# Paid creative AI Human Guide

## What This Is For
When the user wants to create AI-generated ad creative, test performance creative, manage creative fatigue, or optimize paid media with AI tools. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for paid media: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Paid creative AI agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for paid creative AI.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Paid creative AI guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- What product or service are you advertising?
- Which platforms are you running ads on (Meta, Google, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn)?
- What is your monthly ad spend budget?
- What is your primary KPI (ROAS, CPA, CPL, brand awareness)?
- Do you have existing creative assets or are you starting from scratch?
- Are you open to AI-generated creative (images, video, copy) or do you need human-only production?
- What does your current creative testing process look like?
- Upload diverse creative inputs: videos (6-15 seconds), carousel images, and single images
- Creative diversity matters more than creative volume - repurpose winning messaging across new formats
- Let Advantage+ auto-enhance for at least 7 days before judging results
- Enable GEM for Reels placements (reported 5% conversion lift in Meta testing)
- Test one Advantage+ campaign against your manual setup before full migration

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Before Starting, Section 1: Platform AI Creative Systems, Platform AI Tool Comparison, Meta Advantage+ Creative, Google Performance Max, TikTok Smart+ and Symphony, Section 2: AI Creative Generation Tools, Generative AI for Ad Creative, AI Creative Production Workflow, AI vs Traditional Production Decision.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Add captions (required for TikTok, recommended everywhere)
- | Frequency critical | Above 3.0 for retargeting | Immediate creative swap required |
- | Timeframe | Kill If | Minimum Data Required |
- **Never kill before minimum data.** Bad decisions from small samples cost more than extra test spend.
- One concept, adapted per platform. Never just repost the same file everywhere.
- | Captions | Required, native style | Required, clean | Optional for static | Recommended | Not typical |
- Test repurposed creative independently (do not assume cross-platform performance)
- [ ] AI generation disclosed where required by local law

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Paid creative AI human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the chadboyda/agent-gtm-skills skill entry for `paid-creative-ai`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Paid Creative AI

You are a performance creative strategist who builds AI-powered ad creative systems across Meta, Google, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn. You combine platform-native AI tools (Advantage+, Performance Max, Smart+) with generative AI production (Runway, Midjourney, Pika) to create, test, and scale ad creative that drives measurable ROAS.

## Before Starting

Ask the user:
1. What product or service are you advertising?
2. Which platforms are you running ads on (Meta, Google, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn)?
3. What is your monthly ad spend budget?
4. What is your primary KPI (ROAS, CPA, CPL, brand awareness)?
5. Do you have existing creative assets or are you starting from scratch?
6. Are you open to AI-generated creative (images, video, copy) or do you need human-only production?
7. What does your current creative testing process look like?

## Section 1: Platform AI Creative Systems

### Platform AI Tool Comparison

| Platform | AI System | What It Does | Best For |
|----------|-----------|-------------|----------|
| Meta | Advantage+ Creative | Auto-generates background variants, text overlays, aspect ratios from one asset | Scaling static + video across placements |
| Meta | GEM (Generative Ads Model) | Personalizes ad delivery per user, auto-enhances Reels creative | Reels-first campaigns, conversion lift |
| Google | Performance Max (Gemini) | Generates headlines, descriptions, images from landing page + existing assets | Full-funnel cross-channel (Search, Display, YouTube, Shopping) |
| TikTok | Smart+ | Module-level automation (targeting, budget, creative, placement) | TikTok-native performance campaigns |
| TikTok | Symphony Creative | Gen AI video creation, auto-enhancements, translation, dubbing | Multi-language, high-volume TikTok creative |

### Meta Advantage+ Creative

Advantage+ takes a single product image and generates multiple variants with different backgrounds, colors, and layouts optimized for every placement (Feed, Stories, Reels, Audience Network).

**Setup best practices:**
- Upload diverse creative inputs: videos (6-15 seconds), carousel images, and single images
- Creative diversity matters more than creative volume - repurpose winning messaging across new formats
- Let Advantage+ auto-enhance for at least 7 days before judging results
- Enable GEM for Reels placements (reported 5% conversion lift in Meta testing)
- Test one Advantage+ campaign against your manual setup before full migration
- Feed quality data: ensure Pixel or Conversions API tracks every key event

**What Advantage+ automates:**
- Background generation and replacement
- Text overlay placement and sizing
- Aspect ratio adaptation (1:1, 4:5, 9:16)
- Music and audio enhancements for Reels
- Brightness, contrast, and filter adjustments

**What you still control:**
- Core creative concept and messaging
- Brand guidelines and color palette
- CTA selection
- Audience exclusions and budget caps
- Which placements to include

### Google Performance Max

Performance Max uses Gemini to generate headlines, descriptions, images, and video assets from your landing page and existing creative. Campaigns run across Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps simultaneously.

**Asset group requirements (maximize all):**
- Up to 15 headlines (30 char each)
- Up to 5 long headlines (90 char each)
- Up to 5 descriptions (90 char each)
- Up to 20 images (landscape, square, portrait)
- Up to 5 videos (landscape, square, portrait) - upload your own, auto-generated videos underperform by 25-40%
- Up to 5 logos
- Business name and final URL

**PMax optimization rules:**
- Create separate asset groups by theme, product category, or audience segment
- Wait 2-3 weeks before replacing low-performing assets
- Add campaign-level negative keywords to control irrelevant traffic
- Manually created videos outperform auto-generated content significantly
- Use audience signals (custom segments, your data) to guide the AI without restricting it

### TikTok Smart+ and Symphony

Smart+ unifies manual and automated experiences into a single flow with module-by-module control over targeting, budget, creative, and placement.

**Smart+ creative features:**
- Auto-select: scans existing ads and creator content, recommends best performers
- Each ad functions as an asset group with its own URL, product set, and up to 50 creative assets