/iblai-marketing-paid-ads

Plan, run, and scale paid campaigns that drive efficient customer acquisition. Covers strategy, targeting, bidding, and optimization.

Step 0: Context Check

Read .agents/product-marketing-context.md (or .claude/product-marketing-context.md on older setups) first. Only ask for what isn't there.

Pull this context:

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's being promoted (product, free trial, lead magnet, demo)
• Landing page URL
• What makes this offer compelling

3. Audience

• Ideal customer
• Problem the product solves for them
• What they search for or are interested in
• Existing customer data for lookalikes?

4. Current State

• Ads run before — what worked / didn't?
• Existing pixel / conversion data?
• Current funnel conversion rate?

Platform Selection

Campaign Structure

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]

Templates and headline formulas: [references/ad-copy-templates.md](references/ad-copy-templates.md).

Audience Targeting Overview

Platform Strengths

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

Targeting strategies by platform: [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

Optimization Levers

If CPA is too high:

1. Check the 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 bids with targets based on historical data
4. Monitor and adjust targets based on results

Retargeting Strategies

Funnel-Based Approach

Retargeting Windows

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.

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

Conversion pixel installation and event setup: [references/conversion-tracking.md](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

Strategy

• Launching without conversion tracking
• Too many campaigns (fragmenting budget)
• Not giving algorithms enough learning time
• Optimizing for the 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 the learning phase

Task-Specific Questions

1. Platform(s) currently running or starting 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. Landing page ads will point to?
6. Pixel/conversion tracking set up?

Tool Integrations

See the [tools registry](../../tools/REGISTRY.md). Key advertising platforms:

Tracking setup: [references/conversion-tracking.md](references/conversion-tracking.md), [ga4.md](../../tools/integrations/ga4.md), [segment.md](../../tools/integrations/segment.md).

Related Skills

• iblai-marketing-ad-creative: Generating and iterating ad headlines, descriptions, creative at scale
• iblai-marketing-copywriting: Landing page copy that converts ad traffic
• iblai-marketing-analytics-tracking: Proper conversion tracking setup
• iblai-marketing-ab-test-setup: Landing page testing to improve ROAS
• iblai-marketing-page-cro: Optimizing post-click conversion rates