── SKILL
paid-ads-plan✓ APPROVED

Turn 'we should run ads' into a plan with a kill rule.

The audiences, the offer per audience, the creative angles, the budget split, and the metric that calls it a win.

Inside: The audiences, the offers, the budget split, and a pre-written stop-loss.

01 / HOW TO USE

Install it in one line, or paste it in.

1
In Claude Code (one command)
Copy the install line, paste it into your terminal, and restart Claude Code. The skill installs itself to ~/.claude/skills/ and runs automatically when it is relevant.
2
In Claude, ChatGPT, or a Project (no terminal)
Open the file, then upload it to your chat or paste its contents in. A skill is just a markdown file of instructions, so any capable AI can follow it.
New to skills? A skill is a plain-text file that teaches your AI a workflow. Point any capable assistant at it and it follows the steps, on your data.
02 / MAKE IT YOURS

Connect your context. Set it to your motion.

CONNECT YOUR CONTEXT · AND WHY IT HELPS
an ad platform

it reads spend, impressions, clicks, and cost per result across your live campaigns, so the budget split and targets start from history, not guesses.

a web-analytics tool

closes the loop from click to signup or pipeline, so you optimize to the metric that pays, not the one that is easy.

a CRM

ties ad-sourced leads to real opportunities, so cost per lead becomes cost per qualified lead.

SET IT TO YOUR MOTION

This was built for a B2B team running paid social and search to a demo or trial. Set these to your stack:

The metrics below are illustrative placeholders, not benchmarks. Replace them with your own targets.

Set thisWhat it isDefault / Example
CHANNELSwhere you buypaid searchpaid socialretargeting
PRIMARY_GOALwhat the campaign is fordemo requeststrial startsMQLs
WIN_METRICthe number that means it workedcost per qualified leadpipeline per dollar
GUARDRAIL_METRICthe number that caps wastemax CPLmin CTRmin landing conversion
BUDGETtotal or monthly spendyour figure
KILL_WINDOWhow long a line runs before you judge it7 to 14 daysor a minimum spend
ATTRIBUTIONhow you credit the clicklast-touchfirst-touchyour model
03 / THE FULL SKILL

Everything the skill does, in full.

── WHAT THIS DOES

Takes a campaign goal and a budget and turns it into a plan a media buyer can execute: who you are targeting, what you put in front of each audience, the angles the creative should test, how the money splits, the one number that means it worked, and the rule that tells you when to shut a line off. It plans the campaign. It does not spend the money for you.

── THE METHOD
  1. 1
    Audiences (start narrow)

    List the distinct audiences worth separate money: by segment, by intent, by stage. Cold prospecting, warm retargeting, and existing-list expansion are different buyers and should never share a budget line or a target. Name each one and why it is a real audience, not a slice you invented.

  2. 2
    Offer per audience

    Each audience gets one offer matched to its temperature. Cold traffic rarely buys a demo on the first touch, so cold usually gets a low-friction offer (a guide, a teardown, a tool). Warm retargeting gets the direct ask. Never run the same offer to a stranger and to someone who already visited your pricing page.

  3. 3
    Creative angles (test the message, not just the image)

    For each audience, name 2 to 4 angles to test: the pain, the outcome, the proof, the contrarian take. Angles are hypotheses about what the buyer cares about. You are buying data on which one is true. Hold the offer steady and let the angle be the variable.

  4. 4
    Budget split

    Split the budget across audiences and angles with a bias: most of the money to the audience most likely to convert, a fixed slice reserved for testing new angles. Write the split as percentages that sum to 100, and note the reasoning so a buyer can defend it.

  5. 5
    Win metric and guardrail

    Pick one WIN_METRIC the whole campaign is judged on, tied as close to revenue as your tools allow. Pick one GUARDRAIL_METRIC that caps waste. Clicks and impressions are diagnostics, not wins. If the only number you can see is a vanity number, say so and name the tool that would fix it.

  6. 6
    Kill rule

    Write the rule before you launch, so you kill on evidence, not on feelings. A line dies when it passes KILL_WINDOW and misses the guardrail with enough spend to trust the read. Winners get more budget, losers get cut, and the test slice refills with new angles.

── QUALITY GATES
  • Every audience has its own offer. No shared line between cold and warm.
  • The win metric is the closest thing to revenue your tools can see, and the skill names what it cannot yet see.
  • The kill rule is written before launch, with a spend floor so you are not reading noise.
  • Any number shown as a target is labeled illustrative unless it came from your connected data.
── OUTPUT (EXAMPLE)
EXAMPLE OUTPUT
PAID-ADS PLAN · Q3 demo push · $18K/mo (illustrative)
Audience          Offer              Angles                 Split   Win metric
Cold, paid social Teardown guide     Pain / Outcome / Proof  40%    CPL under target
Cold, paid search Demo (high intent) Outcome / Contrarian    30%    Cost per qualified lead
Retargeting       Book a demo        Proof / Urgency         20%    Demo booked
Test reserve      rotating           new angles              10%    signal only

Kill rule: any line past 10 days and 1.5x target CPL with >$500 spend gets cut.
Reallocate to the top performer, refill the test reserve with a fresh angle.

Next move: connect the ad platform so the split starts from your real cost-per-result,
not these placeholders.
── EXAMPLE CHAT
EXAMPLE CHAT
You
We've got $18K a month for a demo push in Q3. Build me a plan. Selling to RevOps leads at mid-market SaaS.
CLAUDE
Here's the split, with a kill rule built in before a dollar spends. Audience Offer Angles Split Win metric Cold, paid social Teardown guide Pain / Outcome / Proof 40% CPL under target Retargeting Book a demo Proof / Urgency 20% Demo booked Test reserve rotating new angles 10% signal only Kill rule: any line past 10 days and 1.5x target CPL with >$500 spend gets cut. The thing to notice: cold traffic gets the low-friction offer (a guide) and retargeting gets the direct ask. Same audience, same offer would have wasted the cold budget on people who aren't ready to book.
You
What's our actual CPL target? I don't have a number.
CLAUDE
You don't have one yet, and I flagged that as illustrative rather than guessing a benchmark. Once the ad platform is connected I can pull your real cost-per-result and set the target from your own history instead of an industry number that may not fit your funnel. Sharpener: connect the ad platform so the split and the kill rule start from your actual spend, not a placeholder.
04 / GO FURTHER

Where an operator takes this next.

A plan on paper is the easy half. Here's where it becomes a system that spends the budget for you, inside guardrails you set.

Plan the campaign once. Let the connectors keep it honest every day after.

01
Feed it live numbers, not a paste

Connect the ad platform so cost-per-result updates the plan automatically, and the win metric stops being a guess.

02
Close the loop to revenue

Wire in a web-analytics tool and the CRM so cost per lead becomes cost per qualified pipeline dollar, the number that actually matters to a buyer of this plan.

03
Let the kill rule fire itself

A scheduled Claude task checks every line against the guardrail daily and posts to Slack the moment a line crosses 1.5x target CPL, instead of waiting for the weekly review to notice.

05 / PART OF A BIGGER PLAY

One skill is the on-ramp.

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