Services / Strategy
Strategy, audits, training
The review your ad account has never had.
For teams that run their own ads and want an expert in the room.
You already have a team, an agency or a budget large enough to need a plan. We audit the accounts, build the media plan and the messaging framework, set up the reporting, and train the people running it, without taking the keys.
The account, as we read it
- Dale Holness
- Congressional campaign
- Meta ads
- May 1 to Aug 18, 2026
Two of the ads
Three of the totals
- Impressions
- 1,871,107
- Link clicks
- 5,951
- Cost per link click
- $3.53
29 ads in 3 languages. Every figure on this card is computed from the ad rows.
The account review. Six checks, run on accounts we ran ourselves.
This is the audit we do before we write a plan. Pick a step to see what we check and what it found. Every figure is computed from the per-ad rows of a real account, not typed in.
Step 1 of 6
Who the ads reached, and in which language.
An audience is a decision about who gets the budget. We read the account by audience and by language before we read it by ad, because that is where the spend is committed.
- 1 Every audience the account runs, and the overlap between them
- 2 Spend by language against the district or the client base
- 3 Exclusions: people already reached, already converted, already on the list
- 4 Whether the platform has learned the audience or is still guessing
From a congressional account we ran
Share of spend, by language
Cost per link click
- English
- $3.84
- Spanish
- $5.74
- Haitian Creole
- $0.42
The Spanish ads took 10.4% of the spend and paid more per link click than the English ads.
The Haitian Creole ads took 1.5% of the spend, the smallest share, and returned the cheapest link click of the three languages, at $0.42.
Which language earned the click is something the rows tell you, not something you assume.
See how we build audiencesStep 2 of 6
Which ads earned the click.
Creative fatigue shows up in the rows weeks before anyone notices it in the feed. We rank every ad by the job it was given, then look at what the winners have in common.
- 1 Every ad ranked by link clicks and by cost per link click, within its objective
- 2 Frequency: how many times the same accounts saw the same ad
- 3 Formats side by side: video, carousel, single image
- 4 A refresh schedule, so the losers get replaced and the winners get a sequel
From a congressional account we ran
The 4 reach ads with the most link clicks
Among the 24 ads optimised for reach, carousels held 3 of the 4 highest link-click counts and 3 of the 4 lowest costs per link click.
A weekly creative refresh is what a review turns into a habit.
See the carousels on the social media pageStep 3 of 6
When the money ran.
A budget has a shape. Committed early, it buys a learning period and a lower rate. Found late, it competes with every other campaign for the same week.
- 1 Spend by week against the calendar that matters: the election, the quarter, the deadline
- 2 How much of the budget was still running on the last day
- 3 Ads that ended early, and whether they were replaced
- 4 The learning period on every new ad set
From a congressional account we ran
Where the spend sat, by end date
- Ran through election day
- Ended in the final month
- Ended before the final month
19 of the 29 ads ran through election day, August 18, 2026, and carried 76.4% of the spend. The 5 ads that had ended by July 22, 2026 carried 3.6%.
Budget decided in week one wins more than budget found in week eight.
Ad platforms take about two weeks to learn an audience, and rates climb toward election day. The earlier the budget is committed in writing, the further every dollar goes.
Read the Dale Holness case studyStep 4 of 6
Whether the results are real.
An objective is only as good as the pixel that counts it. Before we trust a number in the account, we check the pixel, the events and the domain that report it, before a dollar runs.
- 1 The pixel fires once on every page, on the domain the ads send people to
- 2 Each event means what the account thinks it means
- 3 Objectives match the job: reach for the district, landing page views or conversations for the click
- 4 A second count: the platform’s number against the site’s own
From a congressional account we ran
| Objective | Reach | Landing page views |
|---|---|---|
| Ads | 24 | 5 |
| Link-click rate | 0.24% | 2.27% |
| Cost per link click | $4.58 | $0.49 |
The account optimised 24 ads for reach and 5 for landing page views. The landing-page-view ads drew link clicks on 2.27% of their impressions against 0.24%, at $0.49 per link click against $4.58.
A tracked outcome in a law firm account
- Claxton Law Group
- Law firm
- Meta ads
- Account totals, as of September 2026
- Messaging conversations started
- 18,688
- Cost per messaging conversation started
- $5.00
- On average: ad spend divided by messaging conversations started
Disclosure: Christian Gonzalez, founder of Advocacy Aces, is also Co-Founder and CMO of Claxton Law Group.
Two objectives, two jobs. Neither figure is wrong; the review checks that each ad was asked for the right one.
Read the Claxton Law Group case studyStep 5 of 6
Where the click lands.
The cheapest improvement in most accounts is the page after the ad. We check every page an ad points to, on a phone, with the ad beside it.
- 1 One page per ad, with the ad’s promise in the page’s first line
- 2 The form or the booking link above the fold
- 3 The disclaimer or the required notice where the rules put it
- 4 Speed on a phone connection
A site we built
The page is part of the ad. A review that stops at the account misses half the funnel.
See the websites we buildStep 6 of 6
What you read every week.
A report you cannot read is not a report. We set up the views your team needs, in plain language, and walk through them on a weekly call with the person running the account.
- 1 One page per account: the totals, the split by language, and every ad
- 2 Cost per result beside the result, never one without the other
- 3 The same date range every week, so the numbers compare
- 4 A written list of what changes next, and why
Our weekly report, below
Totals
- Impressions
- 1,871,107
- Link clicks
- 5,951
- All clicks
- 14,006
- Spend
- about $21,000
- CPM
- $11.21
- Cost per link click
- $3.53
Three views of the same rows: the totals, the split by language, and every ad.
Weekly updates, plain language, and direct access to the person running the account.
Open the reportWeek one. What you get in the first five days.
A typical first week. Your team keeps every login; we bring the checklist and the notes.
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Day 1
Access, not keys.
You add us to the ad accounts, the pixel and the analytics as a viewer. Nothing changes hands.
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Days 2 and 3
The six checks, on your accounts.
We run the review above on every account you opened to us, line by line, and keep notes as we go.
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Day 4
The written list.
What to fix first, in order, with the reason beside each item and the figure that shows it.
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Day 5
The first call.
We walk the person running the account through the list, agree what changes this week, and set the weekly office hour.
A report you can read. Our weekly report, as a real page.
This is our report for the congressional account above, built from the same per-ad rows. Three views: the totals, the split by language, and every ad, sortable and filterable. Every figure is computed from the rows.
Dale Holness
Congressional campaign
- Meta ads
- May 1 to Aug 18, 2026
- 29 ads
- 3 languages
- 2 objectives
Totals
- Impressions
- 1,871,107
- Link clicks
- 5,951
- All clicks
- 14,006
- Spend
- about $21,000
- Rounded to the nearest hundred
- CPM
- $11.21
- Cost per thousand impressions
- Cost per link click
- $3.53
- Spend divided by link clicks
By language
| Language | Ads | Spend | Share of spend | Link clicks | Cost per link click |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 19 | $18,470.68 | 88.1% | 4,811 | $3.84 |
| Spanish | 7 | $2,188.26 | 10.4% | 381 | $5.74 |
| Haitian Creole | 3 | $318.36 | 1.5% | 759 | $0.42 |
By ad
29 of 29 ads
| Carousel blk all | English | Reach | 105,201 | 713 | $2.71 | $1,935.56 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington A FB | English | Reach | 134,520 | 183 | $10.35 | $1,894.20 |
| Think Big all | English | Reach | 121,685 | 278 | $6.74 | $1,873.08 |
| Early V all | English | Reach | 130,756 | 512 | $2.92 | $1,497.29 |
| Rapid Fire all | English | Reach | 126,747 | 161 | $8.86 | $1,426.61 |
| Washington A IG | English | Reach | 136,164 | 163 | $8.56 | $1,395.58 |
| Carousel 1 FB | English | Reach | 90,077 | 413 | $2.63 | $1,087.63 |
| Outside IG | English | Reach | 217,112 | 213 | $4.69 | $1,000.00 |
| Outside FB | English | Reach | 171,409 | 259 | $3.86 | $999.99 |
| Mon Bump | English | Reach | 64,506 | 110 | $8.69 | $955.38 |
| Carousel 1 IG | English | Reach | 91,483 | 378 | $2.34 | $885.84 |
| Reggae Last day | English | Reach | 47,558 | 79 | $8.69 | $686.27 |
| RnB Last day | English | Reach | 46,691 | 77 | $8.88 | $683.69 |
| Outside all | English | Reach | 43,833 | 101 | $6.56 | $663.04 |
| BPN D20 issues | English | Reach | 44,621 | 309 | $2.10 | $649.27 |
| ESP carousel all | Spanish | Reach | 38,154 | 125 | $3.74 | $467.14 |
| ESP Washington A FB | Spanish | Reach | 26,376 | 37 | $10.09 | $373.34 |
| ESP Washington A IG | Spanish | Reach | 30,731 | 52 | $7.14 | $371.40 |
| ESP Outside IG | Spanish | Reach | 46,192 | 68 | $5.15 | $349.98 |
| ESP Outside FB | Spanish | Reach | 39,506 | 67 | $5.22 | $349.60 |
| Ride Share | English | Reach | 28,796 | 79 | $4.24 | $334.82 |
| 4th of July Ad | English | Landing page views | 33,746 | 671 | $0.37 | $249.62 |
| Vet Zip | English | Landing page views | 7,090 | 76 | $2.22 | $168.74 |
| Salsa Last day | Spanish | Reach | 9,619 | 16 | $8.89 | $142.26 |
| Bajo Last day | Spanish | Reach | 9,620 | 16 | $8.41 | $134.54 |
| Haitian list | Haitian Creole | Landing page views | 7,826 | 109 | $1.16 | $126.21 |
| Haitian interest | Haitian Creole | Landing page views | 15,084 | 644 | $0.19 | $124.47 |
| Mus endorse | English | Landing page views | 3,810 | 36 | $2.34 | $84.07 |
| Creole Last day | Haitian Creole | Reach | 2,194 | 6 | $11.28 | $67.68 |
This report covers the account’s full date range. On a weekly call we walk through one week of it at a time.
Meta Ads Manager, May 1 to Aug 18, 2026, per-ad rows. Reach is per ad and is not summed.
Two engagements. A firm we built from zero, and a campaign we ran.
Law firm, fractional CMO
Four years as Claxton Law Group’s fractional CMO.
The firm opened in August 2022 with no social accounts, no ad accounts and no marketing team. We created the accounts, built the program and have run it since the day the firm launched: the strategy, the Meta ads, the YouTube ads and the video.
“They've been a true partner in our firm's rapid growth. From strategy to execution, they helped us scale to the point I had to pause ads a couple of times from too many clients.”
Diane Claxton Founder, Claxton Law Group Disclosure: Christian Gonzalez, founder of Advocacy Aces, is also Co-Founder and CMO of Claxton Law Group.
Congressional campaign, Meta ads
Outcome: Finished second in the primary
What running a congressional account taught us.
What we learned
- 1 Reach and clicks are different jobs. Video ads optimised for reach put the message in front of the district at a low cost per thousand. Ads optimised for landing page views drove the clicks. A campaign needs both, and it needs to know which one each ad is for.
- 2 The message has to give people a choice. We ran the record and the vision. The winning campaign ran the contrast. Voters need to know what they are choosing between, not only who has the better resume.
- 3 Budget decided in week one wins more than budget found in week eight. Ad platforms take about two weeks to learn an audience, and rates climb toward election day. The earlier the spend is committed in writing, the further every dollar goes.
A client on the strategy
“Their team helped us connect with the community in a way that really made a difference. The strategy was sharp, and their support helped us win our election by a landslide.”
What’s included. Seven things your team keeps.
Account and creative audits across Meta, Google, YouTube, X and streaming TV
Media planning and budget allocation across channels
Voter and customer messaging framework
Reporting and dashboard setup your team can run
Training sessions and weekly office hours
Vendor and platform selection
Fractional leadership for a campaign cycle or a quarter
How it works. Three steps, in order.
You keep the keys. We bring the checklist, the plan and the office hours, and your team runs the ads.
- 1
Audit
Accounts, creative, targeting and spend, reviewed line by line, with a written list of what to fix first.
- 2
Plan
A media plan and a messaging framework your team can execute, with the budget split across channels and the calendar to match.
- 3
Coach
Weekly office hours and training for the people running the ads, so the plan survives contact with reality.
Consulting questions, answered.
If your question is not here, ask it on the call. We will give you a straight answer.
Larger campaigns, organizations, agencies and multi-office firms with an in-house team that runs its own advertising.
No. Your team keeps the keys. We advise, audit, plan and train.
Pairs well with.
Consulting covers the accounts. Social media management keeps the feed moving between the ads, and copywriting gives the ads something worth saying.
Related reading
Guides from the Advocacy Aces blog.
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Campaign StrategyDigital Marketing for Political Campaigns: A Florida Guide
The five things to build before a campaign's first ad runs, the Florida and platform rules that apply, and an honest look at what digital ads can and cannot do.
14 min read -
Campaign StrategyWhen Should a Florida Campaign Start Advertising?
In Florida, requested mail ballots reach voters weeks before Election Day. Here is how to plan campaign advertising backward from those ballots, early voting, qualifying and platform deadlines.
14 min read -
Social Media and Paid AdsBoost Post vs Ads Manager: Why You Need a Funnel
Boosting a post is advertising, with fewer controls than Ads Manager. A boost buys the reach, and a funnel builds what comes next. Here is how law firms and campaigns turn reach into calls, donations and votes, and the rules that apply once you pay.
12 min read
Ready for a second pair of eyes on the account?
Schedule a consultation. We will talk through your goals, your audience, and what your marketing should be doing for you, before you commit to anything.