Task Library
Diagnose every underperforming campaign or content piece into one of three root causes – creative, targeting, or offer – so the fix targets the actual failure instead of guessing.
Category: Strategy & Measurement
Use this when the "what isn't working" list exists and you must decide what to fix before deciding what to kill – diagnosis comes between verdict and action.
Inputs
- The underperformer list with metrics (from show-whats-working-and-what-isnt)
- Funnel-level data per item: impressions, CTR/engagement, watch time, landing page conversion rate
- The item's original GCT brief (goal, content, targeting as stated at launch)
Steps
- Take each underperformer one at a time and locate where the funnel breaks – the failure point tells you which of the three causes to suspect.
- Test creative first: weak hook, low watch time (people bail in the first seconds), low CTR despite reaching the right audience. If the right people see it and don't care, the creative failed.
- Test targeting next: decent creative metrics but wrong audience – irrelevant comments, high frequency with falling response, engagement from people who could never buy. If the wrong people see it, targeting failed.
- Test offer last: strong clicks and traffic but no conversions – the landing page promise, price, or proof breaks at the moment of commitment. If the right people care but won't act, the offer failed.
- Classify every item into exactly one primary bucket – creative, targeting, or offer – with the one metric that justified the call. "All three" is not a diagnosis; pick the binding constraint.
- Recommend per bucket: creative → swap in a greatest-hit or re-cut the hook; targeting → switch audience (switch boost per /dad); offer → fix the landing page or promise. If the item has been diagnosed and retried once already, recommend kill.
- Feed the diagnoses into the Friday MAA report and the kill/scale decision.
Definition of done (QA checklist)
- Every underperformer assigned exactly one primary cause: creative, targeting, or offer
- Each diagnosis cites the metric that proves the failure point
- Each diagnosis carries a concrete fix-or-kill recommendation
- Repeat offenders (already diagnosed once) marked for kill, not endless iteration
- Diagnoses delivered into the Friday MAA report
- Linked back to the definitive article and relevant siblings
- Complies with Blog Posting Guidelines (if it publishes content)
Example(s)
- Example needed – run the Meta-Article Prompt after first real run.
File in the zip: skills/strategy-measurement/analyze-why-underperformers-fail.md. Download the Task Library zip.
Index: Task Library. Article guidelines.