Hire an AI customer acquisition cost limit and ad-lift test planner

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• A one-page daily sheet with new-customer return, blended CAC and new-customer profit, and the formulas
• A CAC limit (target, ceiling and floor) with a payback time and a score out of 100 for how safe it is
• A return ladder for each platform and a trust level for each channel, with a score out of 100
• A lift test plan with the test type, matched regions, spend change, dates and a cut, hold or scale rule
• A ranking for the next $10,000 and a stop point for each channel

How it does the job well

• Write for one named audience and one action. Each asset has a single job.
• Use the customer's own words from reviews, calls or surveys before inventing language.
• Every claim needs proof the business can show. Leave unproven claims out or mark them.
• Judge results against the business goal, such as profit or qualified leads, not clicks alone.

Mistakes it avoids

• Generic copy that could fit any brand.
• Comparing periods or campaigns that are not comparable, such as different dates, budgets or tracking.
• Calling a test winner before there is enough data.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: You spend on several channels, the platforms claim more than your store sees, and you need one limit.

• STEP 1: NEW-CUSTOMER SHEET. A daily sheet of new-customer return, blended CAC and profit, with definitions, formulas and cost gaps to fix.
• STEP 2: CAC LIMIT. A target, ceiling and floor for CAC, with payback time and a score out of 100.
• STEP 3: PLATFORM NUMBERS. A return ladder for each platform, the traps found and a trust level for each channel.
• STEP 4: LIFT TEST PLAN. The test type, matched regions, dates, cost, how to read the result and a cut, hold or scale rule.
• STEP 5: BUDGET SPLIT. A ranking of channels for the next $10,000, a stop point for each and a grade for the evidence.
• HAND-BACK SUMMARY. Each step's file, any step not run and why, and every missing item in one list.

How the work is checked

• Each step passed its own checks, or the run stopped at the step that failed and says why.
• The steps ran in order, and each one used the result of the one before.
• Nothing was invented to fill a gap. Every gap is a MISSING: line.
• Nothing was sent, published or paid for without a clear yes.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

A second opinion

Before it hands back, your AI reviews the draft the way John Caples would. This is a way of reviewing the work. It does not mean they wrote or endorse it.

Capabilities

• Build the new-customer sheet. Defines net revenue, MER, new-customer MER, blended CAC and profit once, writes the sheet formulas and lists the cost gaps to fix.
• Set your CAC limit. Checks the first order, rates lifetime gross profit to CAC on a fixed window, and sets a target, a ceiling and a floor for CAC.
• Check the platform numbers. Steps each platform's reported return down to new-customer return, and flags views, existing customers and sales that would have happened anyway.
• Plan the lift test. Says whether to test at all, picks a platform lift study or a region test for your size, matches the regions and sets the dates, the cost and the cut, hold or scale rule.
• Split the next dollar. Uses the test result to rank channels by new-customer revenue per extra dollar and finds the stop point for each.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id set-your-cac-limit-and-test-what-ads-really-add only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/set-your-cac-limit-and-test-what-ads-really-add/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• Shopify orders with a new or returning flag, and net revenue after returns
• Ad spend by day and by channel
• Product cost per product, and fulfilment cost per order
• Gross profit per customer at 30, 90 and 180 days (optional, but it makes the limit safer)
• Sales by region for 6 to 12 months, for the lift test

Tools and access

• Google Sheets: Daily rows and plain formulas are easy to build, share and check there.
• Shopify: Its order export gives the new or returning flag, and cost per item feeds live margin.
• Any good chat AI: It writes the formulas and checks them against a sample week.
• Any good chat AI: It needs only your numbers and a clear table. Check one month by hand first.
• Shopify: Its cohort and customer reports give you first order and repeat order counts by month.
• Any good chat AI: Any chat AI can run the ladder and the score. Check the store base by hand.
• Meta Ads Manager: Lets you compare attribution settings and break results down by new, engaged and existing audiences.
• Shopify: Gives new-customer revenue and orders, and a cohort report for your own repeat data.
• A post-purchase survey app: Collects where buyers say they first heard of you, so you can compare it with platform data.
• Any good chat AI: Any chat AI can plan the test and do the sums. Have an analyst check the region match.
• Meta Ads Manager: Runs conversion lift tests inside the platform on one campaign.
• A geo-testing vendor or analyst: Builds the matched regions and checks the match. Doing it by hand in a sheet often gives a false answer.
• Any good chat AI: The ranking is arithmetic and reasoning on numbers you paste, so any current chat AI can do it.
• Meta Ads Manager: Its audience breakdown shows your CPM and frequency on existing customers, and it runs lift studies.
• GA4: Gives a second view of new-customer revenue to set beside the platform reports.

Functions and deliverables

• Customer acquisition cost limit and ad-lift test planner: Share ad spend, first-order data and profit assumptions. Get a buyer-cost limit, return checks, an ad-lift test plan and later budget options.
  • A one-page daily sheet with new-customer return, blended CAC and new-customer profit, and the formulas
  • A CAC limit (target, ceiling and floor) with a payback time and a score out of 100 for how safe it is
  • A return ladder for each platform and a trust level for each channel, with a score out of 100
  • A lift test plan with the test type, matched regions, spend change, dates and a cut, hold or scale rule
  • A ranking for the next $10,000 and a stop point for each channel
• New-customer profit dashboard builder: Share Shopify orders, costs and ad spend. Get daily sales ratios, cost per new buyer and profit measures with gaps flagged.
  • A one-page dashboard layout with sheet formulas
  • A daily headline row, each metric defined
  • A reading rule for each metric
  • The 180-day profit to CAC band
  • A list of cost gaps to fix in the store admin
• CAC payback checker: Check your CAC payback: give it ad spend, margins and cohort profit. Get profit to CAC ratios, a scale, hold or fix call and a score out of 100.
  • Contribution per order and the first order ratio
  • The profit to CAC ratio on each window, with its band
  • A target, ceiling and floor CAC, and payback in days or months
  • Whether each new customer is more or less profitable than the last
  • A scale, hold or fix call and a score out of 100 for payback safety
• Ad return evidence checker: Share ad reports and store totals. Get matched comparisons, evidence gaps and a custom review score, without a causal sales claim.
  • A comparison of reported measures, definitions, periods and missing coverage
  • A supported top-ad breakdown with audience and attribution limits
  • The evidence basis and next check for each proposed budget decision
  • A bounded custom checklist score with missing checks shown
• Incrementality test planner: Plan an incrementality test for your ad channel. Get a test sized to your spend and regions, plus a cut, hold or scale rule to read it.
  • A clear call on whether to test now, with a cheaper check if not
  • The test type, treatment and control regions with the reason, dates and spend change
  • The read-out formula, the noise band and a cut, hold or scale rule
  • The factor to apply to platform ROAS, and the mistakes to avoid
• Marketing budget allocation planner: Share channel spend, new-customer sales and test results. Rank small budget changes by evidence, then set stop points and a fallback.
  • A ranking of where the next $10,000 goes, and what a $10,000 move between channels would do
  • A stop point for each channel
  • A test plan to measure the return on the next dollar
  • A rule for how much to put into brand content and how to judge it, if you want that shift
  • A fallback rule and a loss limit
• Brand profile builder: Share your website. Get a reusable profile covering your products, customers, voice and approved claims, with sources.
  • A folder of eight plain files, from a start file for your AI to a claims list and a change log
  • A tag on every fact, and every claim marked approved, pending or banned
  • A two-sentence diagnosis of your biggest gap, and a list of what's missing and who can answer it
  • A short slice for your next step, if you name one
• John Caples: Write headlines and plan a fair ad test through John Caples’s recorded approach. Lead with the reader’s gain and count replies by version.
  • Your problem worked on the way John Caples would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in John Caples's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step

Tasks you can use it for

• You spend on several channels, the platforms claim more than your store sees, and you need one limit.
• Your cost to win a customer keeps rising and you do not know if you can keep scaling.
• You want to know how many of one channel's sales it really caused.

Limits to check before starting

• You run one channel and have no order export: use the New-customer profit dashboard builder on its own.
• You only want to know if a payback time is safe: use the CAC payback checker on its own.
• You only want to compare platform numbers with your store: use the Ad return evidence checker on its own.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Download the handoff pack. It's a zip with HANDOFF.md and the 5 skill files in the order they run: New-customer profit dashboard builder, CAC payback checker, Platform ROAS reality check, Incrementality test planner and Next-dollar budget allocator.
• Give the folder to Claude (in Claude Code, or as files in a Claude Project) and say "Follow HANDOFF.md".
• Paste your order and ad exports. Check your product costs with your accountant first. Wrong costs give a wrong limit.
• Pick the channel you doubt most. Pull its spend by week and region for the last 90 days.
• Run the test for the planned weeks. Then pull spend and new-customer results by channel and bring them back.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/set-your-cac-limit-and-test-what-ads-really-add for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.