Paid Social Isn’t Broken — Your Email Strategy Is

Jan 22

Written By Vanessa Carlos

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Paid social feels harder than it used to.

Costs are up. Results feel less predictable. ROAS doesn’t stretch as far as it once did.

And the knee-jerk reaction many brands are having is:

“Paid just doesn’t work anymore.”

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Paid social isn’t broken — it’s just being asked to do too much.

The Real Problem With Paid Performance in 2026

For years, brands expected paid social to:

acquire customers
convert them immediately
be profitable on first purchase

That model worked when CPMs were lower and competition was lighter. In 2026, that expectation is unrealistic for most brands.

Paid social’s role has evolved — but many strategies haven’t.

Paid Social’s New Job: Acquisition, Not Profit

The brands seeing the best results now treat paid social as:

a discovery channel
an audience builder
the top of a longer relationship

Not the final step.

Paid ads bring people in. Email and SMS turn them into customers — and repeat customers.

Why Email Is the Real Profit Engine

Email hasn’t lost power — it’s gained it.

When done well, email:

compounds paid spend
increases lifetime value
reduces reliance on constant acquisition

Yet many brands are still:

sending generic campaigns
under-utilising automation
failing to personalise journeys

Which means paid traffic hits a dead end.

What a Healthy Paid → Email Ecosystem Looks Like

Here’s what working strategies tend to include:

1. Paid Campaigns Designed for Sign-Ups, Not Just Sales

Think:

lead magnets
gated content
early access
value-led opt-ins

Not every ad needs to sell immediately.

2. Clear Welcome and Nurture Flows

When someone joins your list, what happens next?

Strong brands:

introduce themselves properly
reinforce value
build trust before selling

3. Behaviour-Based Email Journeys

Not everyone should receive the same message.

Journeys triggered by:

browsing behaviour
engagement level
purchase history

Create relevance — not noise.

Why This Matters for Paid Performance

When email does its job properly:

paid CPA becomes easier to justify
ROAS improves over time, not instantly
scaling feels less risky

Paid social stops carrying the full weight of profitability.

The Metrics Brands Should Care About Instead

Instead of obsessing over:

immediate ROAS
last-click attribution

Start tracking:

cost per subscriber
email-driven revenue
repeat purchase rate
blended ROAS

These tell a much more accurate story of performance.

The Brands Struggling vs The Brands Scaling

Struggling brands ask: “Why are ads so expensive?”

Scaling brands ask: “How do we extract more value from every click?”

The difference isn’t spend. It’s systems.

Vanessa Carlos