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Overview

Most ad accounts have the same problem: budget spread evenly across campaigns when performance isn’t even close to even. This skill finds where your money works hardest and recommends shifts.

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Reports

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Efficiency Analysis

Rank campaigns/adsets by cost efficiency (CPA, ROAS, or CPC depending on objectives). Invocation: 
"Where's my money working best?"
"Analyze spend efficiency"
Script: 
./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh efficiency [--account act_123] [--preset last_7d]
Example Output: 
💰 Spend Efficiency Ranking — last_7d
========================================

Campaigns ranked by efficiency (CTR/CPC ratio):

#1 Summer Sale - Retargeting
   Spend: $700.45 | CTR: 2.1% | CPC: $0.52 | Score: 4.04

#2 Summer Sale - Prospecting
   Spend: $1,050.23 | CTR: 1.2% | CPC: $0.85 | Score: 1.41

#3 Q2 Brand Awareness
   Spend: $450.12 | CTR: 0.8% | CPC: $1.15 | Score: 0.70

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Budget Shift Recommendations

Compare performance across campaigns, recommend moving budget from losers to winners. Invocation: 
"How should I shift my budget?"
"Optimize my ad spend"
Script: 
./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh recommend [--account act_123]
Example Output: 
💡 Budget Shift Recommendations
================================

TOP PERFORMERS (increase budget):
  🏆 Summer Sale - Retargeting — CTR: 2.1%, CPC: $0.52
  🏆 Summer Sale - Prospecting — CTR: 1.2%, CPC: $0.85

UNDERPERFORMERS (decrease budget):
  🩸 Q2 Brand Awareness — CTR: 0.8%, CPC: $1.15
  🩸 Product Launch - Cold — CTR: 0.5%, CPC: $1.87

⚠️  These are recommendations only. Approve before I make changes.
Budget changes are high-risk actions. This skill always shows current vs. recommended budget, explains the reasoning with data, and waits for explicit “yes” before executing.

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Spend Pacing

Check if campaigns are on pace for their daily/lifetime budgets. Invocation: 
"Am I overspending or underspending?"
"Check spend pacing"
Script: 
./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh pacing [--account act_123]
Example Output: 
📊 Spend Pacing Check
======================

Account Status:
  Daily Budget: $500
  Spend Today: $247.32 (49% of budget at 11am)
  Pacing: 15% above target

Campaign-level spend (today):

Campaign                     Spend      Impressions  Clicks
Summer Sale - Prospecting    $150.23    42,187      1,767
Summer Sale - Retargeting    $97.09     31,254      1,512
Q2 Brand Awareness           $0.00      0           0

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Script Implementation

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Efficiency Ranking

The script calculates an efficiency score based on CTR/CPC ratio: 
# Pull campaign insights
social --no-banner marketing insights $ACCOUNT_ARG \
  --preset "$PRESET" --level campaign \
  --json --fields "campaign_name,campaign_id,spend,impressions,clicks,ctr,cpc,actions,cost_per_action_type"

# Calculate efficiency score
jq 'map(. + {efficiency: ((.ctr | parse_num) / (if (.cpc | parse_num) > 0 then (.cpc | parse_num) else 1 end))})'

# Sort by efficiency descending
jq 'sort_by(-.efficiency)'

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Budget Recommendations

Compares campaigns by CTR and recommends shifts: 
# Top performers (top 1/3 by CTR)
$all[:($n / 3 | ceil)]

# Underperformers (bottom 1/3 by CTR)
$all[($n * 2 / 3 | floor):]

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Spend Pacing

Checks account status and today’s spend: 
# Account status
social --no-banner marketing status $ACCOUNT_ARG

# Today's campaign-level spend
social --no-banner marketing insights $ACCOUNT_ARG \
  --preset today --level campaign --table \
  --fields "campaign_name,spend,impressions,clicks"

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Command Reference

./scripts/budget-optimizer.sh efficiency \
  [--account act_123] \
  [--preset last_7d]

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Invocation Pattern

  1. Pull campaign and adset level insights
  2. Calculate efficiency metrics (CPA, ROAS, CPC relative to spend)
  3. Compare against benchmarks in ad-config.json
  4. Identify top and bottom performers
  5. Calculate recommended budget shifts (% based)
  6. Present recommendations with clear reasoning
  7. Never adjust budget without explicit approval
  8. Log decisions to workspace/brand/learnings.md

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Safety Protocol

Budget changes are high-risk actions. This skill:
  • Always shows current vs. recommended budget
  • Explains the reasoning (data-backed)
  • Waits for explicit “yes” before executing
  • Logs every budget change for audit trail

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Example Approval Flow

AI: "I recommend increasing Summer Sale - Retargeting budget from $100/day to $150/day.
     It has 2.1% CTR and $0.52 CPC vs the account average of 1.2% CTR and $0.85 CPC.
     Offset by reducing Q2 Brand Awareness from $75/day to $25/day (0.8% CTR, $1.15 CPC).
     
     Proceed with these budget changes?"

User: "Yes, make the changes"

AI: [Executes budget shifts]
    [Logs to workspace/brand/learnings.md]
    "Budget updated. Summer Sale - Retargeting now at $150/day. Q2 Brand Awareness now at $25/day."

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Budget Change Commands

Only use these after explicit user approval.
# Set campaign daily budget (amount in cents)
social marketing set-budget campaign CAMPAIGN_ID --daily-budget 15000

# Set adset daily budget (amount in cents)
social marketing set-budget adset ADSET_ID --daily-budget 5000

# Set lifetime budget
social marketing set-budget campaign CAMPAIGN_ID --lifetime-budget 100000

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Integration with Other Skills

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Workflow

1. meta-ads          → Daily check shows uneven performance across campaigns
2. budget-optimizer  → Analyze efficiency, recommend budget shifts
3. [User approval]   → "Yes, shift $50/day from Brand to Retargeting"
4. budget-optimizer  → Execute budget changes via social-cli
5. meta-ads          → Monitor impact over next 7 days

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Data Sources

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ad-config.json
optional
Target benchmarks for CPA, ROAS, CTR by campaign objective
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workspace/brand/stack.md
optional
Stored target CPA/ROAS goals
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workspace/brand/learnings.md
output
Logs budget shift decisions and outcomes

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Benchmarks

Read ad-config.json for target benchmarks. If not configured, use sensible defaults based on campaign objective:
ObjectiveGood CTRGood CPCGood CPA
TrafficOver 1.5%Under $0.50N/A
ConversionsOver 1.0%Under $1.00Under $50
Lead GenOver 2.0%Under $0.75Under $25
Brand AwarenessOver 0.8%Under $0.30N/A

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Example Learnings Log Entry

## 2026-02-26 — Budget Optimization

**Action:** Shifted $50/day from Q2 Brand Awareness to Summer Sale - Retargeting

**Reasoning:**
- Retargeting: 2.1% CTR, $0.52 CPC, 89 conversions (7d)
- Brand Awareness: 0.8% CTR, $1.15 CPC, 12 conversions (7d)
- Efficiency ratio: 4.04 vs 0.70 (5.8x difference)

**Changes:**
- Summer Sale - Retargeting: $100/day → $150/day
- Q2 Brand Awareness: $75/day → $25/day

**Expected Impact:**
- +$350/week to high-performing retargeting
- Minimal impact to brand awareness (already underdelivering)

**Monitor:** Check impact in 7 days (2026-03-05)

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Direct social-cli Commands

# Get campaign budgets and spend
social marketing campaigns --fields "name,id,daily_budget,lifetime_budget,spend_cap,status"

# Campaign insights for efficiency analysis
social marketing insights \
  --preset last_7d \
  --level campaign \
  --fields "campaign_name,spend,impressions,clicks,ctr,cpc,actions,cost_per_action_type" \
  --json

# Adset-level budget and performance
social marketing insights \
  --preset last_7d \
  --level adset \
  --fields "adset_name,daily_budget,spend,ctr,cpc" \
  --table

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Next Steps

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