A Paid Social Audit systematically evaluates your social advertising across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and emerging platforms like TikTok to identify what’s working, what’s hemorrhaging budget, and where competitors are outmaneuvering you. Based on our methodology for enterprise B2B companies, this audit transforms underperforming social campaigns into pipeline-driving revenue engines.
TL;DR
B2B paid social is often misunderstood as purely a brand awareness play, but sophisticated targeting and account-based marketing approaches can deliver exceptional lead quality and pipeline results.
Most companies waste budget on broad targeting, weak creative, and poor platform selection while missing opportunities for video content, retargeting sequences, and cross-channel integration.
Key takeaways:
- Platform selection must align with your ICP—HR software prospects are on LinkedIn, fashion brands on Instagram/TikTok
- Creative performance varies dramatically by platform—professional visuals for LinkedIn, authentic video for TikTok
- Targeting precision beats broad reach—use ABM approaches and custom audiences for better lead quality
- Budget scaling requires gradual increases (max 35% per batch) to avoid algorithm disruption and cost spikes
- Integration with email, content marketing, and search amplifies results across the entire demand generation funnel
Table of Contents
- What is a Paid Social Audit?
- Why Do You Need a Paid Social Audit?
- How to Do a Paid Social Audit: The Step-by-Step Process
- How Ziggy Can Help You with Your Paid Social Audit
What is a Paid Social Audit?
A Paid Social Audit is a comprehensive evaluation of your social media advertising performance across all platforms, designed to identify optimization opportunities, eliminate budget waste, and improve lead quality. Unlike surface-level campaign reviews, this audit examines platform selection, creative performance, targeting precision, bidding strategy effectiveness, and cross-channel integration to create a data-driven improvement roadmap.
Our methodology evaluates performance across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and emerging platforms like TikTok and Clubhouse, analyzing campaign structure, audience targeting accuracy, creative resonance by platform, bidding optimization, conversion tracking, and integration with broader demand generation efforts.
The audit reveals critical insights like which platforms deliver qualified leads vs. vanity metrics, what creative formats drive engagement and conversions, where targeting is too broad or too narrow, and how your social campaigns integrate with email marketing, content strategy, and account-based marketing programs. Without this analysis, you’re optimizing individual tactics instead of building a cohesive social strategy that drives pipeline.
Why Do You Need a Paid Social Audit?
B2B social media marketing has matured far beyond basic brand awareness campaigns. Today’s platforms offer sophisticated targeting, advanced attribution, and account-based marketing capabilities that can deliver exceptional ROI when executed properly. However, most companies still approach paid social with outdated strategies that waste budget and miss opportunities.
A Paid Social Audit is essential to:
Optimize Platform Mix: Ensure you’re investing in platforms where your ideal customers actually spend time, rather than following generic “B2B best practices” that may not apply to your specific market.
Improve Creative Performance: Analyze which ad formats, messaging approaches, and visual styles drive engagement and conversions on each platform, moving beyond generic corporate content.
Enhance Targeting Precision: Refine audience targeting to reach decision-makers and influencers within target accounts, rather than broad demographic groups that dilute campaign effectiveness.
Maximize Cross-Channel Integration: Connect social campaigns with email sequences, content marketing, and sales processes to create cohesive customer journeys that nurture prospects through the full funnel.
Scale Budget Efficiently: Identify the optimal budget scaling approach that maintains cost efficiency while expanding reach, avoiding the common mistake of rapid budget increases that spike costs.
Without regular paid social audits, you risk missing platform innovations, overpaying for poor-quality traffic, and failing to capitalize on the sophisticated targeting and attribution capabilities that make social media a powerful demand generation channel.
How to Do a Paid Social Audit: The Step-by-Step Process
Conducting a comprehensive paid social audit requires systematic analysis across platforms, campaigns, and integration touchpoints. Here’s our proven methodology based on audits for enterprise B2B companies:
1. Platform Selection and ICP Alignment Analysis
Evaluate whether your platform mix aligns with where your ideal customers consume content:
- ICP platform research: Map your buyer personas to platform demographics and usage patterns
- Platform performance comparison: Analyze lead quality, conversion rates, and cost efficiency across platforms
- Emerging platform assessment: Evaluate opportunities on TikTok, Clubhouse, and other platforms gaining B2B traction
- Competitive platform analysis: Identify where competitors are investing and winning audience share
2. Campaign Structure and Organization Review
Assess how campaigns are structured and organized for optimal performance:
- Campaign objective alignment: Review whether campaign objectives match business goals (awareness, consideration, conversion)
- Audience segmentation strategy: Evaluate how audiences are segmented and targeted across campaigns
- Budget allocation analysis: Analyze spend distribution across platforms, campaigns, and audience segments
- Campaign naming and organization: Review naming conventions and account structure for scalability
3. Creative Performance and Platform Optimization
Analyze creative effectiveness across different platforms and formats:
- Platform-specific creative analysis: Evaluate how creatives perform on LinkedIn vs. Facebook vs. Instagram vs. Twitter
- Ad format performance: Compare video, carousel, single image, and text-based ad performance
- Message-market fit assessment: Analyze whether messaging resonates with target audiences and drives action
- Creative testing methodology: Review A/B testing processes and statistical significance in creative optimization
4. Targeting Precision and Audience Quality
Examine targeting approaches and audience quality across campaigns:
- Targeting strategy evaluation: Review demographic, interest, behavioral, and lookalike audience strategies
- Custom audience utilization: Assess use of website visitors, email lists, and CRM data for retargeting
- Account-based marketing implementation: Analyze ABM approaches and target account list targeting
- Audience exclusion strategy: Review negative audiences and exclusions to prevent budget waste
5. Bidding Strategy and Budget Management
Evaluate bidding approaches and budget optimization:
- Bidding strategy assessment: Review manual vs. automated bidding performance and appropriateness
- Budget scaling methodology: Analyze historical budget changes and impact on cost per result
- Dayparting and scheduling optimization: Review ad scheduling and performance by time/day
- Geographic targeting efficiency: Assess location targeting and performance variations by region
6. Conversion Tracking and Attribution Analysis
Examine measurement setup and attribution accuracy:
- Conversion tracking audit: Verify proper pixel implementation and conversion goal setup
- Attribution model evaluation: Review attribution windows and model appropriateness for B2B sales cycles
- Cross-device and cross-platform tracking: Assess measurement accuracy across devices and touchpoints
- Pipeline attribution assessment: Analyze connection between social campaigns and actual revenue outcomes
7. Integration with Broader Marketing Strategy
Evaluate how social campaigns integrate with other marketing channels:
- Email marketing integration: Review how social campaigns feed email nurture sequences and vice versa
- Content marketing alignment: Assess how social promotes content and drives content consumption
- Search marketing coordination: Analyze social and search campaign coordination and audience overlap
- Sales process integration: Review how social leads are handled and nurtured through the sales process
8. Competitive Analysis and Market Positioning
Research competitive landscape and positioning opportunities:
- Competitor ad intelligence: Analyze competitor creative, messaging, and targeting strategies
- Share of voice analysis: Assess your presence relative to competitors in key audience segments
- Messaging differentiation review: Identify opportunities to differentiate from competitor messaging
- Platform investment analysis: Compare your platform investments to competitor strategies
How Ziggy Can Help You with Your Paid Social Audit
While understanding paid social optimization principles is valuable, executing a comprehensive audit requires deep platform expertise, advanced analytics capabilities, and systematic methodology. At Ziggy, we’ve developed proprietary frameworks for analyzing and optimizing paid social performance, helping B2B technology companies achieve exceptional results and scale pipeline through strategic social advertising.
Our comprehensive Paid Social Audit service includes:
Multi-Platform Performance Analysis: Complete evaluation of LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and emerging platform performance using advanced analytics and competitive intelligence tools.
Creative Effectiveness Research: Systematic analysis of ad formats, messaging approaches, and creative performance by platform, including recommendations for platform-specific optimization and testing roadmaps.
Targeting and Audience Optimization: Deep-dive analysis of audience targeting, segmentation strategies, and account-based marketing implementation, with recommendations for improving lead quality and reducing cost per acquisition.
Cross-Channel Integration Assessment: Comprehensive review of how social campaigns integrate with email marketing, content strategy, search campaigns, and sales processes to maximize funnel efficiency and conversion rates.
Budget Optimization and Scaling Strategy: Analysis of budget allocation, bidding strategies, and scaling methodologies, including recommendations for efficient growth that maintains cost effectiveness.
Implementation Roadmap and Training: Detailed recommendations with specific platform settings, creative guidelines, and targeting adjustments, plus team training to ensure successful execution of optimization strategies.
By partnering with Ziggy, you gain access to the proven methodologies we’ve used to help enterprise B2B companies achieve exceptional paid social results—the same approach that helped our clients win industry awards and scale pipeline into the millions through strategic social media advertising.
Get in Touch with Ziggy Today
Ready to transform your paid social campaigns from budget drains into pipeline drivers? Let Ziggy conduct a comprehensive Paid Social Audit and help you optimize your social advertising strategy for better lead quality, lower costs, and higher ROI.
Our experts will analyze your platform mix, creative performance, targeting precision, and cross-channel integration to identify exactly where you can improve results and eliminate budget waste.
Contact us today to schedule your Paid Social Audit and start optimizing your social campaigns for maximum demand generation impact.
