Paid Ads

---
name: paid-ads
description: "When the user wants help with paid advertising on Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, or Twitter/X — 'PPC,' 'paid media,' 'ROAS,' 'CPA,' 'retargeting,' 'audience targeting,' 'ad budget,' 'should I run ads.' Covers campaign strategy, targeting, bidding, and optimization. For bulk ad creative, see ad-creative. For landing pages, see page-cro."
category: marketing
tier: on-demand
---

# 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?

---

## 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]

**Detailed templates and headline formulas**: See [references/ad-copy-templates.md](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 — ads to people who already bought waste spend

**Detailed targeting strategies by platform**: See [references/audience-targeting.md](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)
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

---

## 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

---

## 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 — compare platform data to GA4
- Use UTM parameters consistently
- Look at blended CAC, not just platform CPA

---

## Platform Setup

**Complete setup checklists by platform**: See [references/platform-setup-checklists.md](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

---

## 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.

---

## 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?

---

## Tool Integrations

For implementation, see the [tools registry](../../tools/REGISTRY.md). Key advertising platforms:

| Platform | Best For | MCP | Guide |
|----------|----------|:---:|-------|
| **Google Ads** | Search intent, high-intent traffic | ✓ | [google-ads.md](../../tools/integrations/google-ads.md) |
| **Meta Ads** | Demand gen, visual products, B2C | - | [meta-ads.md](../../tools/integrations/meta-ads.md) |
| **LinkedIn Ads** | B2B, job title targeting | - | [linkedin-ads.md](../../tools/integrations/linkedin-ads.md) |
| **TikTok Ads** | Younger demographics, video | - | [tiktok-ads.md](../../tools/integrations/tiktok-ads.md) |

For tracking, see also: [ga4.md](../../tools/integrations/ga4.md), [segment.md](../../tools/integrations/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