Paid social is advertising bought on social platforms — Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, X, Snapchat, and regional networks like VK — where ads appear in the feed, in stories, in reels and in other native placements.
Definition
Paid social is advertising bought on social platforms — Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, X, Snapchat, and regional networks like VK — where ads appear in the feed, in stories, in reels and in other native placements. The platforms sell it through self-serve auction systems with detailed targeting (demographics, interests, behaviours, custom and lookalike audiences) and machine-learning optimisation toward a chosen conversion event.
For performance advertisers, paid social is attractive because the targeting and optimisation are strong, the formats are engaging, and volume is enormous. For iGaming specifically it is complicated: most major platforms restrict or ban gambling advertising, permitting it only in a defined list of markets, only for licensed operators, and only through a certification or authorisation process — and enforcing this with automated and human review that removes non-compliant accounts.
In context
This split defines how paid social is used in iGaming. In regulated markets, a licensed operator gets certified and runs compliant campaigns like any legitimate advertiser: real creatives, disclosed advertising, age-gating and responsible-gambling messaging on the landing page, tight geo-targeting, and conversion optimisation fed by a clean pixel or conversions API sending the right event and value.
This is stable, scalable white-hat acquisition, with high CPAs but durable accounts.
Outside that, grey affiliate media buying uses paid social to run gambling where the platform does not allow it — via cloaking, disposable and farmed accounts, agency-account rental, and creative uniquification to slip past moderation. This breaches platform terms, so accounts are lost continuously and the operation runs on a treadmill of replacement.
The economic case is higher payouts per action; the cost is instability, frozen spend, and no ability to build a durable channel. Which mode an advertiser is in — certified compliant operator, or grey affiliate — determines everything about how paid social behaves for them.
Worked example
A licensed operator gets Meta gambling certification for three EU markets and runs compliant feed and reels campaigns, optimising to a conversions-API deposit event with value. Cost per FTD is $160, but accounts run for years and creatives scale after a one-time review.
A grey affiliate running the same brand in a non-permitted market via cloaked accounts pays $70 per FTD but replaces four banned accounts a week.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
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