Prohibition is a paid social media agency that plans, makes and runs ads on Meta and TikTok for UK brands that need their ad spend to pay its way. One Leeds team writes the strategy, shoots the creative and manages the budget, so the same people own the result. For oral care brand Molarclean, Prohibition’s paid and organic social grew the community by 24% in seven months, at £0.66 per new fan.
Brands That Trust Us
Results from Prohibition’s paid social work
- Molarclean: 1.34 ROAS in month one of conversion ads, 24% community growth over seven months, £0.66 cost per new fan.
- RyRy Compact: from 100 followers to 2,342 in five months with organic and boosted social, a 23x lift.
- Fentimans: 33K video views and a £3.96 cost per click from paid LinkedIn, part of a CIPR Gold winning campaign in 2022.
What does a paid social agency actually do?
A paid social agency decides who should see your ads, makes the ads and spends your budget where it earns the most. At Prohibition that work runs in five steps: an audit of what you already run, audience planning, creative, testing and reporting.
The audit usually finds money leaking somewhere. It might be broad targeting, one tired video running for months, or a pixel that stopped firing in the spring. We fix the leaks first, then plan new activity around the customers who actually buy from you.
What results has Prohibition delivered with paid social?
Molarclean sells teeth whitening in a market full of cheap rivals, on a modest budget. When Prohibition started, almost all of its awareness sat on Facebook, Instagram engagement was patchy and TikTok was untouched.
We rebuilt the organic content around people-led, user-generated video and launched TikTok from scratch. Paid social ran always-on against clear objectives, then moved into TikTok Shop and Meta conversion ads. Over seven months the community grew by 24%, engagement cost £0.003 per interaction and each new fan cost £0.66. In the first month of conversion campaigns the ads returned 1.34 ROAS.
RyRy Compact is a luxury car seat brand that came to us with roughly 100 followers. Five months of organic posting, supported by paid boosting and 96 launch assets, took it to 2,342 followers. Read the RyRy Compact case study.
Do you make the ads as well as run them?
Yes, Prohibition has an in-house video and creative team, so the people shooting your ads sit next to the people buying the media. Creative now does more for results than targeting does, because the platforms do most of the targeting for you, and the ad itself decides who stops scrolling.
We also run creator and influencer content as ads, through our influencer marketing team. User-generated video was the turning point for Molarclean, and it often beats polished brand footage on TikTok.
“Most paid social I see fails at the creative. If an ad looks like an ad, people scroll straight past it. So we make work that belongs in the feed, then let the numbers decide where the money goes.” Chris Norton, Founder and Managing Director, Prohibition PR
Which platforms should your brand advertise on?
For most consumer brands Prohibition starts with Meta, meaning Facebook and Instagram, because it still turns attention into sales well for most products. TikTok comes next for brands with a younger audience or a product that demonstrates well on camera, and TikTok Shop turns viewing into buying without leaving the app.
B2B brands are different, because LinkedIn costs more per click but reaches decision makers by job title, as the Fentimans trade campaign showed. We’ll tell you plainly if a platform isn’t worth your money yet.
How much does a paid social agency cost?
You pay two things: Prohibition’s monthly management fee, and the ad spend you pay the platforms directly. The fee covers strategy, creative, campaign management and reporting. Ad spend depends on your goals and how fast you want to test.
We set both after a first call and an audit, and put the fee in writing before any work starts. We’d also recommend that ad accounts sit in your own name, so you keep the data and history whatever happens.
How does Prohibition measure paid social results?
Every campaign gets a small set of numbers agreed at kick-off, matched to what you actually want. For a shop that means return on ad spend and cost per sale. For a brand still building an audience it means cost per new follower and cost per engaged view, which is how Molarclean’s early stages were judged.
Reporting shows what we spent, what came back and what we’re changing next. If a test fails, you’ll hear that from us first.
Why pair paid social with PR and organic?
Paid social works harder when people already recognise the brand. Prohibition is an integrated PR, social and video agency, so press coverage, organic content and paid ads can run from one plan. The same story then shows up in coverage and in ads, and each makes the other more believable.
As an integrated team we can turn a strong piece of coverage into an ad, or test a story on social before pitching it to journalists. See how this works on our social media agency page.
Who is Prohibition not right for?
We’re not the right fit if you want someone to boost the odd post cheaply, or if you need ads live tomorrow with no time for testing. We’re also not a pure media-buying shop. If your creative is already made and you only want bids managed, a specialist media buyer will cost you less.
We work best with consumer brands ready to grow, and B2B brands with a clear audience on LinkedIn.
Questions brands ask about paid social
Should we start with paid or organic social?
Run both, but in different roles. Organic builds trust and tells you which content people like. Paid takes the winners and puts them in front of the people most likely to buy.
Is a paid social agency worth it versus doing it in-house?
An agency makes sense when you need creative, testing and media buying skills that would take several hires to cover. In-house works when you can hire and keep those people. Many clients keep a small in-house team and use us for creative and scale.
How quickly will we see results from paid social?
Expect the first few weeks to be about learning, as the platforms gather data and we test creative. Molarclean’s conversion campaigns returned 1.34 ROAS in their first month, after earlier months spent building the audience.
Book a call about your paid social
Tell us what you sell, who buys it and what you spend now. We’ll come back with an honest view of what’s working, what isn’t, and what we’d test first.
Or call the team on 0113 430 4160.
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