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Tools / Bucket 1

Channel operations

How ad platforms work, what algorithms optimise for, and when to override them. The three platforms you will use most, and what each is good at.

Tools and platforms

/Meta Ads (Advantage+)

Facebook and Instagram advertising. Advantage+ is Meta's AI-driven campaign type that automates audience selection, placement, and creative testing. You set the objective and constraints, it handles delivery.

facebook.com
/Google Ads (Performance Max)

Search, display, YouTube, and shopping ads in one campaign. Performance Max uses AI to allocate budget across all Google surfaces. Strong for intent-based targeting where people are already searching.

ads.google.com
/TikTok Ads

Short-form video advertising. The algorithm is aggressive about finding audiences based on content engagement, not declared interests. Good for reach and awareness with younger demographics.

ads.tiktok.com

What AI does vs what you do

AI handles
  • Bid management in milliseconds
  • Audience selection from thousands of signals
  • When and where ads appear
  • Spend allocation across placements
  • Budget shifting to winning variants
You decide
  • Define what success actually means before the campaign starts
  • Set constraints: budget caps, audience exclusions, timeframes
  • Question inflated ROAS claims from platforms
  • Verify real conversions vs attributed conversions
  • Distinguish branded search from genuine new demand

Skills to develop

/Healthy skepticism about platform metrics
/Understanding branded vs non-branded performance
/ROAS verification and incrementality thinking
/Knowing when to expand audiences vs pull the plug
/Recognising when AI is learning vs actually failing
/Setting the right objective for the right outcome

Your role is to define what success actually means before the campaign starts. You set the constraints. Then you watch. Not to tinker with every setting, but to catch the things the AI gets wrong.