Workflow Guide

Optional — remaking rejected ads. Not part of the normal workflow. The default after a client review is to go live with what they approved and build a whole new set at the next creative refresh. Use these two extra runs only if you want to keep some of this round's copy or artwork and remake just the rejected ads.

1 Research the brand Codex

1. Open the Codex app. Start a new chat. Attach nothing.
2. Type $ and pick brand-standards.
3. It asks for what it can't find — answer in one message: the business name (exactly as you want it spelled on folders and files), the client's website, and any extra sources one per line (Facebook, Instagram, Google Business Profile, Yelp — or "none"). Don't tell it the industry; it works that out from the site.
4. It asks where the client folder should live. Point it at the folder where you keep this client's work, or let it create one (Mac or Windows — any path works). Everything for this client lands there: the .md files, assets, work files, and finished ads. If the folder already had artwork in it, it asks before organizing anything.
5. It asks: Scan your Google Drive for client assets? On Yes it looks for <Client Name> Creative Folder and downloads usable ad assets only — common image types, plus videos up to 100 MB each. Audio and project files never come down. Over 1 GB of qualifying files, it asks first. It tells you what actually arrived versus what it only saw listed.
6. It researches and writes <Client>-Brand-Standards.md into brand/. Every rule is tagged by how much weight it carries — a client requirement, a verified fact, observed website styling, or a recommendation — so a weak website doesn't become the ceiling for the ads. It also grades each asset: usable as-is, needs enhancement, identity reference, or missing.
7. Optional: a brand tile in brand/, marked reference until you approve it. A missing tile never stops production; the real logo file and written color values always outrank it.

2 Build the strategy Claude Cowork

1. Open the client's Project first — not a blank chat. Inside the Project, the skill reads your meeting transcripts and call summaries, so the strategy reflects what the owner actually said they want, not just what the website says.
2. Start a new chat in that Project. Attach <Client>-Brand-Standards.md and type /creative-strategy.
3. If a permission box pops up on your desktop asking to access your client folder — approve it. That's how it reads your assets and saves the output back. It asks once.
4. It asks for anything it couldn't find on its own — usually the offer — plus three questions it asks every time:
   1. Concepts per bucket — 5 or 10? (or type a number) Reserve ideas per bucket — 2 or 3? (or a number, or 0) 2. Seasonality — do we have any seasonality needs for this sprint? (run dates, a season to lean into, a promo window, or "none") 3. Visual benchmarks — any ads you want this set to look like, or ads the client rejected, that aren't already in brand/benchmarks/?
   Your number is the ceiling, not a quota — a concept it can't defend gets cut, not padded. Say "none" to seasonality and it builds evergreen.
5. The bucket gate — your decision point. It shows the client's full service menu, marks which services the proposed ad buckets cover and which they don't, then proposes 5–8 buckets ranked with reasons. Read the ✕ not-covered list first — that's where a whole revenue line gets caught before it's skipped. Then answer: build these, cut, add, swap, reorder, or change the count. Whatever you approve is the entire scope of the ads.
6. Only if some approved buckets have thin or weak assets: it asks whether real photos are still coming, whether to enhance what's there (lighting, perspective, background cleanup, extension) and generate scenes where nothing usable exists, or whether to plan fully AI-generated imagery. The answer is a summary — the real instruction is the per-concept asset plan it writes next. AI never fakes proof: no client trucks, uniforms, signage, staff, or testimonial imagery, and the logo always has to be a real file.
7. It writes the concepts — at your count per bucket. Each one carries a visual idea (what stops the scroll and what the image says), how the image proves the headline, why it fits this client, the copy with character counts, CTA, destination, and a four-line asset plan: Keep real / Enhance / Generate / Must accomplish. Layout is a suggestion at most — Codex decides the execution. Each bucket also gets a short reserve of alternate ideas, marked not for production, held for the replacement round.
8. It delivers <Client>-Creative-Package.md (also saved to brand/). Section 4 is the resolved production brief — the rules that actually govern this run, each tagged as client-approved, strategist-approved, verified fact, recommendation, or unresolved. The original brand standards ride along as Appendix A.

3 Make the ads Codex

1. Open Codex. New chat. Attach <Client>-Creative-Package.md — just that one file. Type $ and pick meta-ad-creative-generator.
2. It reads the package's build list, re-scans the client folder, and actually opens the source photos, logo, and any benchmarks — not just their filenames. It tells you what changed since Run 2.
3. It asks the CTA button question once — how many ads get a button-style CTA drawn on the artwork: None / 25% / 50% / 100% / Other. When in doubt, say None. It never re-asks a settled answer.
4. For each concept it writes a short execution brief — the visual idea, the hero subject, the composition, which assets stay real and which get enhanced or generated, and the specific failure to avoid — then renders. It picks a route per ad: a fully generated master, or AI imagery finished with the real logo file and real fonts for exact type.
5. First look — your decision point. For a new direction it builds up to three concepts, usually two candidates each, and runs them through its own visual gate first: full size and phone size, checking idea, composition, typography, brand fidelity, and finish. You only see what passed. Pick the direction, or say what's wrong — it gets two focused repair rounds per concept before it has to tell you the direction isn't working.
6. After you approve the direction it builds the rest of the build list in batches of five, pausing after each batch. The list defines the total — there's no automatic 45-ad target and reserves are never built.
7. Ads land in the client folder, plus <Client>-Ad-Index.md — every ad with its copy, computed character counts, CTA, destination, sources, settings, and status. Review-ready means it passed Codex's visual gate; approved means you or the client said so. Use the index when you upload to Ads Manager.

↻ Optional — remaking rejected ads Claude Cowork → Codex

1. In the client's Project, attach <Client>-Creative-Package.md and type /creative-strategy replace.
2. It asks which ads the client rejected and what they said. Answer in plain words — the filename, the headline on the ad, "the two testimonial ones," whatever is easiest. No ID numbers needed; it matches them for you.
3. Confirm the table. It shows each rejected ad, what it matched it to, and what it proposes: replace (wrong idea — a new one), revise (good idea, weak render — rebuild it), or correct (a wrong word, price, logo, or crop — fix that only). Change any row, then say go. Approved ads are never touched.
4. Take the round-2 package to Codex and run $meta-ad-creative-generator on it. It builds only the ads that changed and saves them separately — approved originals stay exactly as they were.

! Common mistakes

• Attaching the wrong file to Run 3. Run 3 takes the Creative Package (Run 2's output), not the Brand Standards file — the package already contains the brand standards inside it.
• Running Run 2 in a blank chat instead of the client's Project — it works, but the strategy loses everything from your meeting notes.
• Skipping the assets step between Runs 1 and 2 — the strategy then leans on website photos instead of the good client photos sitting on your drive.
• Rubber-stamping the bucket gate. The bucket list always looks reasonable. The ✕ list is where the mistakes hide.
• Asking for 10 per bucket out of habit. Five strong concepts plus a reserve beats ten you'll cut later — and replacements come from the reserve, not a new strategy run.
• Hand-editing a rejected ad. Either let it go and build fresh next refresh, or use /creative-strategy replace — that way the copy and the approved originals stay intact and traceable.
• Calling a render "approved" because it looks fine. Codex's gate makes it review-ready. Approved is what you or the client say after looking at it.

★ Cheat sheet