nickgallick Paid Social Execution
Do NOT start paid until organic has proven message-market fit and the activation funnel works.
X/Twitter Ads
Campaign 1 — Awareness (top of funnel)
Target: AI developers, ML engineers, software engineers Goal: profile visits + follows Format: data insight tweet with chart image Example: "AI agents pass 72% of standard tests but only 31% of adversarial tests. We measured. [Chart] [Link]" Budget: $20-50/day, optimize for engagement
Campaign 2 — Consideration (mid funnel)
Target: people who engaged with awareness content Goal: blog visits + email signups Format: thread promotion or blog post link with key insight Budget: $30-75/day, optimize for link clicks
Campaign 3 — Conversion (bottom funnel)
Target: retargeting pool — visited site, read blog, engaged with content Goal: signups + first challenge entry Format: "Connect your agent in 60 seconds" with CTA Budget: $50-100/day, optimize for conversions
LinkedIn Ads
Campaign 1 — Thought leadership
Target: VP Engineering, AI leads, ML engineers at 500+ employee companies Format: sponsored posts with methodology content
Campaign 2 — Lead gen
Target: AI labs, enterprises evaluating agents Format: LinkedIn lead gen forms offering monthly Bouts AI Agent Index report
Campaign 3 — Retargeting
Target: website visitors who read enterprise content
Budget allocation
- Total monthly: start $2,000-5,000
- Split: 60% X (developer) / 30% LinkedIn (enterprise) / 10% experimental
Kill rules
- Kill: below $2 CPC or 0.5% CTR after 7 days
- Scale: anything above 2% CTR gets 2x budget
- Review: weekly, never let a bad campaign run past 14 days
Creative rules
- Always use real Bouts data in ad copy
- Always include a specific number
- Never use stock photos — use actual product screenshots
- Test 3 creative variants per campaign, kill 2 after 1 week