With over a decade in paid social, Narayan Persaud joined Assembly as head of paid social in December 2023. After graduating with a Master’s in Marketing, Narayan worked at a range of agencies before joining Zenith Global in 2019, working on many of the agency’s biggest accounts.
Away from his role at Assembly, Narayan sits on the Meta Agency Advisory Board and has contributed to the growth of new industry talent through his work with the Brixton Finishing School.
We speak to him about the rise of paid social, how brands can get the most out of Meta, and what’s going to be big in 2025.
Congratulations on the Rising Star Award! What does the award mean to you?
“It's just a massive honour and privilege to get that recognition, particularly amongst peers and tons of talented people throughout the industry. That kind of recognition has taken me by surprise but it’s something I'm extremely happy about!”
Tell us about your path into the industry?
“I started in the marketing and media industry at 22 or 23. I was actually looking at copywriting and moving into the creative side, but the data analytical side of advertising felt like a really good fit. I started in a small e-commerce company as a multi-channel digital marketing assistant, and paid social really stood out to me because of its immediacy, and the control that you could have.
“When I started, there weren't even video ads in Meta’s feed and Instagram wasn't an advertising platform, let alone TikTok and Snapchat being around. So it's a completely different environment now, and the way paid social evolves and changes so quickly is part of the appeal, because you can never master every element of it. Every week, there's a new development, new products, and new elements to learn about. So you can only really try to hold on to 80% or so of that knowledge, and then try to keep yourself up to date with the 20% that's coming on week on week. It’s a really fast-paced, exciting area.”
You’re still early in your career but what successes do you look back on most fondly so far?
“Coming into a fresh role at Assembly, establishing leadership over the team, and getting involved in so many different areas with so many different clients has made it a rewarding, whirlwind year.
“Before that, at Zenith Global I was involved in the onboarding and management of two of the largest paid social clients that the agency had, which were LVMH Group and Adobe. Both of those had large budgets and were complex accounts with lots going on. With LVMH, we had around 30 different brands, and the journey from onboarding to building teams for accounts with brands such as Christian Dior and Tiffany, amongst others, to running successful campaigns for them, was really rewarding.”
Assembly won the Best Use of Advantage+ at the Meta Agency Awards for your work with Karl Lagerfeld. What did that recognition mean for your team?
“My colleague Francesca Di Carlo (Assembly’s paid social account director) was the director and driving force on that account, and the award showcases the wealth of talent and knowledge we have in paid social at Assembly.
“It also demonstrates how we look to push the envelope and make sure we're at the cutting edge of what Meta offers as an advertising solution, so we can try to push our clients to run modern paid social to the best of their ability. Assembly's mission is ‘Find the change that fuels growth’, and, with Karl Lagerfeld, we looked for a new way of doing things, and new ways of using the products to drive performance.”
What does Meta launching its first agency awards tell you about the state of play with paid social?
“I think it shows that it’s a constantly growing and evolving industry, and it’s only going from strength to strength. Paid social is becoming more of a focus for advertising budgets, and it’s carrying more importance within media agencies – paid social teams are growing in size. I think the Meta awards are a flag in the ground that shows how paid social is now a key driver for both brand and performance growth for advertisers."
How important is it to foster a really collaborative relationship with Meta?
“I think it’s integral, particularly when you have agencies such as Assembly managing that relationship. We're able to pull together the overall weight of our relationship with Meta, as opposed to just a single advertiser, so we can unlock more benefits and more value for our clients. Building a relationship starts off with the human side of establishing connections, getting in place regular contact with our Meta representatives within a variety of forums to deepen our collaboration. This ensures we are getting the latest product updates, are aware of and can act upon the latest platform changes, and receive valuable testing opportunities to pass onto our clients."
Outside of building relationships, what is your key tip for getting paid social right across Meta?
“Having a roadmap in place, because then you can embed a test-and-learn approach right from the get-go so it can form a core part of ongoing activity. Then you need a framework for how you measure, value and credit social so you can demonstrate how it affects the bottom line.”
Away from Assembly, tell us about your involvement in the Brixton Finishing School, which breaks down barriers to the marketing industry?
“I think it’s a really valuable way to introduce paid social to younger audiences that are still studying and deciding which way to go in their career. When I started, paid social wasn't really something that you would see come up much when studying marketing. Now, it’s a lot more visible, but it can still be hard to see how to work in it.
“Recently, I've been involved in candidate interviewing at Assembly, and someone from the Brixton Finishing School applied for a role, and they said that seeing myself and others who work in paid social talk during the course made them want to pursue a career in paid social, which was really rewarding and hopefully highlights how important it is to be involved in those initiatives.”
Finally, what should we look for in paid social in 2025?
“While creative will continue to be an integral element of paid social, including the use of influencers and their role in how we advertise, the biggest area where we will continue to see innovation will likely remain in AI. From leveraging AI to augment the way algorithms optimise towards performance objectives to using it for creative enhancement that demonstrates measurable performance uplift, we have been seeing this innovation in action, and it’s going to be over the next year – and the longer term – when AI will continue to reshape what we can do in paid social, ensuring it’s seen as an effective channel for businesses to drive growth and revenue."
Full video hightlights of the Awards: