Diagnose paid-media waste

Choose the best first step — pause, instrument, change channel, or hire — before scaling spend. A Decision Pack is output. Waste or not remains unproved until the owner signs a dated disposition.

Use when. You already spend (or are about to) on search, social, display, retargeting, sponsorship, affiliate, or other performance media — and you need one human-owned first move before adding budget.

Do not use when. You want someone to run the account, invent demand, pick "always Meta / never Google," chase dollar benchmarks, or treat a free audit as proof.

Your input. Named offer boundary; ICP or explicit UNKNOWN; channels paid (inventory); conversion/join keys; Sales qualification definition (or none); spend window dates; supporting activity state or UNKNOWN; named spend owner.

Your quality check. Contradictions and unknowns stay visible. No invented benchmarks. Human decision stays blank until the owner picks one of the four doors. Vanity CPA never stands alone as success.

Put this to work

Prepare a Paid-media waste Decision Pack

For the accountable spend owner

Copy this prompt. Paste it with the relevant source material into Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant, then review the result before acting.

# Role and job
Help an accountable owner prepare one Paid-media waste Decision Pack from supplied evidence — before they choose pause, instrument, change channel, or hire.

# Outcome
Produce findings on: tracking truth; demand vs curiosity; channel fit; creative vs offer; increment vs set-and-forget; plus Sales qualification, supporting activity, spend authority, and spray vs concentrate. Success means contradictions and unknowns are visible, no benchmarks are invented, and the human decision remains blank (pause | instrument | change channel | hire only — scaling spend is out of scope until after that choice).

# Inputs
- Named offer / business boundary: [paste]
- ICP or explicit UNKNOWN: [paste]
- Channels currently paid (inventory only): [paste]
- Conversion / event inventory and join keys: [paste]
- Qualification definition with Sales (or none): [paste]
- Spend window (dates only — no ROAS targets): [paste]
- Supporting activity state (content / brand / sales follow-up) or UNKNOWN: [paste]
- Accountable spend owner: [name or role]

# Boundaries
You may inventory, diagnose, expose gaps, and draft the pack. Do not invent benchmarks or demand, ban or bless platforms by decree, change spend, scrape private ad accounts, publish, DM anyone, recommend "scale," or choose among pause / instrument / change channel / hire for the owner.

# Output
Return: decision context; instrumentation gap report; vanity-vs-qualified read; supporting-activity and channel-role findings; ranked findings; rejected anti-patterns; assumptions; kill signals; blank Human decision (pause|instrument|change channel|hire). If the recommended first move is hire, also return empty hire evidence-path slots (gap class; why not self-serve; expert scope; receipt due) for the human to fill — do not invent a vendor.

# Stop and recovery
Stop when authority is unclear, evidence would be invented, private-account access is required without warrant, or spend change is requested. Return the blocker and cheapest next instrumentation check.

# Final check
Verify no invented benchmarks, no categorical channel doctrine, vanity CPA never alone as success, Sales quality named or unknown, and consequential authority remains with the owner.

Human decision — cannot be delegated. Accept one first move (pause, instrument, change channel, or hire). AI may draft the pack only. No clinic CTA. No spend or publish from this page.

Outcome

A reviewable Paid-media waste Decision Pack. Whether spend is wasted remains unproved until the owner signs a dated first move.

Use When

Use when you already spend (or are about to) on paid media — search, social, display, retargeting, sponsorship, affiliate, or other performance channels — and you need one human-owned first move before adding budget.

Inputs

Named offer boundary; ICP or explicit UNKNOWN; channels paid (inventory); conversion/join keys; Sales qualification definition (or none); spend window dates; supporting activity state or UNKNOWN; named spend owner.

Recipe

Copy the prompt. Paste only supplied evidence. Leave the human decision blank.

Human and AI Control

AI may map evidence, expose contradictions, and draft the pack. The named spend owner chooses the first move and controls any spend change.

Output and Handoff

If accepted, the first move is pause, instrument, change channel, or hire — not scaling spend. Later siblings (instrument conversions, prioritise channels, analyse performance) may apply after a signed first move.

Evidence and Stop

Stop for invented evidence, unclear authority, private-account access without warrant, or any request to change spend without separate authority. Do not invent benchmarks or demand.

Reliability

Skill and tool: biz-mkt-marketing with a private AI chat limited to supplied evidence. The decision pack is the pattern; exposed contradictions and owner authority are the protocol. Retain the pack and later response as evidence. Accept only a warranted, human-owned first move.

Active Gaps: Decision Pack receipt template (Gap 10) remains OPEN until first live dogfood. Deferred siblings: instrument paid conversions, prioritise paid channels, analyse paid campaign performance.

Next

After a separately authorised first move and response window, use Compare Outcome and Correct Method.