# Paid advertising Human Guide

## What This Is For
Plan, launch, and optimize paid advertising campaigns for a solopreneur business. 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 advertising 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 advertising.
- 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 advertising 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
- [ ] A clear offer (what you're selling and to whom)
- [ ] A landing page or sales funnel that converts (even if at small scale)
- [ ] Unit economics that work (see unit-economics skill — LTV > CAC)
- [ ] At least $500-1,000 to test with (less than this and you won't get enough data)
- **Where does your ICP spend time?** B2B SaaS founders = LinkedIn or Google Search. E-commerce = Facebook/Instagram. Local services = Google Search + Facebook.
- **What's your goal?** Lead gen = Google Search or LinkedIn. Brand awareness = Facebook/Instagram. Direct sales = Facebook/Instagram for B2C, LinkedIn for B2B.
- **What's your budget?** Under $1,000/month = start with Facebook or Google Search. Over $3,000/month = test LinkedIn or multi-platform.
- **Lead gen campaigns:** Form submissions, email signups, call bookings
- **E-commerce:** Purchases, add-to-cart, checkout initiated
- **SaaS:** Trial signups, demo requests, account creation
- Set up conversion actions in Google Ads dashboard
- Test with Google Tag Assistant

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Overview, Step 1: Decide If You're Ready for Paid Ads, Step 2: Choose Your Ad Platform, Step 3: Set Up Conversion Tracking (Do This First), Step 4: Structure Your First Campaign, Step 5: Write Ad Copy and Design Creative, Step 6: Target the Right Audience, Warm audiences (retargeting — start here), Cold audiences (targeting people who don't know you yet), Step 7: Set Your Budget and Bidding Strategy.

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
- Don't run ads until you have:
- **Rule:** Fix your funnel first, then amplify with ads. Never use ads to figure out if your product works.
- **Rule:** Don't trust platform reporting alone. Cross-check with Google Analytics or your CRM to verify conversions are being tracked accurately.
- **Show the outcome, not the process** (don't show a screenshot of your tool — show a happy customer or a result)
- Cold audiences (targeting people who don't know you yet)
- **Scaling phase (after finding winners):** Increase by 20-30% every 3 days (don't double overnight — it resets the algorithm)
- Step 9: Common Solopreneur Ad Mistakes (Avoid These)
- **Optimizing too early.** Don't pause ads after 1 day. Give each ad set 3-5 days and 50+ clicks before making decisions.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Paid advertising 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 jk-0001/skills skill entry for `paid-advertising`.

## 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 Advertising

## Overview
Paid ads let you buy attention and traffic immediately, unlike SEO or content marketing which take months. But most solopreneurs waste money on ads because they don't understand targeting, tracking, or optimization. This playbook shows you how to run profitable ad campaigns on a solopreneur budget — without burning cash on guesswork.

---

## Step 1: Decide If You're Ready for Paid Ads

Ads accelerate what's already working. If your funnel is broken, ads just speed up the bleeding.

**Don't run ads until you have:**
- [ ] A clear offer (what you're selling and to whom)
- [ ] A landing page or sales funnel that converts (even if at small scale)
- [ ] Unit economics that work (see unit-economics skill — LTV > CAC)
- [ ] At least $500-1,000 to test with (less than this and you won't get enough data)

**Rule:** Fix your funnel first, then amplify with ads. Never use ads to figure out if your product works.

---

## Step 2: Choose Your Ad Platform

Different platforms serve different audiences and goals. Pick based on where your ICP hangs out and what action you want them to take.

**Platform comparison:**

| Platform | Best For | Typical CPC | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Google Ads (Search)** | High-intent leads, people actively searching | $2-$10+ | Captures existing demand, high intent | Competitive, needs keyword research |
| **Facebook/Instagram Ads** | Awareness, B2C products, broad targeting | $0.50-$3 | Detailed targeting, visual, retargeting | Lower intent, ad fatigue |
| **LinkedIn Ads** | B2B, targeting by job title/company | $5-$15+ | Precise professional targeting | Expensive, smaller audience |
| **Google Ads (Display)** | Awareness, retargeting | $0.50-$2 | Massive reach, cheap impressions | Very low intent, banner blindness |
| **YouTube Ads** | Video products, B2C, brand building | $0.10-$0.30 per view | Engaging format, cheap views | Requires video production |
| **Twitter/X Ads** | Tech/startup audience, real-time topics | $0.50-$3 | Good for thought leadership, niche targeting | Smaller scale, engagement-focused |

**Selection criteria:**
- **Where does your ICP spend time?** B2B SaaS founders = LinkedIn or Google Search. E-commerce = Facebook/Instagram. Local services = Google Search + Facebook.
- **What's your goal?** Lead gen = Google Search or LinkedIn. Brand awareness = Facebook/Instagram. Direct sales = Facebook/Instagram for B2C, LinkedIn for B2B.
- **What's your budget?** Under $1,000/month = start with Facebook or Google Search. Over $3,000/month = test LinkedIn or multi-platform.

**Recommendation for solopreneurs:** Start with ONE platform. Master it before expanding.

---

## Step 3: Set Up Conversion Tracking (Do This First)

If you can't measure conversions, you can't optimize. Set up tracking BEFORE you launch any ads.

**What to track:**
- **Lead gen campaigns:** Form submissions, email signups, call bookings
- **E-commerce:** Purchases, add-to-cart, checkout initiated
- **SaaS:** Trial signups, demo requests, account creation

**How to set up tracking:**

**For Google Ads:**
- Install Google Tag (via Google Tag Manager or directly on site)
- Set up conversion actions in Google Ads dashboard
- Test with Google Tag Assistant

**For Facebook/Instagram Ads:**
- Install Meta Pixel on your website
- Create custom conversions in Events Manager
- Test with Meta Pixel Helper (Chrome extension)

**For LinkedIn Ads:**
- Install LinkedIn Insight Tag on your website
- Define conversion events in Campaign Manager

**Rule:** Don't trust platform reporting alone. Cross-check with Google Analytics or your CRM to verify conversions are being tracked accurately.

---

## Step 4: Structure Your First Campaign

Campaign structure matters. Poor structure makes optimization impossible.

**Campaign hierarchy (Facebook/Google/LinkedIn are similar):**
```