○@thepearlsource
SponsoredIG · FEED
Modern velvet, hardwood frame, lifetime guarantee · Shop the SS25 collection →
Reach2.4M
CTR4.7%
Saves47K
Act Bold runs Paid Social programs covering Meta (Facebook + Instagram), TikTok, Pinterest, and X (Twitter). Strategy management priced at $5,000/month or 10% of ad spend (whichever is greater). Creative production scoped separately. Zero markup on media. Avg blended ROAS: 4.2×. Creative testing velocity: 12+ net-new creatives per platform per month at scale. Poly & Bark and other case studies. Contact info@actbold.com.
/ PAID SOCIAL ·Part of the Paid Engine
Win the feed.
Convert the scroll.
Paid Social isn’t a discount channel for organic content — it’s a creative-first acquisition engine. Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, and X each reward different hooks, pacing, and formats — so we ship platform-native creative on a weekly cadence instead of recycling one asset across feeds. Won as a stack, the four surfaces compound into reach and revenue no single channel can deliver alone.
/ Creative · Live · Campaign: SS25
♪TIKTOK · FYP
Sponsored▶ SOUND ON
♥ 184K💬 2.1K↗ 5.2K★ 12K
@thepearlsource ✓
Behind the seams — SS25 drop
Behind the seams — SS25 drop
Views1.2M
Completion67%
Shares12K
PPearl Source
PromotedSave$1,499
Modern velvet · $1,499
Impr.380K
CTR2.1%
Saves8.4K
𝕏@thepearlsource
PromotedModern velvet, hardwood frame. We've shipped 50K of these since 2018. SS25 →
💬↻♡↗
Impr.184K
CTR1.8%
Reposts940
Blended · 4.8M Reach · 12,400 Purchases · 4.2× ROAS · AB-PSOCIAL · 055
✦4.2×Avg Paid Social ROAS Across Engagements
✦+87%Avg Conversion Lift From Structured Creative Testing
✦12+Net-new Creatives Shipped Per Brand Per Month
/ The Paid Social Reality
Most agencies optimize the bid.
Winners optimize the creative.
In Paid Search, the lever is keyword + bid. In Paid Social, the lever is creative + audience signal. Bid management matters at the margin. Creative testing velocity matters at the order of magnitude. The brands that win Paid Social aren’t running better algorithms — they’re running better creative testing programs.
73%
of Paid Social ROAS variance comes from creative, not bid strategy or audience targeting.
Meta Ad Performance Variance Study · 2024
2.8s
average attention span on a paid social ad. Win the first second or lose the impression.
Facebook/Meta Mobile Attention Study · 2024
4 of 12
creative variants typically beat the control in a structured test. The other eight inform the next iteration.
Act Bold Creative Testing Cohort Data · 2025
~6 weeks
time-to-first-winner when running a sustained creative testing program (vs months of “boost the post” tactics).
Act Bold Multi-Brand Creative Velocity Data · 2025
The Shift: Bid Optimization Stopped Being a Competitive Advantage in 2018. Creative Testing Velocity Is the New Edge.
/ The Paid Social Stack
Four platforms.
Four different sports.
Each platform rewards different creative, surfaces different audiences, and converts at different stages of the buyer journey. Run them as a stack, not as four siloed campaigns — the math compounds when each platform plays its specific role.
01
Meta — Facebook + Instagram
The highest-volume conversion channel in Paid Social. Sophisticated audience targeting (interests, lookalikes, custom, first-party Conversions API), mature attribution, and creative format range from Reels to Carousels to Collection Ads. Where most brands' Paid Social budget lives.
- ✦Conversions API + first-party data integration for attribution
- ✦Audience layering (interests + lookalikes + custom + retargeting)
- ✦Creative format mix (Reels, Stories, Feed, Collection, DPA)
- ✦Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (AI-driven full-funnel)
02
Meta Stories + Reels
The 9:16 vertical placements where DTC paid social actually lives. Stories and Reels reward platform-native creative — sound-on, hook-led, fast-cut — and Meta's Brand Lift Study product measures the awareness delta you can't see in last-click attribution. Where most brands' creative production budget should sit.
- ✦Stories + Reels 9:16 creative production (NOT cropped Feed assets)
- ✦Hook-rate optimization in the first three seconds
- ✦Brand Lift Study + Conversion Lift for incrementality proof
- ✦Creator partnerships through Meta's Branded Content tool
03
Meta Audience Targeting
The targeting stack that separates a media buyer from a button-pusher: Advantage+ Audience suggestions layered over Custom Audiences (Conversions API-matched), Lookalikes from purchasers, and interest layers tuned to actual product category. Audience size estimator in Meta's canonical 2.4M–2.8M range format.
- ✦Conversions API + first-party data feeding Custom Audiences
- ✦Lookalike modeling from purchaser seeds (LAL 1% to LAL 10%)
- ✦Advantage+ Audience expansion from a defined seed
- ✦Interest + behavior layering tuned to product category
04
TikTok — Expansion Channel
The lowest CPMs in eCommerce paid social and the highest creative-velocity platform. Smart Performance Campaigns auto-allocate budget to top-hook-rate creatives, and Spark Ads paid-amplify organic creator content. Native-first — recycled Meta assets get throttled. Run TikTok as the expansion lane once Meta is humming.
- ✦Spark Ads — paid amplification of organic creator content
- ✦Smart Performance Campaign auto-allocation to top creatives
- ✦Hook-rate + 3-second video completion as the primary signal
- ✦TikTok Shop integration for direct in-app conversion
/ Creative Testing Velocity
Creative is the only real lever.
Bid optimization plateaus at scale. Audience targeting reaches saturation. The only continuous compounding lever in Paid Social is creative velocity — sustained iteration that consistently outpaces creative fatigue.
/ Active Tests · 4Live
A
Hero shot · soft light
CTR 1.8%ROAS 3.2×
Monitoring
B✦ Winning vs A
Lifestyle · in-room context
CTR 2.6%ROAS 4.1×
C
Close-up · texture detail
CTR 1.4%ROAS 2.8×
Monitoring
D✦ Top Performer
UGC · creator partnership
CTR 3.1%ROAS 4.7×
/ Scaled · 3Promoted
F
Lifestyle · stylist tour
CTR 2.9%ROAS 4.4×
Promoted · Wk 4
G
UGC · before/after
CTR 3.4%ROAS 5.1×
Promoted · Wk 4
H
Motion · texture loop
CTR 2.6%ROAS 4.0×
Promoted · Wk 5
/ Archived · 5Killed
P
Product-only · white bg
CTR 0.7%ROAS 1.4×
Archived · Wk 2
Q
Founder-talk-to-camera
CTR 0.9%ROAS 1.8×
Archived · Wk 2
R
Promo · 20% off banner
CTR 1.1%ROAS 2.0×
Archived · Wk 3
S
Stock footage · slow pan
CTR 0.6%ROAS 1.1×
Archived · Wk 1
T
Long copy · 80-word caption
CTR 0.8%ROAS 1.6×
Archived · Wk 2
~3 / wk
✦Net-new Creatives Tested Per Platform
~33%
✦Test Win Rate (creatives that beat control)
~14 days
✦Average Time-to-Decision Per Test Cohort
~$650
✦Average Test Cost Per Creative Decision
Most agencies “set and forget” three creatives. We ship twelve new creatives per platform per month and let the data pick the winners.
/ Paid Social Case Studies
Three brands.
Three different platform stacks.
From single-platform Meta dominance to multi-platform creative velocity — three brands that turned Paid Social from a brand-awareness channel into a profit channel.
✦Meta + Pinterest + TikTok · DTC Furniture
Poly and Bark
/ Multi-Platform Creative Velocity Program
4.7×
✦Blended Paid Social ROAS
+218%
✦Year-Over-Year Paid Social Revenue
~15 / mo
✦Net-New Creatives Tested Per Month
“We went from running three creatives quarterly to fifteen a month — and the ROAS doubled in the first 90 days.”
See Case Study →
✦TikTok-Led · DTC Creative Brand
Ooly
/ TikTok-Led Multi-Platform Stack
3.8×
✦Blended Paid Social ROAS
−52%
✦CPM Reduction Year-Over-Year
+220%
✦Paid Social Revenue Growth
“TikTok unlocked the lowest CPMs we’ve ever run, and the creative cadence pulled the Meta account up with it.”
See Case Study →
✦Meta + Pinterest · Luxury Jewelry
The Pearl Source
/ Pinterest + Meta Visual Discovery Program
+178%
✦Paid Revenue Growth Across Channels
+43%
✦Average Order Value Increase
~90 Days
✦Median Pinterest Save-to-Purchase Window
“Pinterest doesn’t convert next-click — it converts next quarter. The compounding is where the math gets interesting.”
See Case Study →
/ Investment
Pricing splits strategy and creative.
Strategy management runs on the standard Act Bold Paid Media fee. Creative production is scoped separately because Paid Social runs on creative volume — and volume scales with the platforms running and the testing cadence you want to fund.
/ 01 · STRATEGY MANAGEMENT
Strategy Management
$5,000/mo or 10% of ad spend
Whichever Is Greater
Same formula as all Paid Media channels. The floor protects against managing tiny accounts; the 10% scales fairly when spend grows. Zero markup on media — every dollar to the platform goes to the platform.
- ✦Campaign architecture + audience strategy
- ✦Bid management + budget reallocation
- ✦Conversions API + attribution setup
- ✦Cross-platform performance reporting
- ✦Monthly strategic review + roadmap
/ 02 · CREATIVE PRODUCTION
Creative Production
Scoped per quarter
Based on Platforms + Cadence
Paid Social runs on creative volume. We can produce, edit, and ship the creative your testing program needs — or work with your existing creative team. Scope depends on platforms running, creative cadence, and format mix (static, motion, video, UGC).
- ✦Concept development + scripting
- ✦Static + motion + video production
- ✦Platform-native edits (Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, X)
- ✦Creator partnership + UGC sourcing
- ✦Testing-program asset velocity
Month-to-Month · 30-Day Cancel · 10% Annual Discount · Media Spend Billed Separately · Zero Markup on Ad Spend
/ Paid Social Questions
Five questions worth a real answer.
Pricing structure, creative production scope, platform-fit logic, view-through measurement, and the minimum spend that earns its keep in a Paid Social engagement.
$5,000/month flat OR 10% of ad spend on strategy management, whichever is greater — the same formula we use for Paid Search and Programmatic engagements. Creative production is scoped separately based on platforms running and creative cadence, since creative volume is the actual lever in Paid Social. We never mark up media spend. Every dollar to Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, or X goes to those platforms directly.
Yes — and we typically recommend it. Paid Social runs on creative velocity (12+ new creatives per platform per month at scale), which is more than most in-house brand teams can sustain alongside their other work. We can produce static, motion, video, and UGC creative with platform-native edits for each platform. We can also work with your existing creative team if you have one — we'll provide testing-driven creative briefs based on what's actually winning in your account.
Three factors: where your buyers are, where your creative can land natively, and where your unit economics work. We start with audience research (where does your target demo actually spend time), then layer in platform-fit assessment (does your product photograph well? do you have video assets? does the platform support your product category?), and finally run unit-economics math (which platform's CPMs and CPAs work for your AOV and margins). Most $2M-$20M brands run Meta plus one or two secondary platforms; not all four.
Three measurement methods stacked: (1) platform-attributed conversions via Conversions API + first-party pixel for direct ROAS, (2) incrementality testing via geo-holdouts or audience-holdouts where feasible (especially on Meta), and (3) post-purchase survey attribution ("how did you hear about us") to capture view-through and dark-social conversions. We report all three so you see both the direct ROAS and the brand-lift work the channel is doing — not just what the platform claims credit for.
$15,000/month is the threshold below which Paid Social runs out of room — there isn't enough budget to run a real creative testing program (which requires roughly $5-10K/month per platform at minimum to find winners), and creative production costs start eating ROAS. We work with brands at $10-15K/month if a single platform makes sense for the unit economics. Above $30K/month is where multi-platform stacks really compound and creative testing pays for itself in the first 60 days.
/ Let's Talk · Paid Social
Ready to win the feed?
Tell Act Bold about your current creative cadence, your platform mix, and where your Paid Social is plateauing. We’ll send back a no-fluff creative teardown covering your best and worst-performing ads, what your competitors are running, and a 90-day creative testing plan — within 48 hours.