Illustration for Paid ads marketing skills
Paid ads skill · v0.2.0

Ad budget, bidding & forecasting skill

Allocate budget across channels, pick bid strategies, pace spend and forecast CPA and ROAS from real data.

Free · MIT licence · Copy needs a free sign-in

Category
Paid ads
Works with
Claude, Codex, Cursor, any agent
Format
SKILL.md · 1,584 words
Version
v0.2.0
Price
Free · MIT

The Ad budget, bidding & forecasting skill file

cmo-ads-budget/SKILL.md1,584 words · MIT
---
name: cmo-ads-budget
description: Allocate budget across channels, pick bid strategies, pace spend and forecast CPA and ROAS from real data.
---

Decide where the next unit of ad money goes, how each campaign bids, whether the month will land on budget, and what results to expect, using the account's own numbers and the business's margins. Every number comes with its formula, its inputs and its uncertainty.

When to use

  • Splitting budget across Google, Meta and other channels; "should we scale?"; "what if we cut 30%?".
  • Choosing or changing a bid strategy or target.
  • Month-to-date pacing and end-of-month landing.
  • ROAS or CPA forecasts for a plan or a board.
  • Not for: choosing channels and objectives (cmo-ads-strategy), diagnosing a sudden spike (cmo-ads-monitoring), deciding which platform's conversions to believe (cmo-attribution) or day-to-day bidding inside one Google account (cmo-google-ads).
Sign in to see, copy and download the whole skillIt's free. Copying also upvotes and saves it, so you'll find it again under Saved.
Preview: the workflow, output, example, quality bar and guardrails unlock when you sign in.

Adapts open work by AgriciDaniel/claude-ads (MIT), irinabuht12-oss/marketing-skills (none), irinabuht12-oss/marketing-skills (none), irinabuht12-oss/marketing-skills (none), irinabuht12-oss/marketing-skills (none), irinabuht12-oss/marketing-skills (none), irinabuht12-oss/marketing-skills (none), facebookexperimental/Robyn (MIT).

Everyday usage

How people use Ad budget, bidding & forecasting day to day

Ask in plain words. The agent picks this skill, asks for anything it needs and hands back the result. Words in a highlight are yours to change.

Most common · also on the Paid ads page

Ad budget, bidding & forecasting

Break-even and target table with formulas shown

Ask your agentHow should I split my ad budget?
  • Break-even and target table with formulas shown
  • Allocation plan: hold, reallocate, scale, reduce or test, per channel and campaign
  • Bid strategy per campaign, a pacing table and a range forecast with assumptions

More things to ask

  • What happens if we double spend?
  • Should we move budget from Meta to Google?
  • Target CPA or Maximise conversions across our campaigns?
  • Forecast our ROAS for next quarter
  • Are we on pace for this month's budget?
  • Can we afford to scale this channel?
How it works

From input to output

  1. 1You give it
    • Spend, conversions, value and dates by channel and campaign, for comparable windows
    • Gross margin or deal value, target CPA or ROAS, cash and monthly ceilings
    • Conversion lag and sales cycle; returns or lead rejection rates
    • Planned changes (launches, promotions, seasonality)
  2. 2It works through the method
    • Asks what's missing, one question at a time
    • Follows the workflow step by step
    • Checks the result against its quality bar and guardrails
  3. 3You get
    • Break-even and target table with formulas shown
    • Allocation plan: hold, reallocate, scale, reduce or test, per channel and campaign
    • Bid strategy per campaign, a pacing table and a range forecast with assumptions
Why a skill

The skill against the alternatives

Do it yourselfHire helpAd budget, bidding & forecasting skill
CostYour own timeAgency or freelancer feesFree, MIT licence
Time to a first resultHours, every timeDays to weeks, plus revisionsMinutes, in your agent
ConsistencyDepends on remembering every stepAs long as the retainer lastsSame steps and checks every run
The methodIn your headTheir process, often hiddenWritten down: read it, change it
Who does the workYou, from scratchSomeone learning your businessYour agent, following the skill
FAQ

Questions about the Ad budget, bidding & forecasting skill

What it does, what it needs and how to use it with your agent.

Still not sure?Try it free on your own website and see the first posts before you decide.
Start free
What is the Ad budget, bidding & forecasting skill?

Allocate budget across channels, pick bid strategies, pace spend and forecast CPA and ROAS from real data.

It's one of cmo.so's open Paid ads skills: a SKILL.md file that tells an AI agent when to use it, what to ask you first, the steps to follow, the checks to pass and what to hand back, so the job is done the same careful way every time.

When should I use it?

Reach for it when you'd otherwise say something like “How should I split my ad budget?”, “What happens if we double spend?”, “Should we move budget from Meta to Google?”. Your agent reads the skill's description and picks it for requests like these, so you don't need to name it.

If a request is close but not quite right, the skill says so and points to the related skill that fits better, instead of forcing a poor answer.

What do I need to give it?

It works best with spend, conversions, value and dates by channel and campaign, for comparable windows; gross margin or deal value, target CPA or ROAS, cash and monthly ceilings; conversion lag and sales cycle; returns or lead rejection rates; and planned changes (launches, promotions, seasonality).

You don't have to prepare everything up front. The skill asks for missing pieces one at a time and says plainly when it's working from an assumption instead of your data.

What do I get back?

You get break-even and target table with formulas shown; allocation plan: hold, reallocate, scale, reduce or test, per channel and campaign; and bid strategy per campaign, a pacing table and a range forecast with assumptions.

Every result comes from a written method with a quality bar, so numbers name their source, claims are checked and the output is ready to use or share rather than a rough draft.

Is it free?

Yes. The skill is open source under the MIT licence, so you can use it, change it and share it, including for client work.

Seeing, copying and downloading the whole file on cmo.so needs a free sign-in. Copying also upvotes and saves it, so you can find it again under Saved on the skills page.

Which AI agents can use it?

Claude Code installs it from the cmo.so marketplace. Any agent that reads SKILL.md folders, such as Codex or Cursor, can use it once the folder is in its skills directory.

You can also paste the copied skill into ChatGPT, Claude or any assistant at the start of a conversation and ask it to follow the skill.

How do I install it?

In Claude Code, run /plugin marketplace add AI-Marketing-OS-LTD/cmo-so-skills, then /plugin install cmo-so-paid-ads@cmo-so. That installs this skill together with the rest of the Paid ads group.

For other agents, sign in, press Copy or Download above and put the file in your agent's skills folder as SKILL.md inside a folder named after the skill.

Do I need a cmo.so account to use it?

No. The skill works on its own with whatever your agent can already see and do: your files, the pages you share and the data you paste in.

A free cmo.so account only matters if you also want Maggie to plan, write and publish your marketing every day.

Which skills work well with it?

It pairs well with Paid ads strategy; and Ads monitoring & diagnostics. The agent can hand over from one to the next in the same conversation, for example research first, then the plan, then the writing.

Each of them has its own page with what it needs and what it returns, linked below.

Can I change it to fit my business?

Yes. It's a plain Markdown file, so you can edit the steps, add your own checks and examples, and keep your version in your own repo. The MIT licence allows it.

If your change would help others too, suggest it on the skills page or open a pull request on GitHub, and it may be folded into the library for everyone.

Where does the method come from?

It's written by cmo.so and adapts open work by others, credited on this page: AgriciDaniel/claude-ads (MIT); irinabuht12-oss/marketing-skills (none); and irinabuht12-oss/marketing-skills (none).

Only permissively licensed work is adapted; copyleft repos are used for ideas only and repos without a licence aren't used at all.

Is my data sent to cmo.so when the agent uses it?

No. The skill only guides your own agent; your files, documents and data stay wherever your agent and its tools keep them.

cmo.so only sees what you connect to cmo.so. Your votes and saves on this page are stored against your cmo.so sign-in.

Ready when you are!

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  • You decide what goes out
  • Cancel any time

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