Leadup digital ads planner

LeadUp Digital Ads Planner

Purpose

Take a business goal and produce a complete paid-ads plan a small LeadUp team can launch: which platform(s), what audiences, what campaign structure, what budget split, what ad copy and creative, what landing page is required, what tracking must be in place, and what policy / account risks to watch.

When to use

Use when the user wants a paid-ads plan, not a social media organic calendar (use leadup-smm-growth-planner), not an SEO audit (use leadup-seo-strategist), and not the actual ads account setup (which is manual work in the platform).

Trigger phrases: "ads plan", "digital ads", "google ads", "meta ads", "facebook ads", "instagram ads", "campaign plan", "ad budget", "ppc plan", "performance ads", "youtube ads", "linkedin ads".

Inputs needed

• Business / product, audience, market (country, city, language).
• Goal: leads, bookings, signups, ecommerce sales, app installs, brand.
• Budget per month (currency and amount).
• Existing assets: landing page, tracking, pixel, GA4, conversion API.
• Past campaign data (if any): platform, ROAS, CPL, CPA, CTR.
• Constraints: regulated industry, brand restrictions, banned competitors.

Ask at most 2 clarifying questions if goal, budget, or market is unclear.

Required resources

• Official docs: Google Ads Help, Meta Business Help Center, LinkedIn Ads Help, YouTube Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Apple Search Ads.
• Native tools: Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, GA4, Google Tag Manager.
• Audience research: Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency, Reddit / niche communities, the user's CRM/list.
• Compliance: Google Ads policies, Meta advertising standards, industry-specific rules (health, finance, real estate, gambling).
• Keyword inputs from leadup-keyword-competitor-researcher.
• Landing page from leadup-landing-page-cro-planner.
• Tracking integration via leadup-api-research-builder.

If exact CPC, CPM, or CPL data is not available, label as estimated band based on market and category.

Internet research workflow

1. Confirm objective + measurable conversion event (lead form, booking, signup, purchase).
2. Confirm market and audience size band (small / medium / large) for the chosen platforms.
3. Check 5–10 active ads from 3 competitors in Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency; record format, hook, CTA, landing page pattern.
4. Check Google Keyword Planner for keyword volume + CPC bands (if running Search).
5. Verify any regulated category against platform policies before committing creative direction.
6. Note assumptions and which numbers are verified vs estimated.

If a browser or ads-platform MCP is available, hand off to leadup-mcp-tool-orchestrator.

Step-by-step workflow

1. Restate brief (business, goal, budget, market, conversion event).
2. Pick platform(s) using the audience × intent × budget rule:
   • Search-intent buyers → Google Search Ads first.
   • Visual discovery / interest-based → Meta + Instagram.
   • B2B / role-targeted → LinkedIn.
   • Video / awareness → YouTube + Shorts.
   • Hyper-local services → Google Local + Meta lookalikes.
3. Audience design: define core, lookalike, and remarketing segments per platform.
4. Campaign / ad set / ad structure: build out the hierarchy with 3–6 campaigns at most; one objective per campaign.
5. Budget split: % per platform, % per campaign, daily vs lifetime, bid strategy.
6. Ad copy: 3 variants per ad set (hook + body + CTA), within each platform's character limits.
7. Creative ideas: 3–6 specific concepts (UGC, founder, before/after, demo, testimonial).
8. Landing page requirement: spec what the LP must include; if it doesn't exist or won't convert, route to leadup-landing-page-cro-planner.
9. Tracking checklist: pixel, conversion API, GA4 events, UTM structure, offline conversion upload (if relevant).
10. Policy + risk notes: regulated claims, restricted categories, account-disable risks, brand-safety.
11. Test plan: what to test first (audience vs creative vs offer), minimum data needed before deciding, kill criteria.

Full framework: references/digital-ads-framework.md. Plan shape: assets/ad-plan.template.md.

Required output format

One Markdown plan with these sections, in this order:

1. Brief — business, goal, market, budget, conversion event.
2. Platform recommendation — table: platform · why · share of budget.
3. Audiences — per platform, list of segments (core, lookalike, remarketing) with one-line targeting rules.
4. Campaign structure — campaign → ad set → ad hierarchy.
5. Budget split — % per campaign, daily cap, bid strategy.
6. Ad copy — 3 variants per ad set with character counts.
7. Creative ideas — 3–6 concepts with format notes.
8. Landing page requirement — must-haves + CTA + form fields.
9. Tracking checklist — pixel / CAPI / GA4 events / UTM / offline.
10. Policy + risk notes — what could get the ad disapproved or the account disabled.
11. Test plan — first 14 days: what to test, minimum data, kill rules.
12. Assumptions and data confidence — verified / estimated / requires verification.

Defer ad-copy stylistic polish to leadup-human-content-editor.

Safety rules

• Do not invent CTR, CPC, CPM, or CPL numbers. Use estimated bands based on market/category; label clearly.
• Do not promise a specific ROAS or CPA without a stated assumption set (audience size, creative quality, landing page CR).
• Do not propose tactics that violate platform policy: cloaking, before/after for restricted categories without disclaimers, personal attribute targeting (race, religion, sexual orientation) on Meta, fake countdowns, fake scarcity, misleading claims.
• Do not use trademarked competitor names in Google Search ad copy without rights; for keyword bidding, follow each platform's rules.
• Regulated industries (health, finance, real estate, alcohol, gambling, crypto): flag every claim for compliance review; note category-specific ad restrictions.
• For India: do not target unsupported categories; remember KYC + Razorpay rules where relevant; flag IT Rules and ASCI guidelines for influencer- style creative.
• Defer integrations (pixel, CAPI, server-side tracking) to leadup-api-research-builder.
• Defer landing-page conversion work to leadup-landing-page-cro-planner.
• Defer copy polish to leadup-human-content-editor.

Common mistakes

• Picking Meta when buyers are clearly searching (Search beats Discovery).
• 10 campaigns × 5 ad sets × 5 ads on a ₹30,000/month budget — too fragmented to learn.
• No conversion event defined → optimizing for link clicks → no leads.
• Inventing a CPL number to justify the budget.
• Forgetting the pixel or CAPI before launch.
• Ignoring landing-page conversion — high CTR + bad LP = wasted spend.
• Using "best in India" / "guaranteed" claims that get the ad disapproved.
• Setting bid to "Maximize Conversions" with no conversion data — the algorithm has nothing to optimize toward.

Troubleshooting

• Budget too small for the platform (e.g. LinkedIn at ₹500/day): pick a cheaper platform or narrow scope; flag the constraint.
• No tracking yet: stage a 7-day pre-launch checklist (pixel, CAPI, GA4, UTM, GTM); do not launch until tracking validated.
• Regulated category disapproval: rework creative to remove banned claims; cite the specific policy clause.
• Past campaigns underperformed: ask for the export; diagnose (creative, audience, LP, offer) before recommending a new plan.
• No landing page: pause and route to leadup-landing-page-cro-planner; do not launch ads to the homepage for a paid campaign.
• User wants 'just give me the ad copy': deliver only sections 6–8
  • the policy risk notes.

Test prompts

Should trigger (5)

1. "Plan a Google Ads campaign for our salon booking SaaS in India."
2. "Build a Meta Ads plan for a jewellery client, budget ₹50K/month."
3. "Set up a LinkedIn ads strategy for our B2B booking tool."
4. "Digital ads plan for a dental clinic in Coimbatore."
5. "We have ₹1L/month for ads — what should we run and how do we structure it?"

Should NOT trigger (3)

1. "Plan 30 days of organic Instagram posts." (→ leadup-smm-growth-planner)
2. "Improve our landing page conversion." (→ leadup-landing-page-cro-planner)
3. "Research keywords for SEO." (→ leadup-keyword-competitor-researcher)

Functional test cases (2)

1. Given "Indian salon booking SaaS, ₹60K/month, goal = signups", return a plan with Google Search + Meta split, 3 campaigns max, 3 ad variants per ad set, full tracking checklist, India-specific policy notes (ASCI, IT Rules), and bands not invented numbers for CPC/CPL.
2. Given a regulated category (a dental clinic running before/after visuals on Meta), return a plan that flags the platform-policy risk, rewords creative to comply, lists the disclaimers required, and notes what would get the account disabled.

Success criteria

• Plan has all 12 required sections in order.
• Platform pick is justified by audience × intent × budget reasoning.
• Campaign hierarchy fits the stated budget (no over-fragmentation).
• Tracking checklist is concrete (pixel ID placeholder, GA4 events named, UTM convention defined).
• Policy and risk notes are specific to the user's category and market.
• Every metric (CTR, CPC, CPL, ROAS) is labelled estimated band with the source, or marked requires verification.
• Hand-offs to leadup-landing-page-cro-planner, leadup-api-research-builder, and leadup-human-content-editor are explicit.