Lead Engine OS
Ad Management Playbook
Test order
1 — NicheBiggest driver of performance. Get the niche right before testing creative. Everything else is downstream of this.
2 — Creative anglePain vs. gain. One variable changes between ads in the same test. Only after niche is confirmed.
3 — OfferOnly after a winning angle is confirmed. Don't test your offer until you know what creative angle works.
Rule — one variable per test. Always.
Never change hook, visual, AND offer simultaneously. If you change more than one variable, you can't know what caused the result. The test is worthless.
How this works: Kill rules fire at specific checkpoints — Day 3, Day 7, Day 14, Day 30. Between checkpoints, log data and don't touch. The channel determines your spend threshold. Never kill on Day 1–2 data.
Winning the Week: Every Monday starts with a structured review before any changes are made. No mid-week changes without a flag reason. All decisions are logged. Full 7-day windows required before any kill/keep/scale call.
Monday — winning the week meeting
ReviewPull full funnel numbers per client per source. Where is the leak this week? Schedule rate → show rate → offer rate → close rate. Find the drop.
ReviewAd performance by ad. Apply kill/keep/scale rules. Every ad gets a call. No ads left in limbo.
PlanSet the work plan for the full week. What gets launched today? What creative needs prepping by Thursday? No bottlenecks mid-week.
LogUpdate the account log. What was tested, killed, or scaled? This is the most important deliverable of the week.
EscalateAnything outside authority: budget increase >30%, kill entire campaign, client churn risk. These go to Cam before action is taken.
Weekly rhythm
Monday
Winning the Week meeting + all kill/keep/scale decisions
Launch new tests based on last week's prep
Tuesday
Day 3 checkpoint for anything launched Friday/Saturday
Check new leads — UTM tags intact? GHL follow-up firing?
Wednesday
Mid-week budget check — minor adjustments only, no new launches
Flag anything trending badly for Monday — don't kill yet
Thursday
Creative prep day — all assets for next Monday's launch due by EOD
Day 7 checkpoint for anything launched last Thursday
Friday
Launch new tests (captures weekend data in the 7D window)
Log the week — what ran, what stopped, what's the read
Weekend
Monitor only — no changes. Screenshot anomalies for Monday.
Decision authority
Two modes: Every client starts in ABO MVC (Minimum Viable Campaign). After hitting the transition triggers, they move to 2 BAU campaigns — one CBO scaling campaign and one ABO testing campaign.
Phase 1 — MVC (weeks 1–4)
This is a general framework. Some clients will have different structure depending on strategy.
GoalGet one winning creative and one winning angle within 4 weeks of launch. Secure an early win for client confidence. Don't try to find everything — find one thing that works.
MVC structure — Meta
Campaign1 Campaign → 2 Audiences → 2–4 Creatives (depending on budget). Use ABO — not CBO — so each ad gets equal budget and Meta can't bias toward one creative early.
Ad sets1 ad per ad set. $50/ad set minimum. Run for a minimum of 48 hours before any changes.
KillFollow client-specific kill rules to kill and reallocate budget.
MVC structure — Google
Campaign1 Keyword Set → 3 Ads. Start with highest-intent exact match keywords.
MonitorCheck search terms every other day.
RuleNo broad match in Week 1.
Budget in MVC
RuleRun MVC on a dedicated budget separate from retargeting. Retargeting can run simultaneously but is budgeted separately.
NeverDon't let retargeting cannibalize cold audience testing data.
MVC (ABO) → BAU (CBO scaling + ABO testing) transition triggers
All triggers must be met. Cam sign-off required.
Trigger 1At least one thing worth scaling. Not "hitting a target" — just one creative or keyword or audience that performed relatively better than the others. That's your BAU foundation. Without it, BAU just scales chaos.
Trigger 2Minimum 4 weeks of data. Weekend vs weekday variance needs a full cycle.
Trigger 3You know what you're working with. You've identified which variable drove performance — was it the niche, the creative angle, or the audience? If you can't answer that, you're not done with MVC. You still have unknowns that will pollute BAU.
Trigger 4Cam has reviewed and approved the transition.
Not a triggerTime alone. If 4 weeks pass with no winner, escalate to Cam — don't auto-transition. Something is wrong with niche, angle, or offer.
Phase 2 — BAU (ongoing)
Structure2 campaigns running simultaneously: Scale campaign (proven winners only, CBO allowed, 70% of budget) + Test campaign (new creative testing, ABO always, 30% of budget).
RuleNever test inside the scale campaign. Winners graduate from test → scale. Losers never touch the scale campaign.
Scaling rules
RuleFollow client-specific scaling rules.
Testing rhythm in BAU
Cadence1 new creative test per week minimum. Always have something in the test campaign. Winners don't last forever — feed the creative pipeline constantly.
GraduationWhen a new winner emerges from the test campaign, it graduates to the scale campaign and the old creative pauses.
How to read whether a test worked: Follow these steps in order, every time. Don't skip steps. Don't read early.
Step 1 — Wait for the full 7D window
Performance varies significantly between weekdays and weekends. Early reads are almost always wrong. Do not read a test before Day 7.
Step 2 — Check the right metric for the test goal
| What you tested | The metric to judge it |
|---|---|
| Hook / opening line | CTR |
| Audience / targeting | CTR, CPC, CVR, CPL — all of the above, compare to each other |
| Offer | CTR, CPC, CVR, CPL — all of the above, compare to each other |
| Landing page | CVR (pageviews to book / lead) |
Step 3 — Compare against the control, not the target
The test won if it beat the current winner — not if it hit the KPI target. A weak account still needs a relative winner to move forward.
Step 4 — Log the result regardless of outcome
Every test gets logged — wins and losses. The loss tells you as much as the win.
"Tested pain-angle hook vs gain-angle hook. Pain won by 34% CTR. Keeping pain, killing gain. Next test: pain + social proof vs pain + urgency."
Never do this
NeverChange a running test mid-flight — it invalidates the data.
NeverTouch copy, creative, or audience on an ad that's in a live test window.
RuleFlag it for Monday. Let it run.
Core principle: CPL and CPC are market-driven. The market can double your CPM and there's nothing you can do about it. Your funnel rates are yours. The floor moves only when you can prove the funnel still works at the new cost.
When does the floor move?
Floor moves up — accept the new market reality
CPL has increased 20%+ sustained over 3+ weeks AND book rate, show rate, and close rate are all within 10% of their 90-day baseline. The market got more expensive. Your funnel is still working. Update the floor and communicate to client proactively.
Floor stays — fix the funnel first
CPL increased AND any funnel rate dropped more than 10% from baseline. This is not a market problem — it's a creative or targeting problem. Don't accept the new cost. Diagnose the funnel drop first.
Investigate before deciding
CPL increased but less than 3 weeks of data at the new level, or a campaign change in the last 2 weeks. Don't make a floor decision on noise. Wait for 3 full weeks of clean data.
Monthly baseline audit
| Metric | Pull period | Compare to | Threshold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book rate (leads → SCH) | Last 30D | 90D avg | >10% drop = investigate |
| Show rate (SCH → Show) | Last 30D | 90D avg | >10% drop = confirmation issue |
| Offer rate (Show → Offer) | Last 30D | 90D avg | >10% drop = qualify or pitch issue |
| Close rate (Offer → Close) | Last 30D | 90D avg | >10% drop = sales problem, not ads |
| CPL | Last 30D | 90D avg | >20% increase = check funnel rates |
| CPC / CPM | Last 30D | 90D avg | Market signal only — don't act on this alone |
Client communication script
"The market has gotten more competitive in this space — CPMs are up across the board, not just on your account. The good news is your funnel rates are holding strong. Book rate, show rate, and close rate are all within 5% of your 90-day average. This tells us the system is working — the cost to feed it has just increased. We're recommending we update the CPL target from $X to $Y to reflect the new market reality and continue scaling what's working."
Lead Engine OS
Client Settings
How to use: All kill thresholds are calculated from each client's LTV. Your media buyer opens the client card, reads the numbers — no math required. Click any channel to expand its kill rules.
Lead Engine OS
Account Log
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Log history