⚙️ Setup — API Key & Your Offer

▼

Checking API key… Set key in Community Builder →

Your Skool Community About Page

This is saved automatically. Every tab uses it to tailor ad copy to your specific offer.

Your Brand Colors — used in your Gemini image prompt

Primary

Accent

Background

Saved automatically. Your Gemini image prompt will use these colors instead of the defaults.

💡 Tip: Ad Creative Studio works best when you have hooks and callouts generated. Visit the Community Builder, run the Hooks and Callouts tabs first, then come back.

FB Ad Machine · Ad Creative Studio

Ad Creative Studio

Pick a creative format, choose a hook and callout from your saved library (or type your own), and Claude writes a complete Facebook ad — copy, creative brief, and caption variation.

Ad Creative Format

Tells Claude what kind of image to generate and how to frame the creative brief. Your copy (hook, benefits, CTA) stays consistent — what changes is the visual style, layout, and design direction for that format.

Awareness Stage

Controls the tone and structure of your ad copy based on how warm the audience is.
S1–S2: Empathy-first — opens with her feeling, no pitch in the first two lines. S3–S4: Problem → solution — names the pain, then bridges to your offer mid-copy. S5: Direct offer up front — price or free stated early, urgency in the CTA.

Hook — optional if using a callout

Audience Callout — optional if using a hook

Your Topic (optional)

When filled in, Claude uses this as the creative direction for your ad. You can still choose a hook and callout above to pair with it.

Community Type

Your Facebook Ad

Facebook Ad Preview

🖼️ How to Create Your Skool Mockup Images

▼

Your ad creative needs an image. Here are the most effective Skool mockup styles — and how to make them yourself using Canva or your own screenshots.

Instagram Educational Content

Turn your buying personas, hooks, and callouts into scroll-stopping educational carousels and single images — with slide-by-slide content and Gemini-ready image prompts.

Target Persona

No personas loaded — run Buying Personas in Community Builder first, then come back.

Content Format

Number of Slides

Slide 1 = hook · Middle slides = one teaching point each · Last slide = soft CTA

Educational Topic Type

Claude will choose the teaching angle based on your persona's pain, dream, and offer anchors.

Your Topic (optional)

Visual Style

✓

◼

Bold & Minimal

High contrast · Big statement text · Solid color backgrounds — clean and thumb-stopping

✓

✦

Sophisticated & Classic

White bg · Serif type · Rose pill labels · Niche gold accent · Ticket-cut banners — airy and premium

✓

✿

Elegant Script

White bg · Blush watercolor blob · Script headline · Niche gold accent motifs — editorial and dreamy

✓

⬡

Tech-Minimalist

White bg · Grid overlay · Monospace type · Floating UI window · Data-node icons — modern digital

✓

◇

Premium Editorial

Magazine-style · Elegant typography · Lifestyle photography feel — polished and aspirational

✓

✎

Warm & Sketchy

Hand-drawn elements · Notebook feel · Casual and relatable — personal and approachable

Awareness Stage

S1–2: Mirror the feeling, no pitch yet. S3–4: Bridge to solution and offer. S5: Direct offer with CTA.

Opening Hook

Audience Callout

After generating, paste the Gemini prompt into Google Gemini ImageFX. Got a watermark on your image? Remove it free here →

Your Instagram Content

✍

Instagram Caption & Hashtags

Ready to copy and paste

FB Ad Machine · Reel Script

Video Reel Script Generator

Generate a complete spoken video script for a Facebook or Instagram Reel — what to say on camera, start to finish, in 15, 30, or 60 seconds.

Target Persona

No personas loaded — run Buying Personas in Community Builder first, then come back.

Script Mode

Promotional — script showcases your community/offer, references real features, closes with a CTA to join. Educational — pure teaching content about your niche, no selling, no offer mentions. Builds trust and authority with your persona.

Educational Topic Type

Claude will use this angle to shape what each video teaches and how it opens.

Your Topic (optional)

Open With

Hook — opens with an inner-voice statement she already thinks ("I just want to be able to…"). Callout — opens direct to camera ("If you X, stay with me…").

Awareness Stage

Hook

Audience Callout

Target Reel Length

15 sec = hook + CTA only. 30 sec = hook + 2 body points + CTA. 60 sec = full narrative arc.

Number of Video Prompts

Generates AI video creation prompts (for Runway, Kling, Sora) to create high-quality visuals for your script. Choose 0 to skip.

Your Reel Script

FB Ad Machine · AI Analysis

Ad Performance Analyzer

Upload your Facebook Ads Manager export and get a clear verdict on every ad — turn it off, scale it, or let it breathe — grounded in your exact numbers.

Community Type

Target Cost Per Lead

$2.50 per lead — industry sweet spot

Your Monthly Community Price

$ / month

Enter your price to calculate your target cost per member.

Avg. Months Retained ⓘ

months avg. retention

Default 1 = one month only.

Min. Data Threshold ⓘ

$20.00 per ad before judging

3× target cost per member, minimum $20.

📊

Drop your Facebook Ads export here

Supports .xlsx / .xls / .csv

⚠ Before you export from Ads Manager:
Set the date range to exactly when your ads started running — not just "last 7 days" or "this month." If your ads started March 7, set the start date to March 7. This lets the AI know how long each ad has actually been running and give you accurate advice.

Parsed Ad Data

Ad Name	Status	Results	Cost / Result	Spent	CTR	CPC	CPM	Impressions	Quality	Engagement	Conversion

Ad-by-Ad Decisions

FB Ad Machine · Optimization Guide

Ad Optimization Guide

Your complete system for launching, evaluating, consolidating, and scaling Facebook ad tests. Follow this flow every single time.

1 Launch Your Test Campaign

Budget Setup

Free / Freemium Skool: $10/day in a separate Sales campaign. Optimize for Complete Registration.

Paid Skool (with free trial): $10/day. Optimize for Test Purchase AND Complete Registration — test both.

Paid Skool (direct purchase): $1–3× your front-end offer price per day. Optimize for Purchase only.

Always launch tests in a separate Sales campaign — never add new creatives to your base campaigns.

What to Test

One new ad creative concept per test. Use the Ad Creative Studio to generate new concepts. Keep the audience and bid strategy the same — only change the creative.

2 Wait 48–72 Hours

⏸ Do Not Touch Anything

Let the algorithm learn. Do not edit the ad, change the budget, or pause it during this window. Touching it resets the learning phase and wastes your data.

3 Evaluate by Skool Type

Free Skool

Check: Cost per member

↓

≤ $2.50

↓

✓ Keep & Scale
Increase budget. Move winning ad to base campaign using Existing Post.

> $2.50

↓

✗ Turn It Off
Check which ad got most spend. Learn why. Move on.

Paid Skool

Did you get any sales?

↓

No sales

↓

✗ Turn It Off
The ad that got most spend = Meta's best guess. Understand why it didn't convert.

Yes, got sales

↓

Cost per purchase = target?

↓

Consolidate
Too expensive. Pull winning ad(s) into base campaign as Existing Post.

✓ Keep & Scale
At target. Increase budget until profitability dips.

4 Your Testing Routine

Free / Freemium Skool

1 new test per week

Launch Monday. Evaluate Thursday. Consolidate winners. Launch next test the following Monday.

Keep fresh creatives flowing into your base campaign using the Existing Post method so social proof builds up (at least on Facebook).

Paid Skool

2–3 new tests per week

Every time you get results back after 72 hours — evaluate, consolidate, and launch the next test immediately.

This keeps fresh creatives flowing and gives you enough data to know what's working faster.

5 Scaling Rules

When & How to Scale

Watch your base campaigns: Keep a close eye on the cost ratio between them. If one gets significantly more expensive while another gets cheaper — scale the cheaper one, reduce the expensive one.

When you add more creatives to a campaign: You can increase the budget proportionally.

Always use the Existing Post method when moving winning ads to base campaigns — so social proof (comments, likes, shares) continues to accumulate across all placements.

Expand geo after validation: Once a creative is proven in US only, duplicate for UK / Canada / Australia.

The Consolidation Move

Turn off the test campaign. Pull the ad(s) that got purchases or sign-ups into your base campaign(s) using Existing Post. Add winners to ALL traffic campaigns so social proof accumulates in one place.

Unpin the test campaign. If you don't have a base campaign yet, save the winning ad and keep testing until you do.

FB Ad Machine · Content Calendar

30-Day Content Calendar

Maps your personas, hooks, and callouts into a 30-day posting schedule — one row per day. Then generate ready-to-use ad scripts for every single day.

Checking API key… Set key in Community Builder →

30 Days · Stages 1–5 · One hook + callout per row

Stages: S1 Unaware S2 Problem Aware S3 Solution Aware S4 Product Aware S5 Most Aware

#	Date	Persona	Niche Target	Stage	Hook Type	Hook Text	Callout Text	Format	Platform	Notes	Ad Script

Generate Ad Scripts
Claude will write a short, authentic script for each of the 30 days — combining the hook, callout, and persona data into copy that sounds like a real person, not an ad.

Content Machine · Metrics

Skool Metrics Calculator

Enter your Skool dashboard numbers and Facebook ad spend. See profit/loss, ROAS, growth, and 3-month projections — period by period.

Frequency:

Period:

Skool Stats

Paid Members

Start of Period

End of Period

MRR ($)

Start of Period

End of Period

Churn % (last 30d)

1-Time Sales ($)

Traffic & Signups (last 7 days)

About Page Visitors

Signups

Trials in Progress

Trial Conversion Rate %

Ad Spend

Facebook Ads Spend ($)

Other Expenses ($) optional

Skool Ads Crash Course · Account Setup

Account Setup Cheat Sheet

Go from zero to your first running ad. Follow each section in order — Facebook page → Instagram → Ad Account → Data Sources → Pixel → Launch your first ad → Retargeting.

1 Facebook Business Page Setup

Why you need it

Your Facebook Business Page is the foundation of your entire Meta ads setup. Every ad you run will be tied to this page, and it's required before you can open an Ad Account or run ads on Instagram.

Create your page inside Business Manager — not on facebook.com

Always create your Facebook Page from inside Meta Business Manager (business.facebook.com), not from your personal Facebook profile. When you create it there, it automatically connects to your Ad Account — saving you extra steps later and keeping everything organized under one roof.

Steps

1 Go to business.facebook.com and log in (or create a Business Manager account if you don't have one)

2 In the left sidebar go to Accounts → Pages → Add → Create a New Page

3 Page Name: Use your brand, community, or business name (see tip below)

4 Category: Choose Education, Coach, or Community Organization

5 Description: Short, clear statement about what your community or offer is

6 Upload a profile photo + cover photo (simple graphic or logo is fine)

7 Add your Skool community link in the About / Website field

8 Publish the page

9 Create and pin a post introducing your community

Personal Name vs. Community / Business Name

Either works — but here's how to choose:

Use your community/business name if this page will represent only one Skool community. Your ads will look branded and on-topic.

Use your personal name if you run multiple offers and want one central page. You can still run fully branded ads.

The most important thing: keep it consistent with what you call yourself on Instagram and inside Skool.

2 Instagram Account Setup

Why you need it

Instagram is required to run Meta ads on Instagram placements. Even if you don't post often, having a connected Business account unlocks Reels, Stories, and feed placements — and lets Meta serve your ad wherever it performs best.

Steps

1 Download or open Instagram. Create a new account or use your existing personal one

2 Go to Settings → Account → Switch to Professional Account → Select Business

3 Connect to your Facebook Business Page (through Meta Business Suite or during the setup flow)

4 Add: profile photo, username, bio with your niche + Skool link

5 Pin at least one post talking about your community

6 Optional: add a few Highlight stories or grid posts to warm up the profile

3 Ad Account Setup

Why you need it

Your Ad Account is where you create and manage campaigns, set budgets, and track performance inside Meta Ads Manager. You need one before you can run a single ad.

Steps

1 Go to business.facebook.com/settings

2 Under Accounts, click Ad Accounts → Add → Create a New Ad Account

3 Name it something simple: "YourBrand Ads" or "Skool Ads"

4 Select your time zone + currency

5 Assign yourself full admin permissions

6 Your Ad Account auto-connects to your Facebook Page if created from within Business Manager

7 Optional: Add a payment method now, or wait until you're ready to launch your first campaign

4 Data Sources — Create Your Dataset & Set Permissions

Why you need it

Your Dataset is the tracking foundation that ties your Meta Pixel to your ad account. Creating it here — inside Business Manager's Data Sources — lets you assign full control to your Facebook Page and Instagram account so Meta can track conversions across all placements from day one.

Steps — Create the Dataset

1 Go to business.facebook.com/settings

2 In the left sidebar under Data Sources, click Datasets

3 Click Add

4 Name your dataset clearly — e.g., "YourCommunity Dataset" or "YourCommunity Pixel"

5 Category is optional — you can skip it and leave it blank

6 Click Create

Steps — Assign Permissions (Manage)

7 Click on the dataset you just created to open it

8 Go to the Manage tab

9 Find your Facebook Page and set access to Full Control

10 Find your Instagram account and set access to Full Control

Why Full Control matters

Without Full Control, Meta may not be able to send conversion data back to your dataset — which means your ads won't optimize properly and you'll miss retargeting events. Always verify both your Facebook Page and Instagram account are connected here before running ads.

5 Meta Pixel Setup

Why you need it

The Meta Pixel tracks how people interact with your Skool page (visits, registrations, purchases). This data lets Meta optimize your ads for the right conversion event and powers your retargeting audiences.

Steps — Create & Install

1 Go to business.facebook.com → All Tools → Events Manager

2 Confirm you're in the correct ad account

3 Click "Connect Data Sources" → Web

4 Create a new Dataset — name it clearly (e.g., "Brand Name Pixel")

5 Choose Meta Pixel → "Install code manually"

6 Copy the Pixel code

Steps — Connect to Skool

7 Go to your Skool group → Settings → Plugins → Meta Pixel Tracking (Pro plugin)

8 Turn it on and click Connect Meta Pixel

9 Paste your Pixel ID in the Meta Pixel ID field

10 Back in Events Manager → your Dataset → click the Settings tab (main frame)

11 Scroll to Conversions API → "Set up direct integration"

12 Click "Generate access token" — copy it and save it somewhere safe (e.g., LastPass Notes)

13 Paste the access token back in Skool's Meta Pixel Tracking window → click Connect

Tip: Verify Your Pixel Is Firing

Install the Meta Pixel Helper Chrome extension. Visit your Skool About page — if the extension shows a green checkmark, your pixel is working. If not, double-check the Pixel ID and access token in Skool settings.

6 Running Your First Ad

Shared Setup — Do This First (Both Paths)

1 Open Meta Ads Manager → Create a new campaign

2 Objective: Sales (Conversions)

3 Connect your Pixel / Dataset

4 Connect your Facebook Page + Instagram account

5 Placements: Automatic (Facebook + Instagram feeds, Reels, Stories)

6 For your creative, use the Ad Creative Studio tab in this tool → upload image/video + paste the body copy & description it generates

Country Targeting — Start With These 6 Markets

These countries have the highest purchasing power for English-speaking Skool communities. Target all 6 together when starting out.

🇺🇸 United States 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 🇨🇦 Canada 🇦🇺 Australia 🇩🇪 Germany 🇳🇿 New Zealand

🆓

Free Community Path

Optimize for registrations

Conversion Event Complete Registration

Destination URL Your Skool About page (full /about URL)

Daily Budget $10–$15/day to start

Ad Variants Create 10–30 variants in one Ad Set (swap images/videos or change copy)

Scaling After 3–5 days, move winners to a new Ad Set with a higher daily budget

💳

Paid Community Path

Optimize for purchases

Conversion Event Purchase

Destination URL Your Skool About page (full /about URL)

Daily Budget Minimum 2× your membership price
e.g. $20/mo membership → $40/day · $37/mo → $74/day

Ad Variants Same 10–30 variant testing strategy

Scaling If cost per purchase ≤ membership price, scale up. Move winners to a new Ad Set.

Testing Strategy (Both Paths)

Determine your test budget: Set your daily test budget at 1–3× the price of your front-end offer.
Example: If your community is $33/month, set your test budget to $50–$75/day.

Set up new ads in a separate test campaign. Always use a Sales campaign objective.
· Free community → Complete Registration
· Freemium community → test Purchase vs Complete Registration
· Paid community (even with free trial) → Purchase

Let it run for at least 48–72 hours before making any decisions.

Use this decision logic after 48–72 hours:

No sales

Turn off the campaign. Look at which ad got the most spend — that one was the algorithm's best guess. Try to understand why it didn't convert. Was the hook weak? Was the offer unclear? Take notes before your next test.

Sales, but too expensive

Turn off the test campaign. Take the ad that got sales and move it into your base campaign — your first campaign that is still running and getting somewhat profitable sales. If this is your very first campaign, hold that winning ad aside and keep testing until you have a base campaign that gets consistent daily sales.

Sales around your target cost

Keep the campaign running. Increase the budget gradually until profitability starts to drop. As you run future test campaigns, move any new ads that get sales into this campaign — this becomes your main scaling campaign.

5b How to Read Your Ad Performance

The Numbers That Actually Matter

You don't need to monitor 30 metrics. Focus on these — they tell you everything you need to know about whether an ad is working.

Cost Per Lead (CPL)

Your primary metric for lead magnet campaigns. Goal: under $2.50 USD. If your CPL climbs above $2.50, it's time to test a new creative or copy before spending more.

Cost Per Purchase (CPP)

The most important number for paid communities. Your CPP must be lower than your membership price for the ad to be profitable.

Example: Community costs $33/month → you want your CPP well under $33. If it's $100 per purchase, the ad is losing money.

Cost Per Registration (CPR)

For free communities, this is your key metric. A healthy CPR means you're growing your community affordably. High CPR means the creative or targeting isn't resonating — test a new hook.

CTR — All

Measures how many people engage with your ad in any way. Benchmark: 4%+. Below 4%? Your creative may not be stopping the scroll — you have the potential to lower your cost by testing a new creative.

CTR — Link Click-Through

Measures how many people actually click your link. Benchmark: 1.5%+. Below 1.5%? Your copy may not be compelling enough — you have the potential to lower your cost by testing new copy.

Amount Spent vs. Results

If Meta is spending your full daily budget but you're getting zero results, the ad is getting impressions but not converting. If Meta is barely spending, it hasn't found a good audience yet — give it 24–48 more hours before judging.

What Your Numbers Are Telling You

CTR All is below 4%

You have the potential to lower your cost — test a new creative. The image or video isn't stopping the scroll.

CTR Link Click-Through is below 1.5%

You have the potential to lower your cost — test new copy. People are seeing the ad but the words aren't compelling enough to click.

Both CTRs are really low (CTR All < 2% AND Link Click-Through < 1%)

Your targeting or lead magnet might be off. Screenshot your lead magnet, ad creative, copy, targeting, your Canva file link, and your actual lead magnet — and share everything in the group to ask for support.

CTRs look OK but CPMs are really high

You might be targeting an audience that's too competitive, too small, or your account may have a poor history. Screenshot your numbers and share them in the group to ask for support.

What to Do Once You Find Winning Ads

Once ads are getting sales, move only the winning ads (the ones with sales at or below your target cost) into your main scaling campaign.

After 3–5 days, turn off every ad set that never got a sale. Don't let them keep spending with nothing to show.

Keep scaling only what's working. The goal is one main campaign full of proven winners — not a dozen half-tested ad sets all fighting for budget.

7 Retargeting & Lookalike Audiences

Why it works

People who've already visited your Skool About page are warm — they know you exist. A Lookalike Audience finds new people on Facebook and Instagram who behave like your best visitors, giving your ads a huge head start.

🌱

Just Starting Out

Target skool.com visitors — not your own About page. Since you don't have enough visitors yet, build a Custom Audience from all skool.com traffic. This gives Meta a big enough pool to find people similar to Skool's entire user base.

Use this strategy until you've been consistently running ads for 3–4 months and your own About page has meaningful traffic.

📈

3–4+ Months In

Retarget your own Skool About page. Now you have real visitors who've seen your specific offer. Build a Custom Audience directly from your About page URL — these are your warmest possible leads and the best source for a Lookalike.

Set your retargeting time window to 180 days to capture as many past visitors as possible.

Step 1 — Create a Custom Audience (from your Pixel)

1 Go to Meta Ads Manager → Audiences

2 Click Create Audience → Custom Audience → Website

3 Source: your Pixel · Event: All Website Visitors · Time window: 180 days

4 Starting out: leave URL filter blank (all skool.com visitors) · 3–4+ months in: filter to your specific Skool About page URL

5 Name it clearly — e.g., "Skool About Page Visitors – 180d"

Step 2 — Create a Lookalike Audience

1 Click Create Audience → Lookalike Audience

2 Source: the Custom Audience you just made

3 Location: United States only. Always target one country at a time for Lookalike — the USA has the largest Skool audience and the most data for Meta to work with.

4 Similarity: 1–3% (1% = closest match to your page visitors)

5 Name it — e.g., "LAL – Skool About Visitors 1% – USA"

6 Once the USA Lookalike is profitable, create a second one for a different country — one country per Lookalike audience for the cleanest data

Important: Wait for Enough Data

Meta needs at least 500 pixel events before it can build a reliable Lookalike Audience. Run your cold traffic ads first, let data accumulate, then come back and set up retargeting once you've hit that threshold.