Paid Ads

• 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

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

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)

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 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

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.

For 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

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

1. What platform(s) are you currently running or want to start with?
2. What's your monthly ad budget?
3. What does a successful conversion look like (and what's it worth)?
4. Do you have existing creative assets or need to create them?
5. What landing page will ads point to?
6. 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

Traffic Strategy Framework

When the user needs a holistic traffic plan (not just individual ad campaigns), use this framework to design a multi-channel acquisition strategy.

Traffic Temperature Model

All traffic falls into three temperatures. Match your offer and messaging to each:

Channel-Offer Matrix

Map each channel to the right offer based on traffic temperature:

                    Cold              Warm              Hot
Google Search       —                 Free trial        Pricing/demo
Google Display      Blog/guide        Case study        —
Meta Ads            Lead magnet       Webinar           Retarget → trial
LinkedIn            Whitepaper        Demo              —
Email               Newsletter        Nurture sequence  Sales offer
Content/SEO         Blog posts        Comparison pages  Product pages

Budget Allocation by Stage

Early stage (< $5k/mo):

• 80% on one channel (pick highest-intent: usually Google Search)
• 20% on retargeting across platforms
• Goal: Find one profitable channel before diversifying

Growth stage ($5k-$25k/mo):

• 50% on proven winner
• 30% on second channel (test)
• 20% on retargeting + brand

Scale stage ($25k+/mo):

• 40% on top performer
• 30% on second channel
• 15% on third channel / experiments
• 15% on retargeting + brand defense

Traffic Funnel Design

For each traffic source, design the full path:

Ad/Content → Landing Page → Conversion Event → Follow-up Sequence

Example funnel:

Meta lead magnet ad → Squeeze page → Email opt-in → 5-email nurture → Trial CTA
Google search ad → Product landing page → Free trial signup → Onboarding emails
LinkedIn thought leadership → Blog post → Retarget pixel → Demo ad → Book demo

Measurement Framework

Track these metrics at each funnel stage:

Blended CAC Calculation

Don't optimize channels in isolation. Track blended CAC:

Blended CAC = Total marketing spend / Total new customers

A channel with high CPA might still be valuable if it drives warm traffic that converts through another channel (attribution assist).

Integration with ohmymkt

Use ohmymkt tools to operationalize the traffic strategy:

• ohmymkt_plan_growth — Create a growth plan with traffic channels as tracks
• ohmymkt_start_campaign — Launch campaigns per channel
• ohmymkt_run_cycle — Weekly optimization cycles per channel
• ohmymkt_report_growth — Blended reporting across all traffic sources

Related Skills

• 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