Paid

The Advertising Playbook

What this build is for

An ad has one job: to tie your name to a moment in the buyer's memory.

Most people who see an ad aren't buying, and won't be for months. About 95% of business buyers are out of the market at any one time (Ehrenberg-Bass). So an ad's work, for nearly everyone who sees it, is to leave Kestrel's name filed under a moment: the morning a key customer complains, the month the margin line turns red. When that moment arrives, the COO should already know who to ask. That's Known.

Its second, smaller job is to put Kestrel in front of someone at the moment they look: a search ad, a top listing. That's Found, bought rather than earned. It lasts only while you pay.

The book calls these writing the memory and collecting on it. Brand advertising writes. Search ads, retargeting and offers collect. Les Binet and Peter Field's rule of thumb, from 996 campaigns in the IPA's databank, puts about 60% of the budget into writing and 40% into collecting (IPA). Treat it as a starting point. Collecting can't work on a memory nobody wrote.

Advertising is the Paid category's only build: your voice, in space you buy. Its rule is the same as every build's: an ad exists because a moment needs to be remembered. Being in the trade magazine because rivals are isn't a reason.

Four channels don't need a build of their own, and live here as nods:

• Sponsorship: paying for your name on something the category already values, such as an association's report, an award or a conference session.
• Retail media: ads inside a retailer's or marketplace's own site, where buyers are already shopping.
• Broadcast and outdoor: radio, television, billboards and transport.
• Direct mail: printed pieces posted to many people at once. (A letter to a named person, for a reason, belongs to Outbound.)

Each is judged by the same test as any ad: does it write a moment into the right memory, for less than the alternatives?

The footprint, and what it reads from the chain

Advertising leads 1 cell and 7 moments: the COO's trigger, once for each of Kestrel's seven problems. The COO's question is "Output's flat and a key customer is complaining. What's going on?", and the problem changes what they've just seen:

It supports 2 more cells (14 moments): the owner's trigger for the same seven problems (Outbound leads, by name; advertising reaches the owners Outbound doesn't write to) and the finance director's trigger, "Margins fell again. What's driving the cost?" (Content leads, with the benchmark; advertising carries its finding to finance directors who'd never look for it).

That's 21 moments, all at the trigger, all out in the market. Advertising is the only build whose whole footprint sits before the buyer starts looking. It does its work months before anyone in the deal record has heard of Kestrel.

What it reads, and never rewrites:

Its slice of the Score, and its own audit

All 21 moments score zero. Some COOs have heard of Kestrel (Known 14), but none of the searches or places the Score checked named it at the trigger, so the gate is shut. Finance directors know it least of all. Quality is low for the same reason as in Outbound: nothing answers the trigger question in the buyer's terms, and the next step is a contact form. Believed and Preferred weren't measured at the trigger, so they're left out of the average.

Advertising can lift Known directly, and it's the build that can do so at the scale of the whole market: the Score's Known is measured across the market, and so is an ad's reach. That makes this the build where the Score and the build's own measures should move together, if the ads work.

The audit. Last year's spend, A$48,000:

About two-thirds of the money went to collecting (A$32,000), and a third to something like writing (A$16,000), the reverse of the starting point. The collecting ads mostly paid for people who were coming anyway, or who wanted someone else. No ad opened on a moment, and none was ever tested.

Step 1: the shape, the category's media

The shape is the media the category's buyers already spend time in, and who advertises there. It's set by the buyers, not by Kestrel.

Share of voice. Kestrel is about 4% of the market for operations reviews at firms this size. Its share of the category's advertising is closer to 2%, most of it on its own name. The IPA's rule of thumb: brands whose share of voice is below their share of market "tend to shrink" (IPA). Kestrel can't outspend the large consultancies everywhere. It can outspend them in one place: in front of the 1,400 firms' COOs, owners and finance directors, on LinkedIn and in the trade and association titles, all year.

Retail media, as a nod. It's ads inside a retailer's or marketplace's own site, where shoppers are mid-purchase. Nobody buys an operations review from a retailer, so Kestrel has none. For brands that sell through retailers, it's collecting at its most direct, and the same warning applies: test whether it adds sales or only claims them.

Step 2: coverage, one ad per moment

The coverage unit is an ad per moment: the cue the buyer sees in the first three seconds, the feeling it leaves, and the one thing to remember. If an ad has to serve two moments, it's two ads. The one thing to remember is the same in every ad, because it's Kestrel's reason: savings found on the floor in six weeks, at a fixed price. What changes is the moment it's filed under.

Two moments have no signed proof of their own yet, so their ads use the benchmark or wait. Credentials, not the ad, decides.

The supporting cells get versions, not new ads. The owner's version shows the same cue from the owner's desk, and says "your plant", not "your line". The finance director's version opens on the margin line and points to the benchmark's finance cut. Same assets, same line, same proof.

Distinctive assets. An ad that isn't recognised as Kestrel's writes a memory with no name on it. Kestrel's assets, tested with twenty buyers before use:

• The name, always as "Kestrel Advisory, for manufacturers". "Kestrel" alone is confused with a mining services firm.
• One colour: a deep amber, on the floor-marking tape that runs through every ad, as it runs through a plant.
• The line, word for word from the reason statement.

The book's rule: the brand appears early and briefly, then again, rather than at the end. One study pooled 50,000 viewers' responses to 25 television ads: the later the brand appeared, the less often viewers recognised it (Gerber and colleagues).

Step 3: gaps, biases and jobs

One pattern: every ad starts from a moment and is judged by the memory it leaves, not by what happens the same week. The collecting ads shrink until a test shows they earn their place.

Step 4: reconcile, the media plan

The same A$48,000, spent differently.

Of the A$43,000 in media, about 86% now writes and 14% collects. That's further from the 60:40 starting point than it looks. Kestrel's collecting ads were tested by the audit and mostly paid for people already coming. And two other builds already collect for free: the website and being named put Kestrel in front of people who search or ask an assistant. The holdouts will say whether to move the split back.

Rejected, with reasons:

The trade magazine's half-page ad. A logo at the bottom and a list of services: nothing a reader could file under a moment. The newsletters reach the same people, every issue, for the same money.

LinkedIn in bursts. Three bursts around the trade show let the memory fade between them. Steady weight all year, at a level Kestrel can keep.

Search ads on "operations consultant". Job-seekers and students. The problem terms reach people with the problem.

Broadcast and outdoor, as a nod. A billboard on the road into an industrial estate reaches everyone who works there, and very few of them choose consultants. Radio is the same, wider. For Kestrel, the cost per decision-maker reached is many times LinkedIn's.

Direct mail, as a nod. A postcard to all 1,400 firms would reach about 70 in the market and 1,330 who aren't, with nothing they'd keep. Outbound's letters, to firms with a signal, do this job better. For firms whose buyers are households or very small businesses, mail can still write a memory cheaply, if the piece is worth keeping.

Sponsorship without a finding. A logo on a conference lanyard, or on the back of an awards programme, writes the name without a moment. The members' report works because the sponsored page is the benchmark itself.

The anatomy library

Every ad has two halves. The creative half decides what gets written into memory; the media half decides how many memories, and how often. The creative half has five parts, in the order the buyer meets them. Short ads carry the first three.

By format:

Three rules hold for every ad:

Same words as the site. The line and the proof in an ad match the website, the pitch and what assistants say. An ad that promises what the site doesn't repeat writes a contradiction into two memories.

One moment per ad. If it needs to serve two, make two.

Never a number Credentials hasn't signed. A finance director will ask where it came from.

Briefs

One brief per moment, written before anyone writes a script. This is the brief behind the finished example below.

AD BRIEF COO · trigger · flat output
MOMENT "We're running flat out and still shipping late."
WHO COO or operations director, manufacturer of 80 to 400 staff,
               metal and engineering, food and drink, plastics, packaging
THE CUE A phone on a desk at 6am. A customer's email: "Where's our
               order?" The COO picks it up and walks onto the floor
THE FEELING Dread, then relief: the capacity is there, it's findable
ASSETS "Kestrel Advisory, for manufacturers" by second two, and at
               the end. Amber floor tape in every shot
REMEMBER "Savings found on the floor in six weeks, at a fixed price."
PROOF Brennock Packaging: 41 to 47 a minute on the same line.
               Source: Credentials, client confirmed
FIND US Search "Kestrel Advisory"
MEDIA LinkedIn, COOs and operations directors at the 1,400 firms;
               trade newsletters in the four sectors. Steady, all year
NOT ALLOWED "Guaranteed"; any saving not signed; a client's name without
               their permission; anything about a firm's late deliveries
               that implies we know about theirs
JUDGED BY The regional holdout (see the plan); searches for the name;
               moment recall in new fit calls. Not by clicks

The finished example: the flat-output ad, written in full

The video, the image, the newsletter unit, the search ad and the owner's version, for one moment. Kestrel and Brennock are invented.

1. The LinkedIn video, 18 seconds, captions on, made to work with the sound off.

Post text: "When a key customer starts asking where their order is, the answer is usually on your own floor. Brennock found 6 more units a minute on the same line, with no new equipment."

2. The single image, for the same moment.

• Picture: a phone on a stainless steel bench, 6am, showing "Where's our order?". Amber floor tape across the foot of the frame, with "Kestrel Advisory, for manufacturers" printed on it.
• Post text: "Running flat out and still shipping late? Brennock Packaging got from 41 to 47 a minute on the same line. Savings found on the floor in six weeks, at a fixed price."

3. The newsletter unit, in the four sectors' trade newsletters.

• "We're running flat out and still shipping late."
• Brennock Packaging found 6 more units a minute on the same line, with no new equipment.
• Savings found on the floor in six weeks, at a fixed price. Kestrel Advisory, for manufacturers.

4. The search ad, on terms like "increase line output" and "late deliveries manufacturing".

• Shipping Late on a Busy Line? | Where the Lost Capacity Hides
• Kestrel Advisory, for manufacturers. A one-page check you can run on your own line this week. Savings found on the floor, at a fixed price.

It sends people to the flat-output guide, not to a contact form.

5. The owner's version, in association newsletters.

• Your biggest customer asked where their order is. Again.
• The capacity is usually on your own floor. Brennock Packaging found 6 more units a minute on the same line, with no new equipment. Savings found on the floor in six weeks, at a fixed price. Kestrel Advisory, for manufacturers.

What to notice. Every version opens on the moment, not on Kestrel, and every version names Kestrel in the first two seconds or the first line. The amber tape and the line are the same everywhere, so five formats write one memory. The proof is one signed number, with the client named, and the same number the website uses. The search ad sends people to something useful rather than asking for a meeting. And none of it will be judged by its clicks.

Templates

1. The ad audit scorecard. Use it on any ad, yours or a rival's. Watch once at normal speed and once with the sound off, and score each part 0, 1 or 2. A creative total under 6 means rebuild the opening first. The scale is a working rule, not tested against sales. The last two columns show Kestrel's old trade-magazine ad and the new flat-output video.

A perfect score on paper means the ad is built right, not that it works. The holdout says whether it works.

2. The ad brief.

AD BRIEF [chooser · step · problem]
MOMENT [one only, in the buyer's words]
WHO [role, kind of business, segment]
THE CUE [what they see, hear or feel in the first three seconds]
THE FEELING [what the ad leaves behind]
ASSETS [name by second __; colour; line; where each appears again]
REMEMBER [the reason, word for word]
PROOF [one signed fact, and its source; leave out under 10 seconds]
FIND US [what to search or ask for]
MEDIA [who must be reached, including non-buyers; months on air;
               weight per week; share of voice against share of market]
NOT ALLOWED [claims, words and implications to avoid]
JUDGED BY [the holdout; the leading measures. Not clicks]

3. The holdout test plan, filled in for Kestrel's first year.

QUESTION What would Kestrel lose without the COO and owner ads?
REGIONS 12 areas in Kestrel's region, paired by number of
               manufacturers. One of each pair, chosen by coin toss, gets
               no LinkedIn or newsletter ads: 6 on, 6 off
LENGTH Six months, then swap. A brand ad's effect builds slowly;
               eight weeks would miss it
MEASURES Searches for "Kestrel Advisory" by area; site visits by area;
               fit calls by area, and what callers say started it;
               replies to Outbound letters by area
RETARGETING Off everywhere for the first three months; on in the 6 "on"
               areas for the next three
NAME SEARCH Before switching it off anywhere, check who else bids on the
               name. Today nobody does
READ AS A sketch. With 12 areas and few fit calls, a small effect can
               hide in the noise. A result that says no is still a result
AGREED WITH The managing partner and the finance lead, before the first ad

In the campaign plan

Advertising has two layers. The always-on layer is the moment ads, running at a steady weight all year: that's the memory, and it doesn't stop for campaigns. The campaign layer sits on top for a few weeks at a time, around the category's occasions, using the same assets and the same line.

The campaign layer never replaces the always-on layer. A campaign that pauses the moment ads to pay for itself is spending the memory to buy a burst. At Kestrel, the extra weight comes from inside the media plan's lines: about a fifth of each line is kept back for its occasions.

Running it

Who owns what. At Kestrel, the marketing lead owns the memory: which moments the ads write, the assets and the line. A freelance media buyer owns cost, reach and continuity. The head of delivery signs every proof point with Credentials. The managing partner and the finance lead agree the holdout before the first ad runs, and read it with the marketing lead.

Advertising is run by the quarter and judged by the year, because memory takes repetition.

Keep the cues fixed. The moments, the amber tape and the line change rarely. The executions can change every year. If the team is bored of the ads, buyers are only beginning to notice them.

Tie every ad to the one truth. Before an ad runs, the marketing lead checks its line and proof against the website page it links to. If they differ, the ad waits.

For agencies. Sell a memory plan, not a media plan: the moments to own, the assets to keep, the reach to buy, and the test that will judge it. Report holdout results and name searches, not impressions. Agree the test with the client's finance team before the first flight.

Common mistakes

The bias to watch in the team: the streetlight effect. It's looking for something where the light is, not where it was lost. Clicks and attributed sales are lit up on every dashboard, so teams measure them. The memory an ad leaves sits in the dark, months away, and only a holdout or a question to a new client finds it.

The business check and the measurement ladder

Revenue: the ads cost A$48,000 a year, and one review brings A$45,000 to A$90,000 in fees. To earn their place, they need to bring one or two reviews a year that wouldn't have come otherwise. The holdout is how Kestrel will know whether they did.

One truth: every ad says what the website, the pitch and the assistants say, in the same words, with the same proof.

The proof is real: every number is signed by Credentials and confirmed by the client. Two moments have no ad yet because they have no proof yet.

Capacity: about two hours a week of the marketing lead's time, plus the freelance buyer and a yearly production budget. Less than the trade-show stand used to take.

The measurement ladder. Every build can be measured on three rungs. Advertising needs all three, because its effects arrive late and its reports overstate.

Share of search is the leading measure to watch most closely: Binet found it sometimes ran a year ahead of market share (IPA).

Larger firms add a fourth tool on the causal rung: a marketing mix model, which uses years of weekly spend and sales by channel to estimate what each added. Kestrel doesn't have the years of data or the volume to build one. Holdouts read the short clock; mix models read the long one.

The Loop for this build

Every six months, when the holdout is read, the Loop (step 11) asks: did the ads write Kestrel's name into the moments they were for, and did that turn into conversations?

What Kestrel's first year would look for. Searches for "Kestrel Advisory" rising faster in the ad areas than in the holdout areas. At least a third of new fit calls naming a trigger moment and saying they'd seen the ads. Name-search clicks from people looking for the mining firm close to none. And the Score's Known for COOs moving up at the next rescore: the measure this build is best placed to move.

Shapes by business type

Feeling a bit overwhelmed?

You should be, a little. One small firm: the category's media mapped, share of voice against share of market, seven moments with a cue and a feeling each, three distinctive assets tested with buyers, five formats per ad, every number signed, a media plan split between writing and collecting, and a regional holdout agreed with finance before the first ad runs. Most firms bid on their own name, run a few bursts around a trade show, and count the clicks.

RocMode does part of the heavy lifting:

The moments to write into memory. Your choosers and their moments, mapped from what's known about your brand, so every ad starts from a situation a buyer would recognise.

Ad variants and creative briefs. RocMode drafts ad variants and creative briefs from your strategy, and exports them as files for Google and LinkedIn ads. You review them, and you decide what runs.

Campaigns timed to your category's key dates. RocMode's campaign concepts are built around your category's calendar, so the campaign layer sits on the occasions that matter.

Join the RocMode beta