Paid Ads
Plan and optimize Google, Meta, LinkedIn, or X paid campaigns with budgets, audiences, bidding, and ROAS or CPA targets.
Overview
Paid Ads is an agent skill most often used in Launch distribution (also Grow analytics tuning) that helps solo builders strategize and optimize PPC campaigns on major ad platforms.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill paid-adsWhat is this skill?
- Frames campaigns around objective, CPA or ROAS targets, budget, and compliance constraints
- Covers Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and general paid-media strategy
- Uses product-marketing context file when present before campaign discovery
- Points to ad-creative for bulk creative iteration and page-cro for landing conversion
- Aligns offer, audience, and creative with performance marketing best practices
- Initial context gathers 2 assessment areas: campaign goals and product offer
- Skill metadata version 1.2.0
Adoption & trust: 54.9k installs on skills.sh; 32.4k GitHub stars; 2/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You have launch traffic goals and ad budget but no clear campaign structure, audience layers, or success metric tied to real unit economics.
Who is it for?
Founders with a converting offer who need Google or Meta campaign architecture and ongoing ROAS or CPA optimization guidance.
Skip if: Teams with zero landing page or offer validation—fix Validate scope and page-cro first—or bulk creative generation alone without media strategy.
When should I use this skill?
User needs help with PPC, paid media, ROAS, CPA, Google Ads, Meta ads, retargeting, or asks whether to run ads.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You leave with a goal-aligned campaign plan—objectives, targeting approach, budget framing, and optimization levers—ready to implement in ad platforms.
- Campaign objective and funnel map
- Audience and retargeting recommendations
- Budget and KPI framing document
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Paid acquisition is the canonical Launch distribution shelf when you deliberately buy reach after the product can convert traffic. Distribution subphase covers PPC and retargeting—not organic SEO schema or lifecycle email automation.
Where it fits
Choose prospecting vs retargeting split for a $2k/month launch budget on Meta.
Map Google Search campaigns to high-intent keywords after ship.
Interpret CPA drift and rebalance audiences using post-launch conversion data.
How it compares
Campaign and audience strategy skill—not a creative generator (ad-creative) or organic SEO tool (schema-markup).
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is paid-ads for?
Solo and indie operators running or evaluating Google, Meta, LinkedIn, or X ads who need structured goals, budgets, and optimization advice in their coding agent.
When should I use paid-ads?
At Launch when scaling distribution with PPC, and in Grow when refining retargeting and spend against analytics—when you mention ROAS, CPA, retargeting, or ad budget.
Is paid-ads safe to install?
Treat any platform API or account access carefully; review Security Audits on this Prism page and avoid embedding ad account secrets in agent chats.
Workflow Chain
Then invoke: ad creative, page cro
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Paid Ads
# 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:** If `.agents/product-marketing-context.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing-context.md` in older setups), read it 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? --- ## 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](references/ad-copy-templates.md) --- ## Audience Targeting Overview ### Platform Strengths | Platform | Key Targeting | Best Signals | |----------|---------------|--------------| | Google | Keywor