AI ads not converting? this is probably why: most people are using AI like this: “make me an ad” and then wondering why it looks like garbage and doesn’t convert. AI isn’t the problem. your inputs are. it has no idea: - what your offer actually is - what your landing page looks like - what’s already working - what your ads should sound like so it guesses. i built a simple claude skill that fixes this. it forces you to give: - landing page context - winning ads - target audience - offer details then it spits out prompts you can drop straight into image models and get ads that are actually usable. i used it live for my own company and got solid creatives in minutes. you still have to iterate. but you’re starting way closer to something that can convert. full breakdown + the free skill here in the video below, and linked here: https://adclass.notion.site/AI-Ad-Image-Prompter-Copy-This-Into-a-Claude-Project-3308f887988481119947f8ee80d56478 if you try it, post your outputs in the group — i’ll give feedback!

Hi Dakota, I am yet to advertise my Skool communities. I've just hit 10 weeks on Skool, and I have a healthy following on Facebook, but am baulking at pitching to them because I don't know what to say to bring them into my Skool community. I know people say videos of you talking are the key to building trust, stopping the scroll and converting, but recording a video makes me cringe. Is there another way? And what do I write in an ad? I've had a publishing business outside of Skool for going on 21 years and am now bringing the mentoring component over to Skool. I have Author Skool for people wanting to write and self-publish, as well as build a business beyond their book, and the Skool Bookshop for people who want to learn how to promote their books, and for readers who love books and want to connect with authors. Do you have any examples? Insights? 🙏 @Dakota Hermes

I built a Claude skill that turns any Meta Ads CSV export into a full interactive dashboard and Word report... in about 5 minutes. In this video I walk through the entire process live, using my own ad account (Local Legend, our home service agency). What it generates: → Weekly report (.docx) with prioritized recommendations → Interactive dark-mode HTML dashboard → Campaign, ad-level, and placement breakdowns → US regional heat map by state → Color-coded KPI cards with week-over-week trends

"I've been burned by agencies before." I hear this constantly. And look — some agencies do suck. But blaming every agency is like blaming every barber because you got a bad haircut once. In this video, I tell the story of a guy who kept going back to his barber, kept complaining about his haircuts... until his buddy finally hit him with the truth. Sometimes the barber isn't the problem. Sometimes you're just bald. Translation: maybe your agency can't fix your brand because your offer isn't there yet. Not every agency is bad. But not every business is ready for one either.

you'll never be a good marketer if you're a rule follower. i mean that. i teach people to buy ads. i give them the fundamentals — the "why" behind how things work. and then i watch them turn principles into prescriptions. i say "it's probably healthier to scale 20-30% day over day" and they take that as gospel. they never break that rule. ever. here's the thing: i almost never follow that rule myself. when i launch something new and i like how it looks? i'll double the budget. triple it. sometimes quadruple it. because i have a feel for it. i know which risks pan out and which don't. last year we had a launch where i needed to spend $4M in a month. you can't do that scaling 20% day over day. it's just not possible. so you have to rework the framework in your mind. figure out what you CAN do to make it work. here's what most people get wrong: they think following rules IS the strategy. but rules are just guardrails. they're not the game. the game is understanding WHY the rules exist — then knowing when to break them. take campaign structure. i tell people: start simple. one campaign, multiple ad sets, test different creative concepts. consolidate where possible so the algorithm can learn faster. that's the principle. but i've got accounts where i'm running 15 campaigns because the business model demands it. i've got others where everything lives in one CBO because that's what's working. there are dozens of data points i consider when thinking about CBO vs ABO and it’s dumb to make a one-size-fits-all rule for that. the real skill isn't knowing the playbook. it's pattern recognition. when i look at an account, i'm asking questions: what's actually happening here? where's the drop-off? is the creative fatigued or is this a targeting problem? what does the sales team say about lead quality? i'm not looking for "the answer." i'm looking for signals. and then i test. big ideas first. i don't waste time testing button colors when the whole angle might be wrong. i test bold stuff — new hooks, new offers, new funnels.