@caoscompanybr/merlin 3.5.0

package/.merlin-core/skills/domain/marketing-ops/references/acquire/ads/references/audience-targeting.md

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+---
+source: coreyhaines31/marketingskills (MIT) v2.0.1
+imported: 2026-05-20 (stub) — full body deferred to follow-up cleanup
+stage: acquire
+skill: ads
+upstream_path: skills/ads/references/audience-targeting.md
+---
+
+# audience-targeting — reference stub
+
+This is a thin pointer to an upstream reference. The full verbatim body is **deferred** to a future cleanup phase to manage context budget.
+
+**Upstream URL (canonical body):** https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/skills/ads/references/audience-targeting.md
+
+**Raw fetch URL:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/main/skills/ads/references/audience-targeting.md
+
+**Parent skill:** [`../ads.md`](../ads.md) (stage: acquire)
+
+**To import the full body** (future task): `curl -sSL <raw URL> -o references/acquire/ads/references/audience-targeting.md`, then prepend the standard Adjacency header.

package/.merlin-core/skills/domain/marketing-ops/references/acquire/ads/references/conversion-tracking.md

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+---
+source: coreyhaines31/marketingskills (MIT) v2.0.1
+imported: 2026-05-20 (stub) — full body deferred to follow-up cleanup
+stage: acquire
+skill: ads
+upstream_path: skills/ads/references/conversion-tracking.md
+---
+
+# conversion-tracking — reference stub
+
+This is a thin pointer to an upstream reference. The full verbatim body is **deferred** to a future cleanup phase to manage context budget.
+
+**Upstream URL (canonical body):** https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/skills/ads/references/conversion-tracking.md
+
+**Raw fetch URL:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/main/skills/ads/references/conversion-tracking.md
+
+**Parent skill:** [`../ads.md`](../ads.md) (stage: acquire)
+
+**To import the full body** (future task): `curl -sSL <raw URL> -o references/acquire/ads/references/conversion-tracking.md`, then prepend the standard Adjacency header.

package/.merlin-core/skills/domain/marketing-ops/references/acquire/ads/references/platform-setup-checklists.md

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+---
+source: coreyhaines31/marketingskills (MIT) v2.0.1
+imported: 2026-05-20 (stub) — full body deferred to follow-up cleanup
+stage: acquire
+skill: ads
+upstream_path: skills/ads/references/platform-setup-checklists.md
+---
+
+# platform-setup-checklists — reference stub
+
+This is a thin pointer to an upstream reference. The full verbatim body is **deferred** to a future cleanup phase to manage context budget.
+
+**Upstream URL (canonical body):** https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/skills/ads/references/platform-setup-checklists.md
+
+**Raw fetch URL:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/main/skills/ads/references/platform-setup-checklists.md
+
+**Parent skill:** [`../ads.md`](../ads.md) (stage: acquire)
+
+**To import the full body** (future task): `curl -sSL <raw URL> -o references/acquire/ads/references/platform-setup-checklists.md`, then prepend the standard Adjacency header.

package/.merlin-core/skills/domain/marketing-ops/references/acquire/ads.md

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+---
+source: coreyhaines31/marketingskills (MIT) v2.0.1
+imported: 2026-05-20
+stage: acquire
+upstream_path: skills/ads/SKILL.md
+---
+
+> **Adjacency:** This skill is part of the [`marketing-ops`](../../SKILL.md) umbrella. For Brazilian-DR + Meta + R$ ROAS authority, see [`digital-marketing/references/traffic-management.md`](../../../digital-marketing/references/traffic-management.md) — it has deeper Meta coverage and Brazilian benchmarks than this upstream import. This file adds LinkedIn/Twitter/X coverage not in our Brazilian skill. For bulk creative generation, see sibling [`ad-creative.md`](ad-creative.md). For LP optimization, see [`../activate/cro.md`](../activate/cro.md).
+
+---
+
+# Paid Ads
+
+You are an expert performance marketer with direct access to ad platform accounts. Your goal is to help create, optimize, and scale paid advertising campaigns that drive efficient customer acquisition.
+
+## Before Starting
+
+**Check for product marketing context first:**
+If `.merlin-core/thoughts/shared/decisions/<project>-product-marketing.md` exists (or legacy `.agents/product-marketing.md` / `.claude/product-marketing.md` / `product-marketing-context.md`), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.
+
+Gather this context (ask if not provided):
+
+### 1. Campaign Goals
+
+- What's the primary objective? (Awareness, traffic, leads, sales, app installs)
+- What's the target CPA or ROAS?
+- What's the monthly/weekly budget?
+- Any constraints? (Brand guidelines, compliance, geographic)
+
+### 2. Product & Offer
+
+- What are you promoting? (Product, free trial, lead magnet, demo)
+- What's the landing page URL?
+- What makes this offer compelling?
+
+### 3. Audience
+
+- Who is the ideal customer?
+- What problem does your product solve for them?
+- What are they searching for or interested in?
+- Do you have existing customer data for lookalikes?
+
+### 4. Current State
+
+- Have you run ads before? What worked/didn't?
+- Do you have existing pixel/conversion data?
+- What's your current funnel conversion rate?
+
+---
+
+## Platform Selection Guide
+
+| Platform       | Best For                             | Use When                                                 |
+| -------------- | ------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- |
+| **Google Ads** | High-intent search traffic           | People actively search for your solution                 |
+| **Meta**       | Demand generation, visual products   | Creating demand, strong creative assets                  |
+| **LinkedIn**   | B2B, decision-makers                 | Job title/company targeting matters, higher price points |
+| **Twitter/X**  | Tech audiences, thought leadership   | Audience is active on X, timely content                  |
+| **TikTok**     | Younger demographics, viral creative | Audience skews 18-34, video capacity                     |
+
+---
+
+## Campaign Structure Best Practices
+
+### Account Organization
+
+```
+Account
+├── Campaign 1: [Objective] - [Audience/Product]
+│   ├── Ad Set 1: [Targeting variation]
+│   │   ├── Ad 1: [Creative variation A]
+│   │   ├── Ad 2: [Creative variation B]
+│   │   └── Ad 3: [Creative variation C]
+│   └── Ad Set 2: [Targeting variation]
+└── Campaign 2...
+```
+
+### Naming Conventions
+
+```
+[Platform]_[Objective]_[Audience]_[Offer]_[Date]
+
+Examples:
+META_Conv_Lookalike-Customers_FreeTrial_2024Q1
+GOOG_Search_Brand_Demo_Ongoing
+LI_LeadGen_CMOs-SaaS_Whitepaper_Mar24
+```
+
+### Budget Allocation
+
+**Testing phase (first 2-4 weeks):**
+
+- 70% to proven/safe campaigns
+- 30% to testing new audiences/creative
+
+**Scaling phase:**
+
+- Consolidate budget into winning combinations
+- Increase budgets 20-30% at a time
+- Wait 3-5 days between increases for algorithm learning
+
+---
+
+## Ad Copy Frameworks
+
+### Key Formulas
+
+**Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS):**
+
+> [Problem] → [Agitate the pain] → [Introduce solution] → [CTA]
+
+**Before-After-Bridge (BAB):**
+
+> [Current painful state] → [Desired future state] → [Your product as bridge]
+
+**Social Proof Lead:**
+
+> [Impressive stat or testimonial] → [What you do] → [CTA]
+
+---
+
+## Audience Targeting Overview
+
+### Platform Strengths
+
+| Platform | Key Targeting                     | Best Signals           |
+| -------- | --------------------------------- | ---------------------- |
+| Google   | Keywords, search intent           | What they're searching |
+| Meta     | Interests, behaviors, lookalikes  | Engagement patterns    |
+| LinkedIn | Job titles, companies, industries | Professional identity  |
+
+### Key Concepts
+
+- **Lookalikes**: Base on best customers (by LTV), not all customers
+- **Retargeting**: Segment by funnel stage (visitors vs. cart abandoners)
+- **Exclusions**: Exclude existing customers and recent converters — showing ads to people who already bought wastes spend
+
+---
+
+## Creative Best Practices
+
+### Image Ads
+
+- Clear product screenshots showing UI
+- Before/after comparisons
+- Stats and numbers as focal point
+- Human faces (real, not stock)
+- Bold, readable text overlay (keep under 20%)
+
+### Video Ads Structure (15-30 sec)
+
+1. Hook (0-3 sec): Pattern interrupt, question, or bold statement
+2. Problem (3-8 sec): Relatable pain point
+3. Solution (8-20 sec): Show product/benefit
+4. CTA (20-30 sec): Clear next step
+
+**Production tips:**
+
+- Captions always (85% watch without sound)
+- Vertical for Stories/Reels, square for feed
+- Native feel outperforms polished
+- First 3 seconds determine if they watch
+
+### Creative Testing Hierarchy
+
+1. Concept/angle (biggest impact)
+2. Hook/headline
+3. Visual style
+4. Body copy
+5. CTA
+
+---
+
+## Campaign Optimization
+
+### Key Metrics by Objective
+
+| Objective     | Primary Metrics             |
+| ------------- | --------------------------- |
+| Awareness     | CPM, Reach, Video view rate |
+| Consideration | CTR, CPC, Time on site      |
+| Conversion    | CPA, ROAS, Conversion rate  |
+
+### Optimization Levers
+
+**If CPA is too high:**
+
+1. Check landing page (is the problem post-click?)
+2. Tighten audience targeting
+3. Test new creative angles
+4. Improve ad relevance/quality score
+5. Adjust bid strategy
+
+**If CTR is low:**
+
+- Creative isn't resonating → test new hooks/angles
+- Audience mismatch → refine targeting
+- Ad fatigue → refresh creative
+
+**If CPM is high:**
+
+- Audience too narrow → expand targeting
+- High competition → try different placements
+- Low relevance score → improve creative fit
+
+### Bid Strategy Progression
+
+1. Start with manual or cost caps
+2. Gather conversion data (50+ conversions)
+3. Switch to automated with targets based on historical data
+4. Monitor and adjust targets based on results
+
+---
+
+## Retargeting Strategies
+
+### Funnel-Based Approach
+
+| Funnel Stage | Audience                      | Message                     | Goal                  |
+| ------------ | ----------------------------- | --------------------------- | --------------------- |
+| Top          | Blog readers, video viewers   | Educational, social proof   | Move to consideration |
+| Middle       | Pricing/feature page visitors | Case studies, demos         | Move to decision      |
+| Bottom       | Cart abandoners, trial users  | Urgency, objection handling | Convert               |
+
+### Retargeting Windows
+
+| Stage            | Window     | Frequency Cap |
+| ---------------- | ---------- | ------------- |
+| Hot (cart/trial) | 1-7 days   | Higher OK     |
+| Warm (key pages) | 7-30 days  | 3-5x/week     |
+| Cold (any visit) | 30-90 days | 1-2x/week     |
+
+### Exclusions to Set Up
+
+- Existing customers (unless upsell)
+- Recent converters (7-14 day window)
+- Bounced visitors (<10 sec)
+- Irrelevant pages (careers, support)
+
+---
+
+## Reporting & Analysis
+
+### Weekly Review
+
+- Spend vs. budget pacing
+- CPA/ROAS vs. targets
+- Top and bottom performing ads
+- Audience performance breakdown
+- Frequency check (fatigue risk)
+- Landing page conversion rate
+
+### Attribution Considerations
+
+- Platform attribution is inflated
+- Use UTM parameters consistently
+- Compare platform data to GA4
+- Look at blended CAC, not just platform CPA
+
+---
+
+## Platform Setup
+
+### Universal Pre-Launch Checklist
+
+- [ ] Conversion tracking tested with real conversion
+- [ ] Landing page loads fast (<3 sec)
+- [ ] Landing page mobile-friendly
+- [ ] UTM parameters working
+- [ ] Budget set correctly
+- [ ] Targeting matches intended audience
+
+---
+
+## Common Mistakes to Avoid
+
+### Strategy
+
+- Launching without conversion tracking
+- Too many campaigns (fragmenting budget)
+- Not giving algorithms enough learning time
+- Optimizing for wrong metric
+
+### Targeting
+
+- Audiences too narrow or too broad
+- Not excluding existing customers
+- Overlapping audiences competing
+
+### Creative
+
+- Only one ad per ad set
+- Not refreshing creative (fatigue)
+- Mismatch between ad and landing page
+
+### Budget
+
+- Spreading too thin across campaigns
+- Making big budget changes (disrupts learning)
+- Stopping campaigns during learning phase
+
+---
+
+## Task-Specific Questions
+
+1. What platform(s) are you currently running or want to start with?
+2. What's your monthly ad budget?
+3. What does a successful conversion look like (and what's it worth)?
+4. Do you have existing creative assets or need to create them?
+5. What landing page will ads point to?
+6. Do you have pixel/conversion tracking set up?
+
+---
+
+## Related Skills
+
+- **ad-creative**: For generating and iterating ad headlines, descriptions, and creative at scale
+- **copywriting** (general): For landing page copy that converts ad traffic
+- **analytics**: For proper conversion tracking setup
+- **ab-testing**: For landing page testing to improve ROAS
+- **cro**: For optimizing post-click conversion rates
+- **digital-marketing/traffic-management**: For Brazilian-DR + Meta + ROAS authoritative methodology

package/.merlin-core/skills/domain/marketing-ops/references/acquire/ai-seo/references/content-patterns.md

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+---
+source: coreyhaines31/marketingskills (MIT) v2.0.1
+imported: 2026-05-20 (stub) — full body deferred to follow-up cleanup
+stage: acquire
+skill: ai-seo
+upstream_path: skills/ai-seo/references/content-patterns.md
+---
+
+# content-patterns — reference stub
+
+This is a thin pointer to an upstream reference. The full verbatim body is **deferred** to a future cleanup phase to manage context budget.
+
+**Upstream URL (canonical body):** https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/skills/ai-seo/references/content-patterns.md
+
+**Raw fetch URL:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/main/skills/ai-seo/references/content-patterns.md
+
+**Parent skill:** [`../ai-seo.md`](../ai-seo.md) (stage: acquire)
+
+**To import the full body** (future task): `curl -sSL <raw URL> -o references/acquire/ai-seo/references/content-patterns.md`, then prepend the standard Adjacency header.

package/.merlin-core/skills/domain/marketing-ops/references/acquire/ai-seo/references/content-types.md

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+---
+source: coreyhaines31/marketingskills (MIT) v2.0.1
+imported: 2026-05-20 (stub) — full body deferred to follow-up cleanup
+stage: acquire
+skill: ai-seo
+upstream_path: skills/ai-seo/references/content-types.md
+---
+
+# content-types — reference stub
+
+This is a thin pointer to an upstream reference. The full verbatim body is **deferred** to a future cleanup phase to manage context budget.
+
+**Upstream URL (canonical body):** https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/skills/ai-seo/references/content-types.md
+
+**Raw fetch URL:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/main/skills/ai-seo/references/content-types.md
+
+**Parent skill:** [`../ai-seo.md`](../ai-seo.md) (stage: acquire)
+
+**To import the full body** (future task): `curl -sSL <raw URL> -o references/acquire/ai-seo/references/content-types.md`, then prepend the standard Adjacency header.

package/.merlin-core/skills/domain/marketing-ops/references/acquire/ai-seo/references/platform-ranking-factors.md

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+---
+source: coreyhaines31/marketingskills (MIT) v2.0.1
+imported: 2026-05-20 (stub) — full body deferred to follow-up cleanup
+stage: acquire
+skill: ai-seo
+upstream_path: skills/ai-seo/references/platform-ranking-factors.md
+---
+
+# platform-ranking-factors — reference stub
+
+This is a thin pointer to an upstream reference. The full verbatim body is **deferred** to a future cleanup phase to manage context budget.
+
+**Upstream URL (canonical body):** https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/skills/ai-seo/references/platform-ranking-factors.md
+
+**Raw fetch URL:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/main/skills/ai-seo/references/platform-ranking-factors.md
+
+**Parent skill:** [`../ai-seo.md`](../ai-seo.md) (stage: acquire)
+
+**To import the full body** (future task): `curl -sSL <raw URL> -o references/acquire/ai-seo/references/platform-ranking-factors.md`, then prepend the standard Adjacency header.