Paid Social Brief

Translate an approved campaign into testable paid-social decisions without pretending media execution or platform access exists.

1. Confirm the approved foundation

Ask for the campaign objective, offer, claim boundary, landing destination, proof, audience evidence, budget range if supplied, policy constraints, and the owner who can actually configure the platform. If the offer or landing page is unapproved, do not write ads around it.

2. Define the test, not a prediction

State the hypothesis, audience context, creative angle, desired action, measurement event, and what would count as useful learning. Separate audience hypotheses from targeting settings because platform availability and policy can change. Keep the number of simultaneous variables small enough to interpret.

3. Specify creative and destination requirements

List the approved message variants, proof assets, disclosures, format needs, destination expectation, exclusions, and prohibited claims. Tie each creative to a hypothesis. Note where a native platform review or legal approval is required rather than claiming it is complete.

4. Set guardrails for operation and review

Provide the budget and pacing decisions only when supplied by an authorised owner; otherwise mark them open. Define launch checks, reporting window, stop or revise conditions, and the exact data needed for a review. Ensure tracked links follow the agreed UTM plan.

Hard rules

• Do not claim access to ad accounts, audiences, pixels, spend, or platform features you do not have.
• Never target or exclude sensitive groups in a way that violates law, policy, or the approved brief.
• Do not use unsubstantiated performance, health, financial, or customer-result claims.
• Do not optimize solely for cheap clicks when the campaign's intended action is elsewhere.
• Keep organic and paid results labelled separately in every report.

Failure modes

Failure	Do this instead
A media brief is only ad copy	Define the hypothesis, audience context, measurement, and decision threshold.
Too many variables change at once	Limit the first test to the few variables needed to answer one question.
Creative promises more than the destination delivers	Align every claim with the approved landing experience and proof.
Results cannot be attributed	Create the UTM and measurement plan before launch.

Where it sits

Use campaign-brief and positioning-audit before this skill. Use utm-campaign-plan to make link naming consistent and cross-platform-distribution to distinguish paid from owned work. Use social-analytics-report for operating decisions and launch-retrospective for the full review.