and avoids misleading wording, with simple before-and-after examples.
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