Paid ads strategy

What it does

The paid ads strategy defines what good performance looks like for this client, for each kind of campaign: awareness, consideration, conversion, retargeting and brand defense. For each one it holds the KPIs that matter, industry benchmarks researched from public sources, the client's own targets, and red-flag thresholds. Every paid-media report and audit grades against it. It is also delivered as a Google Doc.

• Agent: Paid Ads Strategy (paid-ads-strategy)
• Model tier: Sonnet · cost cap per run: $4.00
• Needs: web_crawl, industry_benchmarks

Set it up

1. The client needs a G2M first: the strategy sets its targets from the client's economics. Without it the build stops and says so.
2. "Build a paid ads strategy for them." Nexus researches benchmarks for the client's industry and writes the strategy. Mention anything you already know (a target CPL from the contract, the channels you actually run, the industry) and Nexus keeps it as given.
3. ✋ Read the Google Doc and correct any target that's wrong (see below).

Check and curate

• "Show their paid ads strategy." A short summary of what's in it.
• "What's their target CPL for Google Search?" One answer, not the whole document.
• "Show the red flag thresholds in their paid ads strategy." The conditions that make a report raise a watch item.

Use it

Change one value without new research:

• "Update the LinkedIn brand CPM target to 28."
• "Add a red flag: conversion CPL above 1.5x target."

The monthly reports, audits and the Google Ads strategist read the strategy automatically. Without one, they grade against generic benchmarks and say so in the summary.

Maintain

• Refresh it each quarter (benchmarks move), or after a new product, a new buyer or a big budget change: "Refresh the paid ads strategy." When a strategy already exists, Nexus shows it first and asks before rebuilding.
• Every change is kept as a version, so an edit can be undone.

Troubleshooting

• Nexus says there's no paid ads strategy. It hasn't been built. Build it after the G2M.
• A benchmark looks off for this client. Change the client's own target; targets win over industry benchmarks.

Prompts

• "Build a paid ads strategy for them."
• "Show their paid ads strategy."
• "What's their target CPL for Google Search?"
• "Show the red flag thresholds in their paid ads strategy."
• "Update the LinkedIn brand CPM target to 28."
• "Add a red flag: conversion CPL above 1.5x target."
• "Refresh the paid ads strategy."

Machine twins: /help/paid-ads-strategy.json · /help/paid-ads-strategy.md · /help.json · /llms.txt

Reviewed 2026-10-15. In Slack, ask Nexus how do I … and it answers from this guide, with where your company stands.