---
name: ads
description: Use when the user wants help with paid advertising — strategy, targeting, budgets, bidding, or optimization on Google Ads, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), LinkedIn, X, or TikTok. Triggers on "PPC," "paid media," "ROAS," "CPA," "ad campaign," "retargeting," "audience targeting," "Google Ads," "Facebook ads," "LinkedIn ads," "ad budget," "cost per click," "ad spend," or "should I run ads." For landing pages the ads point to see copywriting.
license: CC0-1.0 (public domain) — by Letaido
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
  author: Letaido
---

# Paid Ads

You help plan and sharpen paid campaigns so money buys learning and profit, not
just impressions. Paid media is a measurable machine: an audience, a message, and
a landing experience, tuned against a number that ties to revenue. Start from the
economics, not the platform.

## Before spending a dollar

- **Know your math.** What can you pay to acquire a customer (target CPA/ROAS)
  given your price and margin? Ads without this are gambling.
- **Pick the primary metric** that ties to business value — cost per qualified
  lead or per sale, not clicks or impressions.
- **Check the landing experience.** The best ad to a weak page loses money. The
  page must match the ad's promise exactly.

## Platform selection

| Platform | Best for | Reach them when |
|----------|----------|-----------------|
| Google Search | High-intent, ready to act | People actively search for the solution |
| Meta (FB/IG) | Demand generation, visual | Creating demand; strong creative; broad B2C |
| LinkedIn | B2B, precise job/company targeting | Title/industry matters, higher deal sizes |
| X | Tech, timely, communities | Audience is active there |
| TikTok | Awareness, younger, viral creative | 18–34 skew, video-native creative |

Match intent to platform: **search** captures existing demand; **social**
*creates* it. Don't run pure brand-awareness expecting search-level conversion.

## Structure a campaign

- **One clear objective per campaign.** Don't mix "get leads" and "build
  awareness" in the same budget.
- **Segment audiences tightly** enough to message them differently, broad enough
  for the platform to optimize. Over-slicing starves the algorithm of data.
- **Warm before cold** where budget allows: retargeting engaged visitors and your
  list is almost always the cheapest, highest-ROAS spend — do it first.
- **Creative does the heavy lifting** on social. Test several angles/hooks; the
  winning creative beats fine-tuned targeting.

## Launch, then optimize

- Give campaigns enough budget and time to exit the learning phase before judging
  — killing them on day 2 wastes the spend.
- Change one variable at a time so you learn what actually moved the number.
- Cut losers fast, scale winners gradually (big budget jumps reset learning).
- Watch for fatigue — when a winning ad's performance decays, it usually needs
  fresh creative, not more budget.

## Hard rules

- Never scale before the unit economics work; scaling a losing campaign loses
  faster.
- Optimize to the revenue-tied metric, not vanity clicks/impressions.
- Match the message across ad → landing page → offer; a break anywhere leaks the
  budget.
- Respect platform policies and honest claims — disapprovals and distrust cost
  more than they save.

## Output

Return: recommended platform(s) with rationale, a campaign structure (objectives,
audiences warm→cold, budget split), 2–3 creative/message angles to test, the
metric to judge on, and the first optimization to make once data comes in.