Paid Ads

Build high-performing paid campaigns with platform-specific creative frameworks, bid strategies, and optimization workflows.

What This Skill Does

The Challenge: Paid advertising across Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok requires platform-specific expertise, creative testing discipline, and bid strategy knowledge. Without structure, ad spend burns with poor returns.

The Solution: Paid Ads skill provides platform-specific campaign frameworks, creative brief templates, audience targeting strategies, bid optimization guidelines, and performance analysis workflows.

Activation

Implicit: Activates automatically for Paid Ads Specialist, Campaign Manager, and Growth Specialist agents.

Explicit: Activate via prompt:

Activate paid-ads skill to set up a Google Search campaign for our B2B SaaS product

Capabilities

1. Campaign Structure Frameworks

Platform-optimized campaign and ad group structures.

Google Ads structure:

Campaign → Ad Group (by intent) → Ads (3 RSAs minimum) → Keywords
Match types: Exact > Phrase for branded; Broad Match + Smart Bidding for discovery

Meta Ads structure:

Campaign (objective) → Ad Set (audience) → Ads (creative variants)
ABO (Ad Set Budget) for testing, CBO (Campaign Budget) for scaling

LinkedIn Ads:

Campaign Group → Campaign (audience segment) → Ads
Best for: Job title targeting, company size, industry

TikTok Ads:

Campaign (objective) → Ad Group (targeting + placement) → Ads
Creative: Hook in first 3 seconds, UGC-style performs best

2. Audience Targeting Strategies

Layered audience approaches by platform and funnel stage.

Funnel Stage	Google	Meta	LinkedIn
Awareness	Display, YouTube	Broad interest	Lookalikes
Consideration	Non-branded search	Retargeting pools	Job title targeting
Conversion	Branded, competitor	Cart abandonment	Lead gen forms

3. Creative Brief Templates

Structured briefs for ad copy, imagery, and video.

Ad copy formula by platform:

Google Search: Headline (keyword intent) + Description (benefit + CTA)
Meta: Hook → Benefit → Social proof → CTA
LinkedIn: Professional problem → Solution → Company credibility → CTA

Prerequisites

Ad platform accounts with billing configured
Conversion tracking implemented (Google Tag, Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag)
Landing pages with clear CTAs

Configuration

Tracking requirements:

# Verify Google Tag installation
GTM_CONTAINER_ID=GTM-XXXXXX
GOOGLE_ADS_CONVERSION_ID=AW-XXXXXXXXX

# Meta Pixel
META_PIXEL_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Best Practices

1. Test one variable at a time Separate creative tests from audience tests. Mixing variables obscures what’s working.

2. Give campaigns time to learn Smart Bidding needs 50+ conversions in 30 days before optimization. Avoid frequent bid changes during learning phase.

3. Match landing page to ad message High Quality Score (Google) requires message match. Same headline in ad and landing page.

Common Use Cases

Use Case 1: Google Search Campaign Setup

Scenario: Launch search campaign for new SaaS product targeting SMB buyers.

Workflow:

Keyword research: branded, competitor, category, problem-aware terms
Structure: 1 campaign per intent tier (branded, competitor, category)
Ad copy: 3 RSAs per ad group with pinned headlines for testing
Bidding: Maximize conversions with target CPA after 50+ conversions
Negative keywords: Block irrelevant traffic from day one

Output: Campaign structure doc + ad copy variations.

Use Case 2: Meta Retargeting Campaign

Scenario: Re-engage website visitors who didn’t convert.

Workflow:

Audience: website visitors (7-day, 30-day, 60-day windows)
Creative: Product benefit reminder + social proof + limited offer
Frequency cap: 3x per week to avoid ad fatigue
CTA: “Start free trial” or offer-specific

Output: Retargeting campaign brief with creative specs.

Troubleshooting

Issue: High CPCs eroding ROAS Solution: Add negative keywords. Tighten match types. Improve Quality Score with better landing pages.

Issue: Meta ads stuck in learning phase Solution: Consolidate ad sets. Reduce target audiences under 5 per campaign. Check conversion events firing.

Analytics - Campaign performance measurement
Copywriting - Ad copy formulas
Campaign - Campaign management and tracking

/ckm:campaign - Campaign planning and management
/ckm:analyze - Performance analysis and reporting
/content/ads - Generate ad copy variations