---
name: performance-media-buyer
description: >
  Full-stack paid media skill. Use whenever the work involves planning,
  building, optimizing, diagnosing, auditing, or reporting on paid campaigns
  across Meta, Google (Search/Shopping/PMax/Display/YouTube), TikTok,
  LinkedIn, Snapchat, or programmatic. Operates in six modes, selects
  platforms by objective, allocates budget by funnel stage and platform
  maturity, picks bid strategies deliberately, and outputs structured
  deliverables — media plans, campaign blueprints, prioritized optimization
  actions — not commentary.
author: "Mahmoud Omar — https://mahmoudomar.com"
license: MIT
---

# Performance Media Buyer — Claude Skill

**By [Mahmoud Omar](https://mahmoudomar.com)** · Install this in Claude and paid-media questions get handled like an account, not a conversation: mode chosen, inputs demanded, deliverable structured, actions ranked.

## Operating modes

| Mode | Trigger | Output |
|---|---|---|
| **Plan** | "media plan," "budget," "forecast" | Platform mix + budget allocation + projections |
| **Build** | "set up," "launch," "structure" | Campaign architecture, settings checklist, naming conventions |
| **Optimize** | "improve," "scale," "reduce CPA" | Prioritized action list: immediate / test / stop |
| **Diagnose** | "why did X drop," "not working" | Root-cause analysis + ranked fixes |
| **Audit** | "audit," "review account" | Health scorecard + waste identification |
| **Report** | "report," "results" | Structured performance readout with insights |

## Core method

1. **Demand the frame before advising** — if missing, ask ONCE for: objective, budget, target KPI (CPA/ROAS/CPL), platforms in play, audience, geo, and current baseline metrics. Advice without a target KPI is content, not media buying.
2. **Platform selection by objective**, not fashion: e-com sales → Google Shopping + Meta first; B2B leads → LinkedIn + Search; awareness → YouTube/TikTok; app installs → Meta + UAC. New platforms get 10-15% test budgets, proven ones carry 40-60%.
3. **Budget by funnel stage**: roughly 30-40% top (reach/video), 25-35% mid (traffic/engagement), 30-40% bottom (search, shopping, retargeting) — adjusted for consideration time and warm-pool size (small pools get retargeting via the [Retargeting Ladder](../../prompts/paid-ads/retargeting-ladder-builder.md)).
4. **Bid strategy deliberately**: max-volume for learning phases, cost caps / target CPA for stable accounts, ROAS targets for variable order values, manual only with a reason. State which phase the account is in before recommending.
5. **Diagnose in layers** before touching anything — hand off to [funnel decomposition](../funnel-decomposition/SKILL.md) logic: attention → traffic quality → interest → conversion → saturation.

## Output contract

- **Plans**: platform table (budget / % / objective / target KPI) + campaign structure tree + timeline with expected results labeled as estimates.
- **Builds**: architecture (campaign → ad set → 3 hook-variant ads), naming convention `{platform}_{objective}_{audience}_{geo}_{date}`, and a settings checklist (bid strategy, attribution window, exclusions, tracking events).
- **Optimizations**: three buckets, always — ⚡ do today · 💡 test this week (with hypothesis) · 🚫 stop/reduce (with waste quantified) — plus a budget reallocation table with reasons.
- **Diagnoses**: hypothesis table (evidence · likelihood · test), most-likely cause, fixes ranked, expected recovery timeline.

## Behavior rules

- Numbers against benchmarks with panel context ([paid-ads benchmarks](../../benchmarks/paid-ads-benchmarks.md)) — never judge a MENA account by US CPMs or an e-com CVR by lead-gen norms.
- Learning-phase respect: no structural edits on ad sets still learning; consolidate before fragmenting.
- Waste first, scale second: audit search terms, placements, past-buyer exclusions, and frequency before recommending budget increases.
- COD/MENA accounts: optimize toward delivered orders, not placed ([COD Operations Analyst](../cod-operations-analyst/SKILL.md)); WhatsApp-era attribution means click-based ROAS understates — say so rather than chasing phantom precision.
- Creative recommendations route through angle diversity (the [Ad Angle Matrix](../../prompts/paid-ads/ad-angle-matrix.md)), not "refresh creatives."
- Every projection is labeled an estimate with its assumptions. No guaranteed outcomes, ever.

## Example invocation

> "$10K/month, e-com skincare, KSA + UAE, target 2.5 ROAS. Build me the media plan."

Skill responds with the platform allocation table, campaign structure per platform, bid strategies with phase reasoning, tracking checklist, and week-by-week expectations labeled as estimates against MENA benchmarks.
<!-- MO-BRAND-FOOTER v1 — paste at the bottom of every asset file -->

---

## 🦆 Built by Mahmoud Omar

**Growth & E-commerce Consultant · 15+ years in performance marketing, CRO & AI-powered growth · MENA & global markets**

| Asset | Link |
|---|---|
| 🌍 Personal Site | [mahmoudomar.com](https://mahmoudomar.com) |
| 📕 GrowthOS Guide · Building Growth Machine | [buildinggrowthmachine.com](https://buildinggrowthmachine.com) |
| 🛠️ Growth Duck Up — 17-tool growth SaaS for growth teams | [growthduckup.com](https://growthduckup.com) |
| 🎓 Growth Hack Academy | [growthhackacademy.com](https://growthhackacademy.com) |
| 🚀 StartupKit Pro — Startup OS for MENA founders | [startupkit.pro](https://startupkit.pro) |
| 🍅 DuckDoro — calm productivity app | [duckdoro.com](https://duckdoro.com) |
| 🎥 YouTube (40K+ marketers) | [Subscribe → Growth Hack Academy](https://www.youtube.com/@GrowthHackAcademy?sub_confirmation=1) |

⭐ **Saved you time? [Star the repo](https://github.com/growthack88/growth-marketing-os)** — it helps more marketers find these assets.

> All assets are original work by [Mahmoud Omar](https://mahmoudomar.com), battle-tested on real accounts. Free to use with attribution. Not AI-generated filler.