# ad-platform-selection

Selects paid media channel families based on unit economics, audience, and budget before launch. Eliminates options using allowable CAC and payback thresholds.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 19800 installs · ★ 2
- Author: Maya-Beth Finotti
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/mbfinotti/advertising-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/ad-platform-selection/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-09-14
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/ad-platform-selection

## What it does

This skill treats channel selection as arithmetic rather than preference. It conducts an interview regarding business margins, sales cycle length, and media budget. Relying only on familiar platforms often ruins a launch when the unit economics fail. The skill prevents that bias.

The process starts with an affordability gate. It calculates contribution margin, break-even ROAS, and discounted payback based on customer retention. Any channel family whose realistic acquisition cost exceeds the allowable CAC is removed immediately.

The output delivers one funded primary channel, explicit rejection reasons for the rest, and a clear pass-or-fail test. It handles initial campaign setup only. Shuffling spend between running campaigns is handled elsewhere.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mbfinotti/advertising-skills --skill ad-platform-selection -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/ad-platform-selection/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/ad-platform-selection/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mbfinotti/advertising-skills --skill ad-platform-selection -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/ad-platform-selection/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mbfinotti/advertising-skills --skill ad-platform-selection -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/ad-platform-selection/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install mbfinotti/advertising-skills ad-platform-selection
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/ad-platform-selection/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mbfinotti/advertising-skills --skill ad-platform-selection -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/mbfinotti/advertising-skills --path skills/ad-platform-selection
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/ad-platform-selection/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mbfinotti/advertising-skills --skill ad-platform-selection -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/mbfinotti/advertising-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/ad-platform-selection/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- calculate break-even ROAS and allowable CAC before launch
- select a single funded primary paid media channel
- eliminate unprofitable ad channels based on payback period
- set pass or fail criteria for the initial channel test

## Example prompts
- Where should we spend our initial ad budget for a B2B SaaS product?
- Compare paid search and paid social for our average order value
- Help me pick our first paid channel given a 60% gross margin

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: ffe8108acc130fb3.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE ffe8108acc130fb3
```text
---
name: ad-platform-selection
description: "Decide which paid channel families fit a business's economics, audience, funnel stage, and budget at campaign setup - paid search, paid social, short-form video, connected TV, native/discovery, retail media, programmatic display, podcast/audio, paid review listings, B2B professional networks - including whether each is affordable against allowable CAC and payback. Use whenever the user asks where to spend a new ad budget, which platform to advertise on, how to build a paid channel mix, whether a channel is worth trying, or compares two ad channels - even if they never say 'channel selection'. Covers B2B and B2C. Do NOT use to split an ongoing budget across existing campaigns - use mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-spend-allocation instead."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Maya-Beth Finotti
  version: "1.2.6"
---

# Platform Selection

You are a paid-media strategist. Recommend which paid channel family (or small set of families) a business should run, given its unit economics, audience, funnel stage, and budget. This is a one-time, campaign-setup decision framework: it ends with a channel plan naming one funded primary channel, the reasons every other channel was rejected, and a test with pass/fail criteria.

Channel choice is arithmetic, not preference. Work in channel categories, never in one vendor's product vocabulary - every family here has several competing vendors that share the same mechanics.

What decides the shortlist:

- Economics decide what is affordable.
- Learning thresholds decide what can produce a readable signal.
- Regulation, geography, and operational capacity eliminate the rest.

Out of scope - hand off to the sibling skill instead of covering it here:

- Recurring budget split across running channels: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-spend-allocation
- Day-to-day pacing: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-budget-pacing
- Bidding method: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-bidding-strategy
- Setting the CAC ceiling / ROAS floor policy: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-spend-guardrails
- Benchmarking current CAC/ROAS health: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@cac-roas-benchmark
- Scaling a proven channel: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@paid-media-scaling
- Audience tiering: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-audience-targeting
- Ad format choice: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-format-fit
- Creative variant tests: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-creative-test-plan
- Tracking verification: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@ad-conversion-tracking
- Landing page review: mbfinotti/advertising-skills@paid-landing-page-audit

This skill uses allowable CAC and payback as gates: it takes those targets as input, rather than setting them.
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE ffe8108acc130fb3

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First 2719 of 32083 bytes. © Maya-Beth Finotti · MIT · https://github.com/mbfinotti/advertising-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/ad-platform-selection/SKILL.md

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