Level 3 · Professional

Advertising

Meta and Google Ads are connected to the site with reliable conversion tracking, one campaign runs on each platform, and the CRM shows which campaign produced each lead and reports qualified leads back to the platforms.

9lessons
8.5 hof lessons
4.2 hhomework
5checkpoints

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Milestone

Paid traffic is running and each lead shows which ad produced it

Lessons

7.1
Advertising fundamentals and the numbers
50 min + 30 home
A budget and targets the student can defend.
What the lesson covers
Prerequisites
Checkpoint lesson-6.9; a rough figure for what one customer is worth to the business.
Covers
- How paid traffic works: auction, targeting, creative, landing page.
- Search intent versus social interruption: when each platform fits.
- The numbers: cost per click, conversion rate, cost per lead, cost per customer, return on ad spend.
- Working backwards from customer value to an affordable cost per lead.
Do along
Have Claude build a small calculator page in the admin area and fill it with the student's own figures.
Done when
docs/ads-plan.md states a test budget, a target cost per lead and the point at which to stop a campaign.
Homework
Run three scenarios through the calculator, check the close-rate estimate against the last ten real enquiries, and apply the stop rules to two imagined situations, all recorded in docs/ads-plan.md.
Open lesson 7.1 →
7.2
Meta Pixel
50 min + 25 home
Meta receives page views and lead events from the browser.
What the lesson covers
Prerequisites
Checkpoint lesson-6.9; a Facebook account with access to Meta Business tools.
Covers
- Business portfolio, ad account, dataset (pixel).
- Installing the pixel through GTM, dependent on consent.
- Standard events: page view and lead, each with an event ID for later deduplication.
- Testing with Meta's event testing tool.
Do along
Set up the dataset, add the tags in GTM, send a test lead.
Done when
The test lead appears in Meta's test events view as a browser event.
Homework
Repeat the consent and lead test on a second device, write a plain-words note on what Meta receives, and decide which standard events would fit other visitor actions without building them.
Open lesson 7.2 →
7.3
Meta Conversions API
60 min + 30 home
Lead events also reach Meta from the server, so blocked browsers do not hide conversions.
What the lesson covers
Prerequisites
Checkpoint lesson-7.2.
Covers
- Why browser-only tracking loses data.
- Sending the lead event from the lead endpoint built in 4.3.
- Hashing contact data before sending; respecting consent.
- Deduplication: the same event ID from browser and server counts once.
Do along
Have Claude add the server call, send a test lead, check both events and their deduplication.
Done when
Meta shows the lead received from both browser and server and counted as one.
Homework
Check the dataset the next day for both sources, count how many lead phone numbers carry a country code, and run a local failure drill with a deliberately wrong token to confirm leads are still saved.
Open lesson 7.3 →
7.4
Google Ads conversion tracking
55 min + 25 home
Google Ads knows when a click became a lead.
What the lesson covers
Prerequisites
Checkpoint lesson-7.3; a Google Ads account with a payment method.
Covers
- Creating the account without being pushed into an automatic campaign.
- The lead conversion action; conversion and conversion-linker tags in GTM.
- Enhanced conversions for leads: what is sent and why it improves matching.
- Linking Google Ads with GA4.
Do along
Create the conversion, add the tags, test with a tagged test click.
Done when
The conversion tags fire on a tagged test click and Google Ads has seen the tag.
Homework
Record the conversion action's status the next day, fill in a table of how GA4, Meta and Google Ads each count one lead, and test that a gclid survives every form of the site address.
Open lesson 7.4 →
7.5
First Google Search campaign
70 min + 30 home
A live search campaign bringing visitors who are looking for the offer.
What the lesson covers
Prerequisites
Checkpoint lesson-7.4; the budget from docs/ads-plan.md (7.1).
Covers
- Keyword research with Claude and the platform's keyword tool; match types; negative keywords.
- Campaign structure: campaign, ad groups, ads.
- Writing responsive search ads with Claude; ad policy basics.
- Budget, bidding choice for a new account, location and schedule; final URLs with UTM parameters.
Do along
Build and launch the campaign with the budget from 7.1.
Done when
The campaign is approved and running, and a click arrives on the site with the campaign's UTM values.
Homework
On the first review day, log spend, clicks and leads against the stop rule, list non-customer searches from the search terms report, and note what competing ads promise; nothing in the live campaign is changed.
Open lesson 7.5 →
7.6
First Meta campaign
70 min + 30 home
A live Meta campaign optimised for leads.
What the lesson covers
Prerequisites
Checkpoint lesson-7.4; a payment method in the Meta ad account; the budget from 7.1; images or video for creatives.
Covers
- Campaign, ad set, ad; choosing the lead objective with the website conversion event.
- Audiences: broad, interest-based, and lookalike or custom audiences later.
- Creative: angles, formats, primary text and headlines drafted with Claude; image and video sources.
- Placements, budget, the learning phase; URL parameters for attribution.
Do along
Produce three creatives with different angles and launch the campaign.
Done when
The campaign is active, and a click from the ad shows its campaign name on a test lead in the CRM.
Homework
On the first review day, log spend, clicks and leads per ad against the stop rule; write a fourth creative angle on paper and collect six more own photos with permissions noted. Nothing in the live campaign is changed.
Open lesson 7.6 →
7.7
Landing pages for campaigns
55 min + 30 home
Each campaign sends visitors to a page that matches its promise.
What the lesson covers
Prerequisites
Checkpoint lesson-7.4; the campaigns and the docs/ads/ files from 7.5 and 7.6.
Covers
- Message match between ad and page; its effect on conversion and ad quality.
- Building landing variants from the existing components: different headline, proof and offer.
- Keeping campaign pages out of search results where appropriate.
- Recording the landing page on each lead.
Do along
Have Claude create one variant per campaign and point each campaign at its own page.
Done when
Each campaign has its own landing page, and leads in the CRM show which page they came through.
Homework
Fill in the message-match worksheet for every live ad, walk through each campaign page on a phone and note frictions, and request one real testimonial or take one photo for a promise that lacks proof.
Open lesson 7.7 →
7.8
Closing the loop: CRM results back to the ad platforms
60 min + 30 home
The platforms optimise for good leads, not just any form submission.
What the lesson covers
Prerequisites
Checkpoint lesson-7.7; both campaigns running.
Covers
- The gap between a lead and a qualified lead or sale.
- Sending an event to Meta's Conversions API when a lead reaches the qualified or won stage.
- Sending offline conversions to Google Ads using the stored click identifier.
- Reading cost per qualified lead by campaign in the CRM dashboard.
Do along
Have Claude add the status-change triggers and an ad-spend input to the dashboard; move a test lead to "qualified".
Done when
Moving a test lead to the qualified stage produces an event on each platform, and the dashboard shows cost per qualified lead per campaign.
Homework
Write the rule for what counts as a qualified lead, bring every real campaign lead to its true pipeline stage, and write a plain-words legend for the "Reported to ad platforms" log.
Open lesson 7.8 →
7.9
Optional: earning from ads on your site
40 min + 20 home
Understand display-ad monetisation and decide whether it suits the site.
What the lesson covers
Prerequisites
Checkpoint lesson-7.8. Optional lesson; nothing later depends on it.
Covers
- How publisher networks such as Google AdSense work and what approval requires.
- Why ads on a lead-generation page usually cost more in lost leads than they earn.
- Where they do fit: content sections such as a blog.
- Ad slots, the ads.txt file, consent requirements, effect on page speed.
Do along
Have Claude add a blog section with a consent-aware ad slot component that shows a placeholder until an account is approved.
Done when
The student has written a one-paragraph decision for or against, and, if for, the placeholder slot renders only on blog pages.
Homework
List ten real customer questions as blog ideas, review three sites that carry display ads as a reader and confirm or revise the decision, and, if the blog was built, write a third article.
Open lesson 7.9 →