About marketing-paid-advertising
A practical skill for planning and operating paid acquisition across Google, Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn. It covers channel choice, campaign setup, measurement, budgets, and unit economics for marketers scaling advertising.
Key features
- 01Channel selection and campaign structure
- 02Bidding and budget allocation
- 03Conversion tracking and attribution
- 04CAC, LTV, and payback analysis
- 05Creative testing and compliance guidance
Use cases
- 01Planning a new paid campaign
- 02Allocating budget while scaling spend
- 03Diagnosing high CPL or low ROAS
- 04Comparing acquisition channels against unit economics
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
$
npx skills add https:/After installing, type/marketing-paid-advertisingin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Details
From the project READMEPAID ADVERTISING — ACQUISITION OS (OPERATIONAL)
No-fluff execution skill for paid acquisition across Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn.
References: Google Ads, Meta Business, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
Modern Best Practices (January 2026)
- Algorithmic buying wins when you provide strong signals: clean conversion events, value, and enough volume per campaign to learn.
- Creative is the main lever on social: plan for volume and refresh cadence; treat creative like a product pipeline.
- Default measurement: server-side signals where possible (Enhanced Conversions / Conversions API / Events API), consistent UTMs, and closed-loop revenue in CRM.
- Use attribution as directional; use incrementality tests to answer budget questions (geo-lift/holdouts) when stakes are high.
- Optimize to profit and payback (not just CPL/ROAS) when margins, refunds, or LTV vary materially.
- Compliance is non-negotiable: platform policies, privacy consent, and avoiding sensitive targeting/claims.
When to Use
- New campaigns: structure, audiences, bidding, creative
- Scaling spend: budget allocation, ROAS targets
- Platform selection: which channels for which goals
- Unit economics: CAC/LTV modeling, payback period
- Revenue attribution: multi-touch, incrementality
When NOT to Use
| Scenario | Use Instead |
|---|---|
| Organic social | marketing-social-media |
| SEO/content | marketing-seo-complete |
| Landing pages | marketing-cro |
Quick Start (What I Need From You)
- Goal: revenue, pipeline, leads, trials, purchases (pick 1 primary)
- ICP/offer: who, pain, positioning, price/ACV, gross margin, refund rate (if relevant)
- Geo/language + budget horizon (test budget + monthly cap)
- Tracking: conversion events + where they’re recorded (GA4, CRM, Shopify, app DB), attribution window expectations
- Constraints: creative/brand limits, compliance constraints, sales capacity + SLAs (B2B)
If unknown, start with assumptions and label them; then validate with data in week 1.
Platform Selection
| Platform | Best For | Typical Cost (Relative) |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search | High intent capture | Medium |
| Meta | Efficient demand creation + retargeting | Low–Medium |
| B2B precision, ABM | High | |
| TikTok | Low-cost reach + creative velocity | Low |
Note: Costs vary massively by industry, geo, offer, tracking quality, and seasonality. Use as directional only.
Decision Tree
HIGH INTENT?
├─ YES → Google Search (always include)
└─ NO → What's your goal?
├─ Awareness → Meta, TikTok, YouTube
├─ B2B/Enterprise → LinkedIn, Google
└─ E-commerce → Meta, Google Shopping
Measurement & Tracking (2026 Default)
Minimum viable measurement before scaling:
- Conversion events defined (lead, SQL, purchase, subscription) with dedupe and clear “source of truth”
- UTMs standardized across every platform
- Server-side signals where feasible:
- Google: Enhanced Conversions + offline conversion imports (B2B)
- Meta: Pixel + Conversions API
- TikTok: Pixel + Events API
- LinkedIn: Insight Tag + offline conversions (when available)
- Reporting views: spend → conversions → revenue/pipeline (weekly), incrementality tests (quarterly or when budgets materially change)
For deep dives: references/revenue-attribution-guide.md, references/sales-alignment-guide.md.
Campaign Structure
Google Ads
├─ Campaign: Brand (Search)
├─ Campaign: Non-Brand (Search)
├─ Campaign: Retargeting (Display)
└─ Campaign: Performance Max
Meta Ads
├─ Campaign: Prospecting
│ ├─ Ad Set: Lookalike 1%
│ └─ Ad Set: Broad (Advantage+)
├─ Campaign: Retargeting
└─ Campaign: Testing
Bidding Strategy
| Strategy | When to Use |
|---|---|
| Manual CPC | <50 conversions/month |
| Target CPA | 50-100 conversions |
| Target ROAS | >100 conversions |
Budget Allocation
| Stage | % of Budget |
|---|---|
| Brand | 10-20% |
| Prospecting | 40-60% |
| Retargeting | 20-30% |
| Testing | 10-15% |
Unit Economics
| LTV:CAC | Status | Action |
|---|---|---|
| < 1:1 | Losing money | Stop spending |
| 3:1 | Healthy | Maintain/scale |
| > 5:1 | Under-investing | Scale aggressively |
Payback Targets:
- B2C SaaS: < 6 months
- B2B SaaS: < 12 months
- E-commerce: < 3 months
Decision Tree (Triage)
CPL too high?
├─ Check audience size
├─ Check creative CTR (<1% = new creative)
├─ Check landing page CVR (<2% = landing issue)
└─ Check bid strategy
ROAS below target?
├─ Check conversion tracking
├─ Check audience quality
└─ Check offer strength
Metrics
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| CTR | >1% (creative health) |
| CVR | >2% (landing health) |
| Frequency | <3 (fatigue) |
| Quality Score | >6 (Google) |
Anti-Patterns
- Changing bids daily → Wait 2-4 weeks
- Too many audiences → Use 3-5 max
- Single creative → Use 3-5 variants
- No negative keywords → Build weekly
Resources
| Resource | Purpose |
|---|---|
| data/sources.json | Authoritative sources (platform docs, measurement, privacy) |
| references/google-ads-guide.md | Google specifics |
| references/meta-ads-guide.md | Meta specifics |
| references/tiktok-ads-guide.md | TikTok specifics |
| references/linkedin-ads-guide.md | LinkedIn specifics |
| references/unit-economics-guide.md | CAC/LTV deep dive |
| references/revenue-attribution-guide.md | Attribution models |
| references/sales-alignment-guide.md | Pipeline + CRM alignment |
| references/operational-sops.md | Weekly/monthly SOPs |
| references/programmatic-display.md | Programmatic buying, DSPs, DOOH |
| references/remarketing-retargeting.md | Retargeting strategy + windows |
| references/youtube-ads-guide.md | YouTube + Shorts specifics |
| references/creative-testing-ads.md | Creative testing methodology |
| references/privacy-cookieless-ads.md | Privacy-first advertising |
| references/amazon-ads-guide.md | Amazon Sponsored Products/Brands/Display, DSP |
| references/microsoft-ads-guide.md | Bing/Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn targeting, Copilot |
Templates
| Template | Purpose |
|---|---|
| assets/campaign-structure.md | Campaign hierarchy |
| assets/budget-allocation.md | Budget planning |
| assets/unit-economics-calculator.md | CAC/LTV calculator |
| assets/creative-brief.md | Ad creative spec |
| assets/google-rsa-asset-pack.md | RSA copy + asset pack |
| assets/creative-test-plan.md | Creative testing cadence |
| assets/performance-review.md | Weekly/monthly review doc |
International Markets
This skill covers US-centric platforms. For regional advertising:
| Need | See Skill |
|---|---|
| China platforms (Baidu, WeChat, Douyin) | marketing-geo-localization |
| Japan/Korea (Yahoo Japan, Naver, Kakao) | marketing-geo-localization |
| Russia/CIS (Yandex, VK) | marketing-geo-localization |
| Regional CAC benchmarks | marketing-geo-localization |
Tip: If your query mentions regional platforms or specific countries, also use marketing-geo-localization.
Related Skills
| Skill | Purpose |
|---|---|
| marketing-geo-localization | International markets |
| marketing-leads-generation | Lead capture |
| marketing-cro | Landing optimization |
| startup-go-to-market | Channel strategy |
Comments
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