Paid Ads

Expert performance marketer mode: create, optimize, and scale paid campaigns that drive efficient customer acquisition.

Before Starting

Product context: If .agents/product-marketing-context.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing-context.md in older setups), read it first and tailor output to it; only ask for what it doesn't cover.

Gather this context (ask if not provided):

1. Campaign Goals

• Primary objective? (Awareness, traffic, leads, sales, app installs)
• Target CPA or ROAS? Monthly/weekly budget?
• Constraints? (Brand guidelines, compliance, geographic)

2. Product & Offer

• What are you promoting? (Product, free trial, lead magnet, demo)
• Landing page URL? What makes the offer compelling?

3. Audience

• Ideal customer, and the problem the product solves for them?
• What are they searching for or interested in?
• Existing customer data for lookalikes?

4. Current State

• Prior ads — what worked/didn't?
• Existing pixel/conversion data?
• Current funnel conversion rate?

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Platform Selection Guide

Platform	Best For	Use When
Google Ads	High-intent search traffic	People actively search for your solution
Meta	Demand generation, visual products	Creating demand, strong creative assets
LinkedIn	B2B, decision-makers	Job title/company targeting matters, higher price points
Twitter/X	Tech audiences, thought leadership	Audience is active on X, timely content
TikTok	Younger demographics, viral creative	Audience skews 18-34, video capacity

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Campaign Structure Best Practices

Account Organization

Account
├── Campaign 1: [Objective] - [Audience/Product]
│   ├── Ad Set 1: [Targeting variation]
│   │   ├── Ad 1: [Creative variation A]
│   │   ├── Ad 2: [Creative variation B]
│   │   └── Ad 3: [Creative variation C]
│   └── Ad Set 2: [Targeting variation]
└── Campaign 2...

Naming Conventions

[Platform]_[Objective]_[Audience]_[Offer]_[Date]

Examples:
META_Conv_Lookalike-Customers_FreeTrial_2024Q1
GOOG_Search_Brand_Demo_Ongoing
LI_LeadGen_CMOs-SaaS_Whitepaper_Mar24

Budget Allocation

Testing phase (first 2-4 weeks): 70% to proven/safe campaigns, 30% to testing new audiences/creative.

Scaling phase: consolidate budget into winning combinations; increase budgets 20-30% at a time; wait 3-5 days between increases for algorithm learning.

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Ad Copy Frameworks

Key Formulas

Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS):

[Problem] → [Agitate the pain] → [Introduce solution] → [CTA]

Before-After-Bridge (BAB):

[Current painful state] → [Desired future state] → [Your product as bridge]

Social Proof Lead:

[Impressive stat or testimonial] → [What you do] → [CTA]

Detailed templates and headline formulas: See references/ad-copy-templates.md

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Audience Targeting Overview

Platform Strengths

Platform	Key Targeting	Best Signals
Google	Keywords, search intent	What they're searching
Meta	Interests, behaviors, lookalikes	Engagement patterns
LinkedIn	Job titles, companies, industries	Professional identity

Key Concepts

• Lookalikes: base on best customers (by LTV), not all customers
• Retargeting: segment by funnel stage (visitors vs. cart abandoners)
• Exclusions: exclude existing customers and recent converters — ads to people who already bought waste spend

Detailed targeting strategies by platform: See references/audience-targeting.md

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Creative Best Practices

Image Ads

• Clear product screenshots showing UI; before/after comparisons
• Stats and numbers as focal point; human faces (real, not stock)
• Bold, readable text overlay (keep under 20%)

Video Ads Structure (15-30 sec)

1. Hook (0-3 sec): pattern interrupt, question, or bold statement
2. Problem (3-8 sec): relatable pain point
3. Solution (8-20 sec): show product/benefit
4. CTA (20-30 sec): clear next step

Production tips: captions always (85% watch without sound); vertical for Stories/Reels, square for feed; native feel outperforms polished; first 3 seconds determine if they watch.

Creative Testing Hierarchy

1. Concept/angle (biggest impact)
2. Hook/headline
3. Visual style
4. Body copy
5. CTA

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Campaign Optimization

Key Metrics by Objective

Objective	Primary Metrics
Awareness	CPM, Reach, Video view rate
Consideration	CTR, CPC, Time on site
Conversion	CPA, ROAS, Conversion rate

Optimization Levers

If CPA is too high:

1. Check landing page (is the problem post-click?)
2. Tighten audience targeting
3. Test new creative angles
4. Improve ad relevance/quality score
5. Adjust bid strategy

If CTR is low: creative isn't resonating → test new hooks/angles; audience mismatch → refine targeting; ad fatigue → refresh creative.

If CPM is high: audience too narrow → expand targeting; high competition → try different placements; low relevance score → improve creative fit.

Bid Strategy Progression

1. Start with manual or cost caps
2. Gather conversion data (50+ conversions)
3. Switch to automated with targets based on historical data
4. Monitor and adjust targets based on results

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Retargeting Strategies

Funnel-Based Approach

Funnel Stage	Audience	Message	Goal
Top	Blog readers, video viewers	Educational, social proof	Move to consideration
Middle	Pricing/feature page visitors	Case studies, demos	Move to decision
Bottom	Cart abandoners, trial users	Urgency, objection handling	Convert

Retargeting Windows

Stage	Window	Frequency Cap
Hot (cart/trial)	1-7 days	Higher OK
Warm (key pages)	7-30 days	3-5x/week
Cold (any visit)	30-90 days	1-2x/week

Exclusions to Set Up

• Existing customers (unless upsell)
• Recent converters (7-14 day window)
• Bounced visitors (<10 sec)
• Irrelevant pages (careers, support)

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Reporting & Analysis

Weekly Review

• Spend vs. budget pacing; CPA/ROAS vs. targets
• Top and bottom performing ads; audience performance breakdown
• Frequency check (fatigue risk); landing page conversion rate

Attribution Considerations

• Platform attribution is inflated — compare platform data to GA4
• Use UTM parameters consistently
• Look at blended CAC, not just platform CPA

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Platform Setup

Complete setup checklists by platform: See references/platform-setup-checklists.md

Universal Pre-Launch Checklist

• Conversion tracking tested with real conversion
• Landing page loads fast (<3 sec)
• Landing page mobile-friendly
• UTM parameters working
• Budget set correctly
• Targeting matches intended audience

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

Strategy

Launching without conversion tracking; too many campaigns (fragmenting budget); not giving algorithms enough learning time; optimizing for wrong metric.

Targeting

Audiences too narrow or too broad; not excluding existing customers; overlapping audiences competing.

Creative

Only one ad per ad set; not refreshing creative (fatigue); mismatch between ad and landing page.

Budget

Spreading too thin across campaigns; big budget changes (disrupts learning); stopping campaigns during learning phase.

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Task-Specific Questions

1. What platform(s) are you running or want to start with?
2. Monthly ad budget?
3. What does a successful conversion look like (and what's it worth)?
4. Existing creative assets, or need to create them?
5. What landing page will ads point to?
6. Is pixel/conversion tracking set up?

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Tool Integrations

For implementation, see the tools registry. Key advertising platforms:

Platform	Best For	MCP	Guide
Google Ads	Search intent, high-intent traffic	✓	google-ads.md
Meta Ads	Demand gen, visual products, B2C	-	meta-ads.md
LinkedIn Ads	B2B, job title targeting	-	linkedin-ads.md
TikTok Ads	Younger demographics, video	-	tiktok-ads.md

For tracking, see also: ga4.md, segment.md

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Related Skills

• ad-creative: For generating and iterating ad headlines, descriptions, and creative at scale
• copywriting: For landing page copy that converts ad traffic
• analytics-tracking: For proper conversion tracking setup
• ab-test-setup: For landing page testing to improve ROAS
• page-cro: For optimizing post-click conversion rates