Paid Traffic Plan
Horus in flight, the sky god of kingship who sees the whole land from above.
Budget, audiences and creative cadence for your first profitable month of ads.
Do the math before you spend a dollar
Ads are profitable when a customer costs less to acquire than they bring in. Every number in this plan comes from three figures you set first. Without them you cannot tell a good week from a bad one.
| Number | How to get it | Yours |
|---|---|---|
| A · Gross profit per customer, first 30 days | Revenue in month one minus cost to deliver | |
| B · Break-even cost per customer | Equal to A | |
| C · Target cost per customer | A × 0.6 to 0.8, so there is profit left | |
| D · Lead to customer rate | Customers ÷ leads, from history or a careful guess | |
| E · Target cost per lead | C × D |
Set the month's budget
The platform needs enough conversions to learn. A practical floor is a daily budget that can buy at least one target lead per ad set per day.
Daily test budget per ad set ≥ target cost per lead (E)
| Bucket | Share of monthly budget | Purpose | Yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Testing | About 60% in weeks 1 and 2, falling to 20% | Find the winning angle and audience | |
| Scaling | Rises to about 60% by week 4 | Push spend behind proven ads | |
| Retargeting | 10 to 20% throughout | Convert people who already showed interest |
Only spend money you can afford to treat as the price of learning in month one. If you lose all of it, you should still be in business.
The audience plan
| Audience | Temperature | Who it is | What to show them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad | Cold | Country, age range, no interests; let the creative do the targeting | Problem and story hooks |
| Interest stack | Cold | Three to five related interests your buyer would have | Problem and mechanism hooks |
| Lookalike | Cool | Similar to your buyers or best leads (needs a seed list) | Mechanism and proof |
| Engagers | Warm | Video viewers, page and profile engagers, last 30 to 90 days | Proof, objections, offer |
| Site visitors | Hot | Visited the offer page, did not convert, last 7 to 30 days | Offer, deadline, testimonials |
| Exclude | n/a | Existing customers and recent leads | Nothing; they cost money and skew results |
Creative cadence
Creative is the biggest lever you control. Plan new ads every week, not when the old ones die.
| Week | New concepts | Hooks per concept | Formats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 to 5 different angles | 2 to 3 | Short video, static image |
| 2 | 2 new angles + variations of the best | 3 | Add a carousel |
| 3 | 1 to 2 new angles | 3 on each winner | Remake the winner in a second format |
| 4 | 1 to 2 new angles | Fresh hooks on fading winners | Testimonial or demo version |
Your angles for week 1
1. … 2. … 3. …Kill, keep or scale
Decide in advance so you do not react to one bad day. These are starting rules of thumb; tighten them as your own data comes in.
| Situation | Action |
|---|---|
| Ad has spent 2× target cost per lead with zero leads | Turn it off |
| Cost per lead above break-even after 3 days of steady spend | Turn it off or change the hook |
| Cost per lead between target and break-even | Keep running, test new hooks against it |
| Cost per lead below target for 3+ days | Raise budget 20 to 30%, wait 2 to 3 days, repeat |
| Winner's costs rising week over week | Add fresh hooks on the same angle before it dies |
| Cheap leads that never buy | Judge on cost per customer, not cost per lead; tighten the form |
The four weeks
Test angles
One campaign, two to three audiences, all week-one concepts live. Do not touch anything for the first 72 hours unless something is broken.
Cut and refine
Turn off the bottom half. Make new hooks on the top two angles. Switch on retargeting.
Start scaling
Raise budgets on winners in steps. Move the best ads into the broad audience. Keep a small test budget running.
Check profit, plan month two
Compare cost per customer to your target. Write down which angle, audience and format won, and build month two around them.
Daily and weekly checks
Daily, five minutes
- Spend is pacing to budget; nothing paused by mistake or rejected.
- Leads are arriving in your CRM, not just in the ad dashboard.
- Any ad past the kill rule is off.
Weekly, thirty minutes
- Cost per lead and cost per customer by ad, against target.
- Best and worst hook, and what made the difference.
- New creative brief written for next week.
- Sales team or inbox feedback on lead quality.
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