| name | paid-ads |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| description | When the user wants help with paid advertising campaigns on Google Ads, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or other ad platforms. Also use when the user mentions 'PPC,' 'paid media,' 'ad copy,' 'ad creative,' 'ROAS,' 'CPA,' 'ad campaign,' 'retargeting,' or 'audience targeting.' This skill covers campaign strategy, ad creation, audience targeting, and optimization. |
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:
Read /brain/positioning-and-messaging.md and /brain/truth.md 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?
Output Location
Output location: marketing/ads/[campaign-slug]/ — strategy and targeting docs from a single run share this folder. Confirm the campaign slug with the user before creating files.
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: Always exclude existing customers and recent converters
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
Universal Pre-Launch Checklist
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:
For tracking, see also: ga4.md, segment.md
MCP Tools: Figma & agent-browser
Figma MCP (Ad Creative Design)
When the user has ad creatives designed in Figma:
- Pull design context — Use
mcp__figma-remote-mcp__get_design_context to extract the ad creative layout, copy, colors, and typography. Use this to build HTML/CSS versions or to write ad copy that matches the visual.
- Take a screenshot — Use
mcp__figma-remote-mcp__get_screenshot to preview ad creatives directly from Figma.
- Get metadata — Use
mcp__figma-remote-mcp__get_metadata to understand the creative structure (text layers, image layers, etc.).
When to use: When the user has ad creatives in Figma and wants to extract copy, review the design, or build HTML versions. Also useful when translating Figma ad mockups into platform-specific formats.
agent-browser (Landing Page Validation)
For validating the post-click experience:
- Navigate to landing page — Use
agent-browser open <url> to open the ad's destination URL.
- Screenshot — Use
agent-browser screenshot to capture the landing page. Check message match between ad copy and landing page headline.
- Test mobile — Use
agent-browser set viewport <width> <height> to mobile viewport and screenshot. Most ad traffic is mobile — the landing page must work there.
- Test conversion flow — Use
agent-browser click and agent-browser fill to walk through the conversion path (form fill, CTA click, thank-you page).
- Check page speed — Use
agent-browser network requests to identify slow resources that hurt conversion rates.
When to use: Before launching any ad campaign, validate that the landing page experience matches the ad creative and that conversion paths work end-to-end.
Related Skills
- copywriting: For landing page copy that converts ad traffic
- tracking-setup: For proper conversion tracking setup
- ab-test-setup: For landing page testing to improve ROAS
- page-cro: For optimizing post-click conversion rates
Learnings
- [MEDIUM] Before recommending retargeting, pull actual traffic from Plausible/GA4 and calculate the realistic retargeting pool after ICP filtering. If usable pool is under ~3K people, retargeting is too early — recommend cold ICP targeting to grow the pool first.
- [MEDIUM] When the standard low-friction CTA (Watch Demo, free trial) is unavailable, substitute an educational asset (livestream recording, deep-dive guide) that self-qualifies for the ICP. Better than forcing the full-friction ask on cold traffic.
