{"id":"dat-mkt-ad-budget-pacing","audience":"marketing","category":"data","technique":"context","title":"Check ad budget pacing against how far the month is","free":false,"task":"Today is Nov 20, so 20 of November's 30 days are done (67% of the month). A channel is ON pace if its percent spent is within 5 points of 67%, OVER if more, UNDER if less. Write exactly 3 numbered lines, each as Channel: spent ÷ budget = X%, then ON, OVER or UNDER, then one unnumbered last line: Slow down: [channels OVER]. Plain text, under 60 words.","materialLabel":"Spend tracker (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"NOVEMBER PAID MEDIA - spend tracker (updated this morning)\n\nChannel | Monthly budget | Spent so far\nSearch | $8,000 | $6,400\nSocial | $5,000 | $3,000\nDisplay | $3,000 | $2,000\n\nNotes:\n- Black Friday is Nov 28; we planned a small push that week.\n- Social CPMs dropped after the creative refresh.\n- Display partner bills on the 1st for the prior month.\n- Agency says \"all channels are pacing beautifully.\" Check.\n- December budgets get locked Nov 25.\n- Total November budget is $16,000.\n- Search spend jumped after we added holiday gift keywords on Nov 10.\n- Social creative refresh launched Nov 6 with three new videos.\n- Display runs mostly retargeting ads.\n- Finance flags any channel that overspends its monthly budget.\n- Media team standup is daily at 9:30.","rules":[{"type":"numberedItems","count":3},{"type":"plainText"},{"type":"maxWords","max":60}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Not giving the date","why":"The AI can't judge pacing without knowing how far into the month you are.","fix":"Add: \"Today is Nov 20: 67% of the month.\"","checks":["r0","r1"]},{"title":"Not defining on pace","why":"The AI makes up its own tolerance.","fix":"Add: \"Within 5 points of 67% is ON.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Not asking to see the work","why":"Bare labels hide the math.","fix":"Add a line to copy: \"1. Search: 6,400 ÷ 8,000 = 80% OVER\"","checks":["numberedItems","r2"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each line: \"each line under 10 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Forgetting where it goes","why":"AI loves markdown tables and bold, which show up as clutter in a media team Slack.","fix":"Add: \"Plain text, no bold, headings or tables.\"","checks":["plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Gives the date","patterns":["nov(ember)? 20","67\\s*%","20 of 30"]},{"label":"Defines on pace","patterns":["5 points","within","on pace"]},{"label":"Asks to show the math","patterns":["show (the |your )?(math|work)","x \\$|\\bx\\b.{0,10}=","calculation","step"]},{"label":"Sets a word limit","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","word (limit|count)","under \\d+"]},{"label":"Asks for plain text","patterns":["plain","no bold","no markdown","no formatting","no (headings|tables)"]}],"hint":"Pacing depends on today's date. Give the AI the date and your tolerance, and ask for each channel's math.","rubricLabels":["Search is 6,400 ÷ 8,000 = 80%, OVER","Social is 3,000 ÷ 5,000 = 60%, UNDER, and Display is 2,000 ÷ 3,000 = 67%, ON","The last line names only Search, with nothing before the first numbered line"]}