Paid Ads

Campaign strategy, audience targeting, budget optimization, and performance management across all major advertising platforms.

Table of Contents

• Keywords
• Quick Start
• Platform Selection Guide
• Campaign Structure Framework
• Audience Targeting by Platform
• Budget Allocation Strategy
• Bid Strategy Progression
• Retargeting Playbook
• Performance Optimization
• Attribution and Measurement
• Pre-Launch Checklist
• Best Practices
• Integration Points

Keywords

paid ads, PPC, pay-per-click, Google Ads, Meta Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Twitter Ads, TikTok Ads, paid media, ROAS, CPA, CPC, CPM, audience targeting, retargeting, remarketing, budget optimization, bid strategy, ad campaigns, conversion tracking, lookalike audiences, campaign structure, ad performance, paid search, paid social

Quick Start

Launch a Campaign

1. Define campaign goal (leads, sales, traffic, awareness)
2. Select platform based on audience and intent
3. Set up conversion tracking and verify with test conversion
4. Build campaign structure with proper naming conventions
5. Define audience targeting
6. Set budget and bid strategy
7. Create ad creative (use Ad Creative skill)
8. Launch and monitor for 7 days before making changes

Optimize an Existing Campaign

1. Pull performance data for last 14-30 days
2. Identify primary issue (high CPA, low CTR, low ROAS)
3. Use the optimization levers in the Performance Optimization section
4. Make one change at a time, wait 3-5 days between changes
5. Document every change and its impact

Platform Selection Guide

Platform Comparison

Platform Selection Decision Tree

Is the audience actively searching for your solution?
├── Yes → Google Search Ads
└── No → Do you know their job title or company?
    ├── Yes → LinkedIn Ads (B2B) or Meta Ads (B2C)
    └── No → Is your product visual or lifestyle?
        ├── Yes → Meta Ads (Instagram) or TikTok
        └── No → Is your audience technical?
            ├── Yes → Reddit Ads or Twitter/X
            └── No → Meta Ads (Facebook) or Google Display

Campaign Structure Framework

Account Hierarchy

Account
├── Campaign 1: [Objective] - [Product/Offer]
│   ├── Ad Group/Set 1: [Audience Segment A]
│   │   ├── Ad 1: [Creative Variant 1]
│   │   ├── Ad 2: [Creative Variant 2]
│   │   └── Ad 3: [Creative Variant 3]
│   └── Ad Group/Set 2: [Audience Segment B]
│       ├── Ad 1: [Creative Variant 1]
│       └── Ad 2: [Creative Variant 2]
└── Campaign 2: [Objective] - [Product/Offer]

Naming Conventions

[Platform]_[Objective]_[Audience]_[Offer]_[Date]

Examples:
GOOG_Search_Brand_FreeTrial_2026Q1
META_Conv_Lookalike-Customers_Demo_Mar26
LI_LeadGen_CMOs-SaaS-500_Whitepaper_2026Q1
TIKTOK_Aware_18-34-Tech_BrandVideo_Mar26

Campaign Types by Objective

Audience Targeting by Platform

Google Ads Targeting

Keyword match type strategy:

• Exact match [keyword]: Highest intent, lowest volume, highest CPC
• Phrase match "keyword": Medium intent, medium volume
• Broad match keyword: Lowest intent, highest volume, lowest CPC (use with smart bidding)

Meta Ads Targeting

Lookalike best practices:

• Seed with best customers (by LTV), not all customers
• Start with 1% lookalike (most similar), expand to 3-5% once proven
• Create separate lookalikes from different seeds (customers, trial users, email subscribers)

LinkedIn Ads Targeting

LinkedIn targeting rules:

• Minimum audience size: 50,000 for awareness, 20,000 for conversion
• Layer 2-3 targeting dimensions maximum (more layers = too narrow)
• Exclude competitors, agencies, and job seekers if not relevant

Budget Allocation Strategy

Budget by Campaign Phase

Phase 1: Testing (Weeks 1-4)

Phase 2: Optimization (Weeks 5-8)

Phase 3: Scaling (Weeks 9+)

Budget Scaling Rules

• Increase budget by 20-30% at a time, never more
• Wait 3-5 days between increases for algorithm learning
• Monitor CPA for 48 hours after increase — if CPA spikes,