Answer
We have never paid to acquire a brand for Brew, and no budget, channel or rule for it exists; this document holds the questions and a proposal that keeps spend at zero until a read turns into a weekly habit and a price exists.
Today
| Fact | Source |
|---|---|
| No ad, campaign or paid post for the product appears in any source | no source found in memory or brew origin/main |
| The product's own pages carry no analytics or ad pixel, so a paid click could not be counted | brew/public/index.html:1-2 git grep gtag googletagmanager fbq origin/main |
| The company has one Meta ad account, SquareUp Ads India, billed in rupees, and one GA4 account; neither has a Brew dataset or property | memory squareup-tracking-structure |
| A Setup Analytics skill exists that builds a Meta dataset and a GA4 property for a new product | memory squareup-tracking-structure |
| The one paid campaign we ran was for a different store, Cozy Snugglet; it was paused on 8 Oct after a lifetime ₹9,817, 29 clicks, one add to cart and no sales. The memory index rounds it to ₹9,860; the note's figure is used here | memory cozy-meta-campaign |
| Pricing is parked, so there is no revenue per brand to pay back a click | memory brew-pricing-parked |
| Reads are capped while we build; each costs real money, see cost per brand | brew/public/app.js:404 handbook content/ai-and-models/cost-per-brand.md |
| The product name is not chosen, so there is no brand to buy search terms for | handbook/AGENTS.md |
Tomorrow
Every item here is a proposal for Param.
| Item | Version | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| No paid acquisition while reads are capped | v1 | New, proposed |
| Install analytics on the landing and the ask page first: a GA4 property and a Meta dataset, with read asks, sign ins, reads started and first hand offs as events | v1 | New, proposed |
| A first paid test only after three gates: pricing set, name chosen, partners handing off weekly | v1 | New, proposed |
| The first test: one channel, one audience, one hook from audiences and hooks, a fixed cap Param names, one ask: a read | v1 | New, proposed |
| Retargeting people who started a read and stopped | v2 | New, proposed |
| Search ads on the product name, once it exists | v2 | New, proposed |
How we do it
Proposed rules, until Param decides:
- Spend nothing on ads for the product until Param writes a budget into this document.
- Never boost a post that claims something the current version does not do.
- Every paid test gets a row in the campaign log before it starts: goal, cap, dates, hook, what success means.
- Stop a test the moment it reaches its cap. No auto top ups.
- Ad creative follows the house rules: no disclaimers or fine print on creative, sell relief and never discounts.
- Count only what a person does after the click: read asks, reads started, first hand offs. Never likes or followers.
Numbers
| Metric | Definition | Where measured | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per read ask | Ad spend divided by read asks from that test | Ad platform and the asks list | Proposed |
| Cost per first hand off | Ad spend divided by new brands that hand off a pick within 14 days | Ad platform and brief status | Proposed |
| Read cost on top | Our model and data cost for each paid read | Cost per brand | Proposed |
Open
- Do we do paid acquisition at all before launch? Proposal: no; organic and warm intros only while reads are capped.
- What are the gates for the first test? Proposal: pricing agreed with Sai, the name chosen, and every partner handing off weekly for four weeks.
- Which channel first? Proposal: Meta, Instagram only, in India, because the founder audience scrolls there and the ad account exists.
- What budget? Proposal: Param names one fixed cap for a two week test; nothing is spent past it.
- Do we set up tracking now, before any spend? Proposal: yes; run Setup Analytics for the product's own pages this cycle, at no cost.
- Does the Cozy campaign teach us anything here? Proposal: one rule only: never launch paid without a working purchase or ask event to count.