Toronto · Social media advertising
Social media advertising agency for businesses in Toronto
Canada Create is a social media advertising agency that handles strategy, creative, tracking and campaign management in one team. Management is quoted in writing, ad spend is your own budget paid directly to the platforms.
Paid social media advertising on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn for Toronto and GTA businesses, planned and reported around leads and sales.
- BBB A+ accredited
- 18 years in business
- Mon to Fri 9 to 6, Sat 10 to 2
Get a custom proposal for Toronto paid social
Tell us what you sell, who buys it and which platforms you use today. Request your custom proposal.
Please do not share passwords or other sensitive details here. We never sell your contact information and we comply with Canadian privacy law (privacy policy).
What paid social should produce
Leads and sales you can count
Campaigns judged on cost per lead, cost per sale and lead quality, reported every month with a call to review the numbers.
Budget on the right platforms
Spend placed where your buyers are, from Facebook and Instagram to TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube, and moved when results change.
Ads that fit each feed
Placement-specific images, video and copy, with new concepts tested against response and lead quality.
Control of your campaign accounts
Accounts are set up in your business’s name where the platform permits, with access and supported handover options documented.
What paid social management includes
The written scope lists every item before work starts, so you know exactly what the monthly management covers.
- Paid social strategyGoal, audience, offer, platforms and starting budget agreed in writing before launch.
- Tracking and pixel set-upSupported pixels, server-side events and analytics, scoped around the platforms, data permissions and measurement needs.
- Facebook and Instagram ads managementAcquisition, eligible remarketing and creative tests structured around the objective and available conversion signals.
- TikTok and LinkedIn adsNative short video for TikTok and job title targeting, document ads and lead gen forms on LinkedIn.
- Creative and copyImages, short video, carousels and ad copy in every placement size, with new angles tested each month.
- Landing pages and lead formsPages and forms that match the ad, with qualifying questions where lead quality matters.
- Lead routing to CS+Enquiries sent to your inbox and to CS+, our CRM, so follow-up is fast and results can be traced to sales.
- Monthly report and callSpend, results and cost per result by campaign, what we learned and the plan for next month.
How social media advertising is quoted
Set-up, monthly management and ad spend are kept separate. Management is quoted in writing after a strategy call, and your ad budget goes directly to the platforms.
Strategy call and account review
Free
Businesses that want an honest look at their current ads, tracking and platforms before committing.
- Ad account and tracking review
- Platform recommendation
- Starting budget guidance
- Written next steps
Paid social management
Quoted in writing
Ongoing Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn campaigns. Cost drivers are platforms, campaigns, creative volume, landing pages, special ad category or Quebec needs and CRM tracking depth.
- Campaign build and management
- Creative and copy testing
- Tracking and lead routing
- Monthly report and call
Ad spend
Your budget
Paid by you directly to Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn or Google from accounts in your name.
- Set with you before launch
- Moved to the best campaigns
- Never marked up
Management is always quoted in writing, and we agree a starting budget and a target cost per lead or sale before launch, then report against it every month.
Paid social
Social media advertising agency
A social media advertising agency measured by leads and sales
Canada Create is a social media advertising agency for businesses across Canada. We plan, build and manage paid social campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube, and we judge every campaign by the enquiries, bookings and sales it produces. Likes, reach and follower counts are easy to buy and easy to report, and they say very little about whether the money you put into ads came back.
Since 2008 we have helped owners, marketing managers and sales teams turn ad spend into conversations with real buyers. The work covers strategy, audience research, creative, landing pages, conversion tracking, campaign management and a plain monthly report. Your ad accounts stay in your name, your budget is paid directly to the platforms. Call (416) 273-9030, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm, and Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm. After hours, our 24/7 AI agent answers the toll-free line, +1 (800) 808-9235, and we’ll follow up the next business morning. We will get a proposal to you.
Choosing a paid social agency means looking beyond a busy feed or an impressive reach figure. This page explains our platform selection, creative process, measurement, scope and pricing approach, so you can assess how the work would support your sales team.
Paid social media advertising and organic content: how they fit
Paid social media advertising promotes a defined offer and directs people to a lead form, booking page, product page or another agreed action. You control the campaign budget and can adjust delivery as you learn. Enquiries may arrive soon after launch, but their timing and quality depend on the offer, audience, creative and follow-up. Results and attributed conversions can continue after delivery pauses.
Organic content, the posts you publish on your own profiles, plays a supporting role. When someone sees your ad, they often tap through to your profile before they enquire. A profile that looks active and genuine reassures them; an empty one raises doubts. Posts that perform well on their own also make good test material for ads. We keep this page focused on paid campaigns. For ongoing posting, community management and content calendars, see our social media management services.
Facebook and Instagram ads management
Facebook and Instagram campaigns are managed through Meta Ads Manager. Their formats include lead forms, messaging, catalogue ads and eligible audience campaigns. We assess them against your buyers and offer rather than assume every business should start there. Targeting, placements and data use depend on the category, account and current platform rules.
The campaign objective should reflect the action your business needs. Click, lead and purchase objectives optimize toward different signals; none ensures that the people reached will become customers. We choose the supported objective, test the conversion events and review lead quality with your sales team before deciding how much to invest.
Campaign structure that lets the algorithm learn
A simpler campaign structure can help a limited budget generate useful evidence. We separate acquisition, eligible remarketing and creative tests where doing so serves the objective, while avoiding unnecessary audience fragmentation. Category restrictions and the amount of conversion data shape the final structure.
Placements and formats
Ads can run in the Facebook feed, Instagram feed, Stories, Reels, Messenger, Marketplace and the Audience Network. Each placement looks different and suits different creative. Vertical video for Stories and Reels, square or portrait images for feeds, carousels for showing several products or steps, and instant experiences for richer mobile stories. We prepare placement-specific sizes and review previews, safe areas and cropping before launch.
Lead forms or landing pages
Instant forms reduce the effort needed to enquire; a landing page gives you more room to explain and qualify the offer. Neither automatically produces better leads. We can test both against qualified enquiries, bookings and sales, with appropriate questions and a follow-up process your team can sustain.
TikTok and LinkedIn ads
TikTok and LinkedIn sit at opposite ends of paid social. One is fast, casual and built on short entertaining video; the other is professional, slower and built on job titles and company data. Both can be valuable, and both are easy to waste money on when they are treated like Facebook.
TikTok ads
TikTok can introduce products and services through short demonstrations, creator-led stories and other platform-native formats. We test hooks, pacing and calls to action rather than assume an informal video will always outperform a polished commercial. Before-and-after claims or sensitive-category creative are used only where permitted and supported.
TikTok can support consumer brands, hospitality, beauty, events, ecommerce and selected B2B or recruitment campaigns when the audience and offer fit. Employment advertising in Canada must follow TikTok’s special-category restrictions, including limits on age targeting. Supported pixel and Events API integrations are tested with the agreed data permissions; forms and landing pages are chosen around the sales process.
LinkedIn ads
LinkedIn offers professional targeting such as job function, seniority, industry, company size and eligible company-list audiences. It can suit high-value B2B software, professional services, commercial services, manufacturing, education and executive recruitment. We assess cost against qualified meetings and opportunities rather than assume its clicks are always more expensive or its targeting more precise than every alternative.
The formats that tend to work are sponsored content in the feed, document ads that share a useful guide in exchange for contact details, conversation ads for invitations, and lead gen forms that pre-fill from the member’s profile. Because B2B decisions take months and involve several people, we measure LinkedIn by meetings booked and opportunities created, and we connect those outcomes back to campaigns wherever your CRM allows.
YouTube, Spotify and other paid placements
YouTube advertising is bought through Google Ads rather than a social ads manager, but it behaves like social video: people watch, skip or act. It reaches people who are researching purchases, and it pairs well with search campaigns because viewers often search for the brand later. Where your plan includes search, we coordinate YouTube with our Google Ads management so the same audiences and conversion data serve both.
Spotify audio and video ads reach listeners during music and podcasts and suit brand awareness campaigns, events and consumer launches. Pinterest can bring steady traffic from people planning home, wedding, fashion and food purchases. Snapchat and Reddit have their own audiences and ad tools. We can test these channels when there is a clear audience, objective and budget, including alongside other campaigns that are still being developed.
What our paid social management includes
Every engagement is scoped in writing before work starts. The proposal selects the pieces your paid social program needs.
Strategy and offer
The action you need, the audience, the offer, the platforms and the starting budget, agreed in writing before anything launches.
Account and tracking set-up
Business Manager, ad accounts, pixels and server-side conversion events, so a click, a lead and a sale are counted separately.
Creative and copy
Images, short video and ad copy built around the offer and the questions buyers ask, with landing pages that match the ad.
Management and reporting
Weekly optimization of audiences, creative and budget, with a monthly report and call focused on cost per lead and cost per sale.
Measurement comes first. We test supported conversion events for duplicate firing, placement and value before scaling spend. When results miss the agreed objective, we investigate the offer, creative, audience, tracking and follow-up before shifting or pausing budget. A profitable replacement campaign is not assumed to be available.
Some agencies bundle many services under one social package: email marketing, content writing, branding, web design and search. Canada Create offers several of those as separate services, and we connect them where you use more than one. This page covers the paid social work itself, so you can see exactly what you are buying.
Ad creative that earns the click
Creative gives the delivery system signals and gives buyers a reason to act. We test the offer, message and format alongside targeting, landing-page experience and follow-up. That keeps the work focused on the whole path to an enquiry rather than treating any one setting as a shortcut.
Ads that work tend to share a few traits. They say something specific in the first second or first line. They show real people, real products and real places rather than stock images. They speak to one buyer’s situation instead of listing every service. They make the next step obvious. And they look like they belong in the feed. We write several angles for each campaign, such as a problem angle, an offer angle, a proof angle and a question angle, and let spend flow to the ideas buyers respond to.
Short vertical video is a core format for Reels, Stories, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Our video production team can plan a shoot that supplies weeks of ad creative, or we can coach your team to capture clips on a phone while we handle editing, captions and sizing. We review frequency, response and lead quality to decide when to refresh a creative concept.
Creators and influencers can also supply ad creative. With the creator’s written permission, their content can run from your ad account or as partnership ads, which often feels more trustworthy than brand-made video. We agree usage rights, disclosure and payment in writing before anything runs.
Audiences, targeting and retargeting
Targeting on social platforms has changed. Privacy updates on phones and browsers reduced the data platforms can see, and the platforms responded by leaning on broad audiences and their own machine learning. In many accounts, a broad audience with strong creative and accurate conversion data now outperforms narrow interest stacks. We still use detailed targeting where it clearly helps, for example with LinkedIn job titles or a tight service radius, and we test rather than assume.
First-party data can inform campaigns where the platform, category and permissions allow it. Eligible customer lists, website audiences and engagement signals may support exclusions, lookalike tools or remarketing. Consent alone does not make every audience use permissible, particularly for sensitive services. We report remarketing separately from acquisition and compare its contribution with the people who were already likely to return.
Location settings should reflect your service area and the controls offered by the current account. We review supported regions, radiuses, exclusions and any audience-expansion options, then compare delivery and enquiries with the places you actually serve. Platform location signals are estimates; a location setting is not proof of residence or a guarantee that every lead is local.
Tracking, reporting and follow-up
Platform reports need to be checked against your own records. Depending on scope and eligibility, we can implement Meta pixel and Conversions API, TikTok pixel and Events API, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Google Analytics 4 and campaign-link labels. We document the events and fields shared, configure the agreed consent behaviour and test duplication. Server-side tracking does not remove privacy obligations or recover every missing conversion.
We can route eligible lead-form submissions to your inbox and to CS+, our CRM, or your existing system. Booking and sales outcomes help assess lead quality. Where an approved integration supports it, appropriate conversion events can return to the platform; health, financial and other sensitive information needs particular care and must not be sent simply because a connector accepts it.
Each month you receive a plain report: spend, results and cost per result by campaign, what we tested and learned, which creative is winning, and the plan for next month. It is followed by a call where you can ask anything. You also keep full access to your ad accounts, so nothing in the report is hidden from you.
Special ad categories, Quebec and Canadian advertising rules
Canadian campaigns need accurate claims, appropriate evidence and clear pricing, with paid or gifted creator relationships disclosed where required. Commercial email and text follow-up needs a valid CASL basis and the required identification and unsubscribe handling. We request supporting information and approvals; regulated claims and legal questions remain with your qualified advisers.
Platforms impose additional rules on housing, employment, credit and other financial advertising, with category names and restrictions varying by country and platform. We confirm the current declaration, audience and verification requirements before launch. Political or social-issue advertising requires a separate eligibility review where that advertising is permitted. A campaign setup cannot guarantee platform approval or prevent every account restriction.
If you advertise to people in Quebec, the province’s French language rules apply to commercial advertising, and ads and landing pages generally need to be available in French. We flag this during planning and build campaigns so French versions can run alongside English ones, using French copy you supply or approve. Regulated professions, health products, alcohol and cannabis have further rules. We plan within them, and for legal questions about your specific claims we recommend you check with your own adviser.
How to choose a social media advertising agency
Agency directories and ranked lists use different methods, including paid placement or submitted information. Check how a listing was produced, then assess the agency against your own sales process, platforms, creative needs and reporting requirements. The questions below help make that comparison concrete.
- Who owns the ad accounts? They should be in your business name, with the agency added as a partner.
- How is success measured? Look for cost per lead, cost per sale and lead quality, not reach and impressions alone.
- Who makes the creative? Ask how often new ads are produced and tested.
- Is ad spend marked up? Management fees and ad budgets should be separate and visible.
- Who will you speak to? Ask whether the person managing your account joins the monthly call.
Major global groups include WPP, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, Dentsu and Havas. Omnicom completed its acquisition of Interpublic in November 2025. Agency size alone does not establish the quality of attention or flexibility; ask who will manage your account, how decisions are made and what the proposed team can deliver.
Is hiring an agency worth it? It usually is when your time is better spent running the business, when previous self-managed ads were inconsistent, or when you need creative, tracking and campaign skills you do not have in-house. It may not be when your budget is too small to test properly or your team cannot follow up leads quickly. We will tell you which applies during the strategy call.
Mistakes that waste social ad budgets
We see the same problems in many accounts we review. Boosting random posts instead of running campaigns with a clear objective. Optimizing for clicks or engagement when the business needs leads. Splitting small budgets across too many audiences. Running the same ads for months until results collapse. Sending paid traffic to a home page that does not match the ad. Leaving lead forms unanswered for days. Ignoring special ad category rules until the account is restricted. And the most expensive one: no reliable tracking, so nobody knows which ads produce customers. We prioritize the issues that can be addressed within the scope and identify dependencies, such as account access, creative production or platform review.
Ownership, access and security
We use partner or role-based access where the platform supports it, with your business retaining appropriate account control. We review access and recommend two-step verification; removals or security changes are agreed with you. Handover covers campaign records, permissions and supported exports. These access controls reduce risk rather than guarantee that an account cannot be compromised.
The first 90 days
We start with a free review of the current accounts, campaigns, tracking, landing pages and profiles. The written scope sets the launch sequence around access, creative and approvals. Controlled tests then inform changes to audiences, offers and budget, including eligible remarketing. A quarterly review can compare enquiry cost and lead quality; reliable customer-acquisition figures may take longer when sales cycles are lengthy or data is limited.
What social media advertising costs
There are three separate costs, and a good agency keeps them apart. Set-up covers the strategy, account and tracking work, and first creative. Monthly management covers campaign management, new creative, testing and reporting. Ad spend is your own budget, paid directly to Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn or Google from accounts in your name and never marked up by us.
Our management fee is quoted in writing after a strategy call. The main cost drivers are the number of platforms, the number of campaigns and audiences, how much new creative is produced each month, whether landing pages are needed, whether special ad category or Quebec requirements apply, and how deeply tracking connects to your CRM. We agree a starting ad budget large enough to learn from and a target cost per lead or sale before launch, and we report against it every month.
Paid social by type of business
Paid social works in most categories, but the platform mix, offer and follow-up change a great deal.
Restaurants, retail and hospitality
Local reach, offers, events and online ordering on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, with radius targeting around each location.
Real estate
Listing promotion and seller leads within housing special ad category rules. See real estate marketing.
Clinics and med spas
Treatment awareness and booking campaigns planned within professional advertising rules. See med spa marketing.
Professional and B2B firms
LinkedIn ads, document ads and retargeting for firms that sell to other businesses, measured by meetings booked.
Ecommerce brands
Catalogue ads, dynamic retargeting and short video on Meta and TikTok, measured by revenue and return on ad spend.
Guides for advertisers
- Guide: How to target buying committees with LinkedIn Ads
- Guide: What works in TikTok ads in Canada
- Guide: How YouTube ads work for Canadian businesses
Work with Canada Create
Canada Create is a BBB Accredited business with an A+ rating, working with businesses across Canada since 2008 from our office in Toronto. Call (416) 273-9030, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm, and Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm. After hours, our 24/7 AI agent answers the toll-free line, +1 (800) 808-9235, and we’ll follow up the next business morning. Tell us what you sell, who buys it and which platforms you use today, and we will get a proposal to you.
Talk to a strategist
Ready when you are?
Request a custom proposal
Tell us your goals, budget and timeline. You get a custom proposal and a named strategist, so your next stage of growth starts now.
Strategy call, tracking and creative: launching your social media ads
Plan the offer, test the creative and measure qualified enquiries, with timing agreed around access and approvals.
- Strategy call Discovery
Goals, audience, offer, current accounts and budget reviewed.
- Custom proposal Planning
Platforms, campaigns, creative, fee and target cost per result.
- Tracking and set-up Before launch
Accounts, pixels, conversion events and landing pages tested.
- Creative production Production and approval
Images, video and copy approved before launch.
- Launch and learn Controlled launch
Campaigns launched with controlled budgets and tested creative.
- Optimize and scale Monthly
Budget moved to the campaigns with the best cost per result.
Since 2008: social media ads judged on cost per lead, not likes
Since 2008, still here
18+ years of digital marketing for businesses in Canada.
Results over vanity metrics
Reports built around cost per lead, cost per sale and lead quality.
Creative in-house
Design and video production in the same agency that runs your campaigns.
Tracking done properly
Pixels and server-side events tested before budget is spent.
Social media advertising questions
What are social media ads?
Social media ads are paid messages that businesses place on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest. Unlike organic posts, they are shown to chosen audiences based on location, interests, behaviour or customer lists, and you pay for impressions, clicks or results. Formats include images, video, carousels, stories and lead forms. Social media ads can build awareness, drive website visits or generate enquiries directly.
What are some examples of social media ads?
Examples include an Instagram Reel showing a renovation before and after, a Facebook lead form offering an estimate, a LinkedIn sponsored post promoting a B2B guide, a TikTok video demonstrating a product, and carousel ads showing several menu items or property listings. Retargeting ads that remind recent website visitors about a service are another common example. The right format depends on your offer and your audience.
What are the latest advertising trends?
Current advertising trends include more automated campaign types driven by platform AI, short vertical video across most networks, creator-style ads that feel native to the feed, tighter privacy rules that make first-party data and server-side tracking more important, and closer attention to brand safety. For social media ads, the practical takeaway is to supply varied creative and accurate conversion data so automation works toward real customers.
Which social media platform should my business advertise on?
Choose the platform where your customers spend time and where your offer suits the format. Facebook and Instagram fit many local and consumer businesses, LinkedIn fits B2B and professional services, TikTok fits products that demonstrate well on video, and YouTube fits longer explanations. Your budget, creative resources and industry rules matter too. Testing one or two platforms properly usually beats spreading social media ads thinly.
How do I know if my social media ads are working?
Judge social media ads by the business results they produce, not by likes. Set up conversion tracking for enquiries, bookings or sales, then compare the cost per lead or sale with what a customer is worth to you. Check lead quality with your sales team, watch whether results hold as budget grows, and look at assisted conversions, because social ads often start journeys that finish through search or direct visits.
What does a social media advertising agency do?
It plans, builds and manages paid campaigns on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. That includes strategy, audience and offer planning, creative, landing pages, conversion tracking, weekly optimization and reporting. Canada Create measures the work by leads and sales rather than reach.
What makes a good social media ad campaign?
A clear offer for one audience, creative made for the platform and the phone screen, tracking that records the lead or sale rather than the click, a landing page that matches the ad, and a test plan that changes one thing at a time. Budget follows the ad sets that bring in real enquiries.
Is it worth it to hire a marketing agency for paid social?
Usually yes when your time is better spent running the business, when self-managed ads have been inconsistent, or when you lack creative and tracking skills in-house. It is less useful when the budget is too small to test or leads cannot be followed up quickly. We say which applies on the strategy call.
How do I choose the best social media marketing agency?
Ask who manages the account, who creates new ads, how results are measured and how fees differ from ad spend. Check business access, handover options and the scope of reporting. Directory rankings can be one reference point, but the proposed team and delivery process matter more than a list position.
What should I look for in social media marketing agencies in Canada?
Look for knowledge of Canadian advertising rules, including the Competition Act, anti-spam consent and Quebec language requirements, plus experience with special ad categories if you advertise housing, jobs or credit. Canada Create has worked with businesses across Canada since 2008.
Which social media platform is most used in Canada?
Usage rankings depend on the survey, age group and whether they measure accounts, visits or active use. We choose advertising platforms around your buyers and objective, then compare campaign evidence rather than use a broad popularity ranking as the media plan.
What is the 5 5 5 rule on social media?
It is an informal engagement habit rather than an official rule, and versions vary. A common version is to spend a few minutes each day commenting on, reacting to and sharing posts from others in your market. It helps organic presence; paid campaigns are planned separately around conversions.
Who are the big 6 media agencies?
The historical “big six” list included WPP, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, Interpublic, Dentsu and Havas. Omnicom completed its acquisition of Interpublic in November 2025. Compare the current agency team, capabilities and commercial fit rather than assuming size determines service quality.
What are Meta special ad categories?
Meta applies additional requirements to categories such as housing, employment and financial advertising. The applicable category, declarations and targeting limits depend on the market and current policy. We check those requirements for the specific offer and account before launch; eligibility and approval remain platform decisions.
How is social media advertising priced?
There are separate costs for set-up, monthly management and ad spend. Management is quoted in writing based on platforms, campaigns, creative volume, landing pages and tracking depth. Ad spend is your own budget paid directly to the platforms and never marked up.
Get a custom proposal for your next project
Review the offer, budget and enquiry process before committing your marketing spend.