Reflections on a year in paid social: The four key things I’ve learned
Author:
Categorised In:
Share:
I came to Embryo with no Paid Social experience; instead, my background was in Organic Social and Content Writing. I’d been desperate to get into the world of Paid Media for a while, and luckily, Embryo took a chance on me!
And if you’d have asked me what these were one year ago what Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, ROAS and attribution settings were, I wouldn’t have had the foggiest. Now they’re just part of my day-to-day life as a Senior Paid Social Executive.
I’ve officially hit one whole year since I joined this thriving company, so wanted to take a look back on some key things I’ve learned and achieved over the past twelve months.
When I joined Embryo as a Paid Social Executive, I had a lot of catching up to do. Fortunately, I’m someone who loves nothing more than getting stuck into research and learning as much as I possibly can from my peers. So, the first six months of my time at Embryo were focused on building the foundation of my knowledge base.
I started my journey into Paid Social the way many others do: by completing The Meta Blueprint.
This gave me a basic understanding of how Meta works and I learnt a lot about its key features. From Advtantage+ to how to set up a campaign effectively based on client objectives and KPIs, there was a lot to absorb.
Aside from The Meta Blueprint, resources like Jon Loomer’s Beginner’s Guide to Meta Advertising, was a godsend! The Blueprint – although extremely useful for beginners – can be slightly biased in its processes and guidelines. Jon Loomer, on the other hand, is very down-to-earth in contrast.
Not only that, as an advertiser with years worth of experience running paid campaigns, he tells it how it is. I found him to be very upfront, touching on how Meta may want you to do certain things to boost performance but he offered his own thoughts on certain new features. (We get it Meta, you want us to use Advantage+ Creative Enhancements, but they’re just not for everyone…)
These two resources were my bread and butter during my first few months at Embryo. Alongside the incredible training from the Paid Social Team, they helped me build my knowledge to where it currently is.
I’m now neck-deep in building ads for e-commerce and lead generation clients, optimising ads effectively on Meta, Pinterest and LinkedIn and testing as much as I can.
The importance of testing
Before I joined the world of Paid Media, I assumed there would be a one-size-fits-all approach. How wrong I was!
Turns out, the fun part of working in Paid Social is finding out the best possible way to approach a strategy. There are so many aspects to consider, and depending on client objectives, profit margins and even their product offerings, this will completely change our approach.
The great thing about testing is that we can learn from past experiments and take inspiration from other client campaigns that have previously performed well.
So remember: it’s vital to ensure we’re testing wherever possible. Whether that’s A/B testing, introducing updated creative and copy or even targeting new audiences.
Something super interesting I learned from our Paid Social Manager, Jenny Byrne, was that there’s always room to test within budget. I aim to continuously use at least 20% of the overall budget on testing to inform future strategy decisions. Even if the account is in a great place, there’s always the opportunity to test, learn and improve.
After gauging the basics of Paid Social, I was eager to evolve my understanding of more intricate matters. Tracking implementation, Conversions API (CAPI) and attribution settings were just a few I wanted to get stuck into.
The Embryo Paid Social team, specifically our Head of Paid Social, Harriet Tuite, is fantastic at running regular training sessions. These have been crucial for expanding upon areas in the team’s knowledge and helping us understand how Paid Social fits into the bigger overall strategy.
Not only that, they’re the perfect opportunity for the team to discuss any new findings and bounce ideas off each other. And we’ve covered all sorts. Recently we’ve been learning more about Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER), bid caps and Google Tag Manager events in Meta.
Something we’ve been working on collaboratively this year is the Digital Industry Updates Page. This is a log of key updates within the digital marketing landscape and has been useful in ensuring we’re up to date on any key changes within Paid Media channels. I definitely recommend giving it a read if you want to keep on top of the ever-changing world of digital.
Getting more responsibility
I’ve had an absolute blast working in the Paid Social team over the past year, but something I’m immensely proud of is being promoted to a Senior Paid Social Executive after only nine months of starting my first ever Paid Social job.
From day one, I wanted to jump head-first into all things Paid Social and learn as much as I could. Luckily, everything started to really click around the six-month mark and from there, I was able to have a deeper understanding of how certain decisions affected the bigger picture.
At Embryo, we believe in a collaborative approach, and as a full-service digital marketing agency, we have the perfect opportunity to work closely with other channels. On top of learning all things Paid Social, I got to know how channels like PPC, SEO, Content Marketing, Digital PR and Affiliate Marketing fit into the larger strategy.
I’ve also been lucky enough to take on more responsibility outside the realm of Paid Social. In April 2024, I became qualified as a Mental Health First Aider along with two other colleagues. This was a really exciting opportunity and highlights that Embryo is the perfect company for personal and professional growth.
Gaining confidence
Over the past year, I can honestly say I’ve learned so much. I’ve gained a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of Paid Social, discovered how to test campaigns and worked constantly on evolving my Paid skills.
But something I’m really keen to focus on over the next year is building my confidence.
Despite having a strong knowledge of Paid Social practices, taking on more clients and getting involved with pitches and proposals, my confidence is something that could do with some TLC.
I’m in the perfect role where I can gain belief in myself. This job has pushed me to try new things and I’ve already improved when speaking to clients and presenting new ideas. The next step is learning to trust in me.
I find speaking up daunting, but I’ve decided it’s something I’m going to change. With the support from my team and more experience under my belt, I know this is something I can – and will – improve on over the next year!
