Playbooks for the teams behind the ads
Benchmarks, frameworks and field notes from running paid media at agency scale, written while we build Adside.
What ads are YC companies running in 2026? Our complete, systematic study
We checked all 6,055 YC companies against the Google, Meta and LinkedIn ad libraries. Just under half run paid ads, and the biggest names run them for years.
Read the studyLet's cook — the video series
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Ep. 1 · 12:40
Get started with Claude Skills for marketing
What Claude Skills are, how to hook up your Meta account through an MCP, and how to run your first ad-ops skill.
Ep. 2 · 14:27
Create an AI Instagram ad from scratch using MCPs and Claude
A full Instagram ad built live: product shots, video and launch, with Claude wired to Shopify, Higgsfield, Meta and Canva.
Ep. 3 · 10:28
Use Claude + Apify + Reddit to generate tons of new ad ideas
Reddit, X, G2 and app reviews piped into Claude to pull out ad angles in seconds. No code, one MCP.
Get started with paid ads #1
Recap of our monthly Get Started with Paid Ads workshop at Wefunder, with Peter Kazanjy and Jeremy Chung, and how to grab a seat for October 1.
The best Meta Ads MCP servers, compared
Meta's official MCP, Adside, Pipeboard, Ryze and the open-source servers, weighed on auth, coverage and write-safety. Which one to pick, and where each stops being the right call.
The best Google Ads MCP servers, compared
Google's official read-only MCP, the open-source servers that can actually write, and the managed route, weighed on auth and spend safety.
The best LinkedIn Ads MCP servers, compared
Why LinkedIn has no official MCP, the one credible open-source option, and the managed connectors that hold an approved app for you.
Use Claude Design to create an on-brand ad factory
One Claude Design project that turns your brand files into every ad, in every format, with the copy and the downloads. The outcome, what you need, four steps, everything copy-pasteable. Includes a runbook for your agent.
Use Remotion to create great video ads
How to generate video ads with Remotion: importing footage, cutting on the voice instead of the transcript, fixing the audio, and the checks that stop bad ads shipping. Includes a markdown file to hand your agent.
How to create a Google Tag Manager account
It is free, it takes a minute, and two of the four things it asks for can never be changed. One of those Google fills in for you.
How to create a Meta ad account
Meta fills in your time zone and currency itself — Los Angeles and US dollars. Both are permanent, and the confirmation screen never shows them to you.
How to create a LinkedIn ad account
One dialog, four fields, two minutes. Two of those fields can never be changed afterwards, and LinkedIn warns you about one of them.
How to create a Google Ads account
Screen by screen, as the signup actually works in 2026 — the three permanent settings, the step that silently blocks everything, and how to finish without a campaign.
How to build a landing page for your ads? We analyzed every ad-specific landing page YC companies run
Only 3.6% of YC ad clicks go to a dedicated landing page. Here's the playbook the ones who build them share, and how it changes by business type.
ROAS vs ROI: what's the difference?
The two formulas, break-even ROAS by margin, the 2025 medians, and the four ways ROAS misleads while ROI tells the truth.
How to connect a Meta Ads MCP to Claude
The three ways to do it (Meta's official MCP, self-hosted, or managed), the exact config for Claude Desktop and Claude Code, and how to stay safe.
How much to spend on ads: the budget math from $3K test to $100K program
What companies actually spend in 2026, the payback math that sets your number, and the channel floors below which ads can't work.
Can a Meta Ads MCP get your account banned?
The call pattern that gets an ad account disabled, why Meta reads an agent as a bot, and the read-first setup that keeps you safe.
What $5K a month in ads actually buys a B2B SaaS: 3 to 15 demos
The full funnel math behind that range: cost per booked demo by channel, where the leaks are, and the $5,000 media plan I'd actually run.
What's a good clickthrough rate for your Meta ads in 2026?
The median is about 2%, and that answer is nearly useless on its own. The 2026 CTR numbers by industry, objective and placement, plus hook and hold rates.
Should you be sales-led ("book a demo") or PLG ("try for free")?
What 18 famous YC B2B companies chose, and why a demo CTA quietly commits you to $4,000 or more a week on Meta.
How many ad creatives do you actually need on Meta in 2026?
Meta deleted its own 6-ads-per-ad-set advice. The volume and refresh math that replaced it, from 578,750 real creatives.
What ads are YC companies running in 2026? Our complete, systematic study
All 6,055 YC companies checked against the Google, Meta and LinkedIn ad libraries. Just under half advertise, and the winners run ads for years.
A creative testing framework that doesn't burn budget
How to size a test, when to kill a loser, and how to turn winners into a variation tree. With the actual math.
Scaling from 5 to 50 ad clients without 10× the headcount
The four places agency ops break as you grow, and what to systemize before you make the next hire.
Ad fatigue: how to catch it before it burns the budget
The five signals to watch, the thresholds that matter, and what to swap first when an ad starts dying.
The first three seconds: a working theory of ad hooks
What a good hook rate looks like, eight openings that keep working, and how to test hooks without fooling yourself.
How to split budget across Meta, Google and LinkedIn
Where the first dollar should go, starting splits by business type, and how to rebalance monthly without wrecking your learning phases.
LinkedIn vs Meta for B2B: where your budget actually converts
LinkedIn clicks cost 3 to 5 times more than Meta. Sometimes that's still the better deal. How to do the math for your deal size.
Client reporting that doesn't eat your Fridays
What clients actually read, which metrics deserve commentary, and how to get a report out in minutes instead of hours.
UGC, static or video: what to run, when, and why
What each format costs in money and time, where it works in the funnel, and a starting mix you can adjust from.
Naming conventions that survive 200 campaigns and 12 clients
A naming scheme that parses cleanly at 200 campaigns, plus how to get a whole team to actually follow it.
The ad localization playbook: 20 markets without 20 headaches
Why word-for-word translation kills ads, and the workflow we use to adapt campaigns for 20 markets.
Paid ads benchmarks 2026: CPM, CTR and CPA by platform
CPM, CTR and CPA numbers for Meta, Google, LinkedIn and TikTok, pulled from published datasets. Plus how to read them without fooling yourself.
Put the playbooks on autopilot
Everything we write about here (fatigue detection, testing, reporting, budgets) is what Adside runs for your accounts automatically.