iblai-marketing-paid-ads

/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

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

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.

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

Targeting strategies by platform: 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 the 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 bids 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.

Complete setup checklists by platform: references/platform-setup-checklists.md.

Conversion pixel installation and event setup: 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

Platform(s) currently running or starting with?
Monthly ad budget?
What does a successful conversion look like, and what's it worth?
Existing creative assets, or need to create them?
Landing page ads will point to?
Pixel/conversion tracking set up?

Tool Integrations

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

Tracking setup: references/conversion-tracking.md, ga4.md, 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