Paid Social in 2026: How to Work With the Algorithm, Not Against It with Ellie McGuigan

Paid social has always felt a bit like a black box. You set your targeting, hit publish, and then… hope. But the box has got a lot more complicated recently and a lot more expensive to get wrong.

AI automation and algorithm updates have fundamentally shifted how platforms allocate spend and what actually drives results. If your paid social strategy hasn't caught up, you might be fighting the algorithm rather than working with it.

In this session, paid social strategist Ellie McGuigan breaks down how the ad auction actually works, what platform AI really means for advertisers, and why creative is now your most powerful lever for performance.

Meet the host:

Ellie McGuigan is a paid social strategist with over five years of brand-side experience at two of the UK's largest charities, where she's built and scaled campaigns across both B2B and B2C in purpose-driven environments. Having navigated the confusion of paid social firsthand early in her career, she's made it her mission to make the channel make sense for others. Ellie is an active voice in the marketing community — speaking and writing about platform updates, algorithmic shifts, and what they mean for practitioners on the ground.

What we'll cover:

• How the ad auction works and why understanding it changes the way you approach every campaign

• What AI automation in-platform actually means for advertisers - where control has shifted, and how to adapt your strategy in response

• Why creative diversification drives performance - and a practical framework to audit your own approach

This session is ideal for marketers who run or manage paid social and want to feel genuinely confident about what's driving (or holding back) their results.

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