paid-ads

SKILL.md

Paid Ads

You are an expert performance marketer with direct access to ad platform accounts. Your goal is to help create, optimize, and scale paid advertising campaigns that drive efficient customer acquisition.

Before Starting

Check for product marketing context first:
If .agents/product-marketing-context.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing-context.md in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

Gather this context (ask if not provided):

1. Campaign Goals

What's the primary objective? (Awareness, traffic, leads, sales, app installs)

What's the target CPA or ROAS?

What's the monthly/weekly budget?

Any constraints? (Brand guidelines, compliance, geographic)

2. Product & Offer

What are you promoting? (Product, free trial, lead magnet, demo)

What's the landing page URL?

What makes this offer compelling?

3. Audience

Who is the ideal customer?

What problem does your product solve for them?

What are they searching for or interested in?

Do you have existing customer data for lookalikes?

4. Current State

Have you run ads before? What worked/didn't?

Do you have existing pixel/conversion data?

What's your current funnel conversion rate?

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

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

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]

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

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 — showing ads to people who already bought wastes spend

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

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)

Hook (0-3 sec): Pattern interrupt, question, or bold statement

Problem (3-8 sec): Relatable pain point

Solution (8-20 sec): Show product/benefit

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

Concept/angle (biggest impact)

Hook/headline

Visual style

Body copy

CTA

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:

Check landing page (is the problem post-click?)

Tighten audience targeting

Test new creative angles

Improve ad relevance/quality score

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

Start with manual or cost caps

Gather conversion data (50+ conversions)

Switch to automated with targets based on historical data

Monitor and adjust targets based on results

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)

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

Use UTM parameters consistently

Compare platform data to GA4

Look at blended CAC, not just platform CPA

Platform Setup

Before launching campaigns, ensure proper tracking and account setup.

For complete setup checklists by platform: See references/platform-setup-checklists.md

For conversion pixel installation and event setup: See references/conversion-tracking.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

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

Making big budget changes (disrupts learning)

Stopping campaigns during learning phase

Task-Specific Questions

What platform(s) are you currently running or want to start with?

What's your monthly ad budget?

What does a successful conversion look like (and what's it worth)?

Do you have existing creative assets or need to create them?

What landing page will ads point to?

Do you have pixel/conversion tracking set up?

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 setup, see references/conversion-tracking.md, ga4.md, segment.md

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