name: leadup-digital-ads-planner
description: Plan a paid digital ads campaign across Google Ads, Meta (Facebook + Instagram), YouTube, and LinkedIn for a LeadUp client or SaaS, with objective, platform pick, audiences, campaign/ad set/ad structure, budget split, ad copy variants, creative ideas, landing page requirements, tracking checklist, and platform policy risk notes. Use when the user says "ads plan", "digital ads", "google ads", "meta ads", "facebook ads", "instagram ads", "campaign plan", or "ad budget".
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".
- 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
- Confirm objective + measurable conversion event (lead form, booking,
signup, purchase).
- Confirm market and audience size band (small / medium / large) for the
chosen platforms.
- Check 5–10 active ads from 3 competitors in Meta Ad Library and
Google Ads Transparency; record format, hook, CTA, landing page pattern.
- Check Google Keyword Planner for keyword volume + CPC bands (if
running Search).
- Verify any regulated category against platform policies before
committing creative direction.
- 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
- Restate brief (business, goal, budget, market, conversion event).
- 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.
- Audience design: define core, lookalike, and remarketing segments
per platform.
- Campaign / ad set / ad structure: build out the hierarchy with
3–6 campaigns at most; one objective per campaign.
- Budget split: % per platform, % per campaign, daily vs lifetime,
bid strategy.
- Ad copy: 3 variants per ad set (hook + body + CTA), within each
platform's character limits.
- Creative ideas: 3–6 specific concepts (UGC, founder, before/after,
demo, testimonial).
- 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.
- Tracking checklist: pixel, conversion API, GA4 events, UTM
structure, offline conversion upload (if relevant).
- Policy + risk notes: regulated claims, restricted categories,
account-disable risks, brand-safety.
- 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.
One Markdown plan with these sections, in this order:
- Brief — business, goal, market, budget, conversion event.
- Platform recommendation — table: platform · why · share of budget.
- Audiences — per platform, list of segments (core, lookalike,
remarketing) with one-line targeting rules.
- Campaign structure — campaign → ad set → ad hierarchy.
- Budget split — % per campaign, daily cap, bid strategy.
- Ad copy — 3 variants per ad set with character counts.
- Creative ideas — 3–6 concepts with format notes.
- Landing page requirement — must-haves + CTA + form fields.
- Tracking checklist — pixel / CAPI / GA4 events / UTM / offline.
- Policy + risk notes — what could get the ad disapproved or the
account disabled.
- Test plan — first 14 days: what to test, minimum data, kill rules.
- 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)
- "Plan a Google Ads campaign for our salon booking SaaS in India."
- "Build a Meta Ads plan for a jewellery client, budget ₹50K/month."
- "Set up a LinkedIn ads strategy for our B2B booking tool."
- "Digital ads plan for a dental clinic in Coimbatore."
- "We have ₹1L/month for ads — what should we run and how do we structure it?"
Should NOT trigger (3)
- "Plan 30 days of organic Instagram posts." (→
leadup-smm-growth-planner) - "Improve our landing page conversion." (→
leadup-landing-page-cro-planner) - "Research keywords for SEO." (→
leadup-keyword-competitor-researcher)
Functional test cases (2)
- 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.
- 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.