Paid Social Campaigns

Designing for paid social is all about capturing attention in a split second. For any social project, the challenge is creating eye-catching and on-brand visuals that stand out in crowded social feeds while driving engagement. Each client here had unique brand guidelines, imagery, and messaging, which sometimes meant working within constraints like limited assets, static imagery, or text-heavy content. My goal was to craft designs that felt dynamic, compelling, and scroll-stopping whether through bold typography, imagery and color, or motion effects.

Overview

To bring these designs to life, I used a mix of industry-standard tools. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (or Figma) were used for crafting high-quality static visuals. For motion-based creatives, I worked with Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro to add movement that enhanced engagement without overwhelming the message. I have also previously worked within Google Web Designer to create HTML5 display ads that can capture motion. Each tool played a role in ensuring the final assets were optimized for different platforms, helping clients maximize their ad performance.

Skills

Digital Design
Performance-based Design
Brand Application

Ad Highlights

Four Campaign Close-ups

1. Legal Campaign

Ad 1: Divorce

Image selected for a targeted female demographic.

Ad 1: Divorce

Image selected for a targeted female demographic.

Ad 2: Divorce

Image selected for a separate male demographic.

Ad 2: Divorce

Image selected for a separate male demographic.

Ad 3: Deportation

Image selected for a somewhat diverse audience that included multiple ethnicities.

Ad 4: Deportation

A second creative that can also cater to a wider audience by switching to imagery of the legal team.

Ad 3: Deportation

Image selected for a somewhat diverse audience that included multiple ethnicities.

Ad 4: Deportation

A second creative that can also cater to a wider audience by switching to imagery of the legal team.

Ad 5: Custody

The custody ads use imagery of fathers, as they were the target demographic for these ads.

Ad 6: Custody

The custody ads use imagery of fathers, as they were the target demographic for these ads.

Ad 5: Custody

The custody ads use imagery of fathers, as they were the target demographic for these ads.

Ad 6: Custody

The custody ads use imagery of fathers, as they were the target demographic for these ads.

Campaign Details

Legal Campaign
Posted: Meta Platforms
Focus:
Divorce, Deportation, Custody
Campaign Notes
The goal of this paid social campaign was to target very specific and smaller ad audiences to get higher quality leads for this legal firm.

This included specific demographics in the NYC area that we broke down by legal service. As a result, the final ads needed to use relevent imagery and were translated into multiple languages.

Ad copy and messaging remained fairly uniform due to the nature of the business and the objective of brand awareness—most potential leads in criminal law are reaching out to a lawyer in the moment after an online search.
Design: Kelly Cahoon
Content: Kevin Withers
Strategy: Analytics Team

2. Home Improvement Campaign

Ad 1: Remodeling

Ad sized for traditional Facebook ads.

Ad 1: Remodeling

Ad sized for traditional Facebook ads.

Ad 2: Remodeling

Ad sized for traditional Facebook ads.

Ad 2: Remodeling

Ad sized for traditional Facebook ads.

Ad 1.1: Remodeling

Ad sized to match new 2025 Instagram feed sizing.

Ad 2.1: Remodeling

Ad sized to match new 2025 Instagram feed sizing.

Ad 1.1: Remodeling

Ad 1 & 2: Remodeling

Ads sized to match new 2025 Instagram feed sizing.
Ad sized to match new 2025 Instagram feed sizing.

Ad 2.1: Remodeling

Ad sized to match new 2025 Instagram feed sizing.

Ad 1.2: Remodeling

Ad sized for Meta's story ads with content inside the safe zone.

Ad 2.2: Remodeling

Ad sized for Meta's story ads with content inside the safe zone.

Ad 1.2: Remodeling

Ad 1 & 2: Remodeling

Ads sized for Meta's story ads with content inside the safe zone.
Ad sized for Meta's story ads with content inside the safe zone.

Ad 2.2: Remodeling

Ad sized for Meta's story ads with content inside the safe zone.

Campaign Details

Home Improvement Campaign
Posted: Meta Platforms
Focus: Remodeling
Campaign Notes
This paid social campaign was a strategic extension of existing ads I had already helped to develop. The roofing client had recently introduced a new remodeling service and published a corresponding webpage. To offset the seasonal decline in roofing projects, they wanted to promote this new remodeling offering during the winter months.
Design: Kelly Cahoon
Content: Kevin Withers
Strategy: Analytics Team

3. Logistics Campaign

Ad 1: Transportation

This ad and content piece were created for the client's Transportation & Freight Management service pillar.

Ad 1: Transportation

This ad and content piece were created for the client's Transportation & Freight Management service pillar.

Ad 2: Transportation

This ad and content piece were created for the client's Transportation & Freight Management service pillar.

Ad 2: Transportation

This ad and content piece were created for the client's Transportation & Freight Management service pillar.

Ad 3: General

This ad covers multiple pillar services that the client offers. As a result, their core brand color—purple—was used for the design.

Ad 4: General

This ad covers multiple pillar services that the client offers. As a result, their core brand color—purple—was used for the design.

Ad 3: General

Ad 3 & 4: General

These ads cover multiple pillar services that the client offers. As a result, their core brand color—purple—was used for the design.
This ad covers multiple pillar services that the client offers. As a result, their core brand color—purple—was used for the design.

Ad 4: General

This ad covers multiple pillar services that the client offers. As a result, their core brand color—purple—was used for the design.

Ad 5: E-Commerce

This ad and webinar were created for the client's E-Commerce Operations service pillar.

Ad 6: E-Commerce

This ad was created for the client's E-Commerce Operations service pillar with a focus on Amazon.

Ad 5: E-Commerce

Ad 5 & 6: E-Commerce

This ad and webinar were created for the client's E-Commerce Operations service pillar.
These ads and webinar were created for the client's E-Commerce Operations service pillar.

Ad 6: E-Commerce

This ad was created for the client's E-Commerce Operations service pillar with a focus on Amazon.

Campaign Details

Logistics Campaign
Posted: LinkedIn
Focus: Core Services
Campaign Notes
The goal of this campaign was to launch a series of paid social posts in tandem with a newly redesigned website for the client.

In 2025, my team conducted a fresh intake to support the development of a more modern, strategic web presence. A key component of this process was gaining a clear understanding of the client’s full range of services, then distilling and defining their core offerings to inform the website rebuild. Through this discovery phase, we identified three core service pillars that collectively represented the breadth of the client’s capabilities.

From a visual branding perspective, the client wanted to retain their existing look and color palette, which consisted of four primary brand colors. To bring greater clarity and cohesion to the system, we recommended assigning one color to each service pillar as a visual cue, while reserving their core purple as the unifying brand color used across the broader identity.

In the ads here, you can see how the ads follow this color format with:
  • Purple used for General Brand Focused Ads
  • Blue used for Transportation & Freight Management
  • Orange used for E-Commerce
  • Not Shown: Green is used for Warehousing Services, which the client didn’t want to focus the campaign on.
Their new website also corresponds with this color and service breakdown.
Design: Kelly Cahoon
Content: Kevin Withers
Strategy: Marketing, Design, & Analytics Team

4. University Campaign

Ad 1: Brand Awareness

Ad 1: Brand Awareness

Ad 2: Brand Awareness

Ad 2: Brand Awareness

Ad 3: Brand Awareness

Ad 4: Brand Awareness

Ad 3: Brand Awareness

Ad 4: Brand Awareness

Campaign Details

University Campaign
Posted: Meta Platforms
Focus: Find Yourself at Northland
Campaign Notes
This university partnered with our team to develop a brand awareness campaign designed to drive application submissions. Centered around the theme “Find Yourself at Northland,” the strategy aimed to highlight Northland College’s distinctive outdoor environment and position it as a supportive space where students can explore their identities and interests.

Located on the shores of Lake Superior, the university is deeply rooted in outdoor, eco-centered education, with academic strengths in biology, conservation, and agriculture. These elements became central to the campaign narrative, helping to differentiate Northland College and connect with prospective students seeking an immersive, nature-driven academic experience.

To bring this story to life, we reviewed student interviews, both written and video, to extract authentic themes. These findings informed our creative direction, alongside a strong emphasis on eye-catching imagery that reflected real student experiences.

The posts shown here represent a portion of the broader campaign; additional content was also produced but is not displayed here.
Design: Kelly Cahoon
Content: Kevin Withers
Strategy: Marketing & Analytics Team