Skip to main content
The performance marketing agent is an expert advertising manager that sits on top of Adspirer’s 100+ tools. It knows your brand, remembers past decisions, follows your strategy, and uses proven workflows to manage campaigns across all platforms.

​
How It Works

The agent reads your brand context, strategy directives, and past decisions before choosing the right skill and tools for your request. Every action goes through the same pipeline — whether you’re analyzing performance, creating campaigns, or writing ad copy.

​
Where It Runs

The agent is available across 3 IDEs:
FeatureClaude CodeCursorCodex
Agent typeClaude Code agentCursor subagentCodex agent config
Agent fileagents/performance-marketing-agent.md.cursor/agents/performance-marketing-agent.mdagents/performance-marketing-agent.toml
Brand contextCLAUDE.mdBRAND.mdAGENTS.md
Strategy fileSTRATEGY.mdSTRATEGY.mdSTRATEGY.md
MemoryMEMORY.md.cursor/memory/.../MEMORY.md—
Rules—.cursor/rules/*.mdcrules/campaign-safety.rules
Skills1 (ad-campaign-management)5 (adspirer-*)5 (adspirer-*)
Web researchWebSearch + WebFetchWebSearch + WebFetch—
The agent is installed automatically with the plugin or one-command installer. See the Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex setup guides.

​
Brand Workspace

When you first run setup (/adspirer:setup in Claude Code, /adspirer-setup in Cursor, $adspirer-setup in Codex), the agent creates a brand workspace — a set of local files that give it context about your business, strategy, and past decisions.

​
What Setup Creates

~/Clients/YourBrand/
├── CLAUDE.md          # Brand context (Claude Code)
│   └── or BRAND.md    # Brand context (Cursor)
│   └── or AGENTS.md   # Brand context (Codex)
├── STRATEGY.md        # Strategy directives (all IDEs)
└── MEMORY.md          # Past decisions (Claude Code + Cursor)

​
Brand Context File

The brand context file is the foundation. It contains everything the agent needs to make brand-aware decisions:
SectionSourceContent
Brand OverviewYour docs + AdspirerWhat you sell, who you sell to, industry
Brand VoiceYour docsTone, language style, prohibited words
Target AudiencesYour docs + campaignsAudience segments with targeting parameters
Active PlatformsAdspirerConnected platforms and campaign counts
Budget & GuardrailsYour docs + campaignsMonthly budget, CPC caps, CPA targets, ROAS minimums
KPI TargetsYour docsPrimary goals and target metrics
Performance SnapshotAdspirerLast 30 days across all platforms
Key FindingsAdspirerTop campaigns, wasted spend, opportunities
CompetitorsYour docsKnown competitors
StrategySTRATEGY.mdPointer to strategy directives
The more brand docs you drop into your folder before running setup, the better the agent’s ad copy and recommendations. Brand guidelines, media plans, competitor analyses, and audience research all improve output quality.

​
Strategy Playbook

STRATEGY.md is where strategic decisions persist across sessions. When you analyze competitors, review performance, or make strategic decisions, the agent saves confirmed directives to this file. All skills read it before executing.

​
Why This Matters

Without strategy persistence, each session starts fresh. You might spend 30 minutes analyzing your competitive landscape, concluding “don’t bid on broad match competitor terms — they’re too expensive.” Then when you create a campaign, the skill does its own keyword research and recommends those exact terms. With STRATEGY.md, the analysis produces directives that are saved and enforced: 
BEFORE (without strategy persistence):
  Strategy analysis → conclusions stay in chat → next session starts fresh → contradicts strategy

AFTER (with STRATEGY.md):
  Strategy analysis → directives saved to STRATEGY.md → skills read directives →
  keyword research filtered → conflicts flagged → campaign follows your strategy

​
Directive Types

TypeFormatExample
AVOIDAVOID: [what] — [reason]AVOID: broad match "plumbing services" — competitor-dominated, $12+ CPC
PREFERPREFER: [what] — [reason]PREFER: long-tail "emergency plumber near me" — high intent, lower CPC
CONSTRAINTCONSTRAINT: [rule] — [reason]CONSTRAINT: max CPC $8 for non-brand terms — budget protection
REQUIREREQUIRE: [action] — [reason]REQUIRE: sitelinks on all Search campaigns — Quality Score boost

​
What Triggers Saving

Not every conversation produces directives. The agent classifies conversations before persisting:
Conversation TypeExamplesAction
Exploratory”What if we tried…”, brainstormingDoes NOT save directives
Research”Analyze competitors”, “How’s performance?”Presents findings, asks if any should become directives
Explicit decision”Don’t bid on X”, “Focus on long-tail”Proposes directives, asks you to confirm
Confirmed analysisYou agree with the agent’s conclusionsProposes directives, asks you to confirm
Directives are only saved after you explicitly confirm them. The agent proposes, you approve. Nothing is saved automatically from casual conversation.

​
How Skills Use Strategy

Every skill reads STRATEGY.md before executing:
  1. Campaign creation — loads directives at Step 0, uses them as context for keyword research, bidding, targeting, and ad copy. Flags conflicts between research results and directives.
  2. Keyword research — after getting results, cross-references against AVOID/PREFER directives. Deprioritizes matching AVOID terms and highlights PREFER terms.
  3. Ad copy — checks Creative Direction and Competitive Positioning directives for messaging guidance.
  4. Performance review — flags campaigns that violate active directives as “Strategy Drift” items.
  5. Wasted spend — flags campaigns violating directives as priority waste sources.

​
STRATEGY.md Structure

# [Brand Name] — Strategy Playbook

## Active Directives

### Cross-Platform Strategy
PREFER: long-tail keywords with clear purchase intent — higher conversion rates

### Google Ads
AVOID: broad match "plumbing services" — competitor-dominated auction, $12+ CPC
PREFER: exact match "emergency plumber [city]" — high intent, $4-6 CPC
CONSTRAINT: max CPC $8 for non-brand terms — budget protection

### Meta Ads
[No active directives]

### LinkedIn Ads
PREFER: target IT Directors at 200-1000 employee companies — best conversion rate from Q1 data

### TikTok Ads
[No active directives]

### Budget Allocation
CONSTRAINT: 60% Google, 25% LinkedIn, 15% Meta — based on Q1 ROAS data

---

## Decision Log
### 2026-02-15 — Competitive analysis
Analyzed top 5 competitors. Key finding: broad match terms are dominated by
national chains with 10x our budget. Pivoting to long-tail exact match strategy.

---

## Archived Directives
[Previous directives that were superseded or removed]

​
Memory

MEMORY.md tracks past decisions, learnings, and your preferences across sessions. Available in Claude Code and Cursor. What gets saved to memory:
  • Campaign actions taken (what was created, modified, or paused)
  • Optimization results (what worked, what didn’t)
  • Your preferences (reporting format, approval style, platform priorities)
  • Key learnings (which audiences convert best, seasonal patterns)
What doesn’t get saved:
  • Raw performance data (always pulled fresh from Adspirer)
  • In-progress work or temporary analysis
  • Unconfirmed conclusions
The agent reads memory at the start of each session and when analyzing performance, providing continuity across conversations.

​
Rules

Rules are IDE-specific safety and workflow enforcement files. They complement skills by auto-triggering behavior based on context.

​
Cursor Rules

Cursor supports .mdc rule files that apply automatically when relevant. Adspirer ships two: brand-workspace.mdc — Auto-loads brand context on every advertising task:
  • Reads BRAND.md and MEMORY.md at session start
  • Reads STRATEGY.md for active directives
  • Bootstraps new workspaces if BRAND.md doesn’t exist
  • Updates context files when significant changes happen
use-adspirer.mdc — Enforces workflow safety:
  • Always checks connections first
  • Read-before-write enforcement
  • User confirmation before spend-affecting actions
  • Campaign creation in PAUSED status
  • Strategy directive checks before campaign creation and keyword operations
  • Mandatory ad extensions for Google Ads campaigns
  • Verification before reporting success

​
Rules in Action

Without rules: You say “create a Google Ads campaign” and Cursor jumps straight to create_search_campaign — which fails because there’s no keyword research, no asset validation, and no strategy check. With rules: The same prompt triggers a full workflow — connection check, strategy load, keyword research, asset validation, user confirmation, campaign creation (PAUSED), ad extensions, and post-creation verification.

​
Codex Safety Rules

Codex uses campaign-safety.rules to block direct API calls to ad platforms: 
prefix_rule(
    pattern = ["curl", "https://ads.google.com"],
    decision = "forbidden",
    justification = "Google Ads API calls must go through Adspirer MCP"
)
This ensures all ad platform operations go through Adspirer’s authenticated, auditable pipeline — not raw API calls.

​
IDE Feature Comparison

CapabilityClaude CodeCursorCodex
Performance marketing agentYesYes (subagent)Yes (agent config)
100+ Adspirer toolsYesYesYes
Skills (workflow enforcement)1 skill5 skills5 skills
Slash commands5 commands5 skills5 dollar commands
Brand context fileCLAUDE.mdBRAND.mdAGENTS.md
Strategy persistenceSTRATEGY.mdSTRATEGY.mdSTRATEGY.md
Memory (cross-session)MEMORY.mdMEMORY.mdNot available
Rules (auto-trigger)Not available2 rule filesSafety rules
Web research (competitors)WebSearch + WebFetchWebSearch + WebFetchNot available

​
FAQ

No. You can connect Adspirer MCP directly and use the 100+ tools without the agent. But the agent adds brand awareness, strategy persistence, memory, and workflow orchestration — turning raw tools into a managed advertising system.
No. All campaigns are created in PAUSED status. The agent always asks for your confirmation before any action that affects spend. This is enforced by both skills and rules.
The agent uses switch_primary_account to manage different accounts. Each brand folder has its own context file, strategy, and memory — so you can manage multiple clients by working in different folders.
Not yet. ChatGPT supports MCP connectors (tools) but not agent files, skills, or rules. You get the full 100+ tools but without workflow enforcement or brand awareness. The Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex integrations support the full agent experience.
Strategy directives are guidance, not rigid rules. Skills use them to inform research — not bypass it. If a directive conflicts with fresh data, the agent flags the conflict and asks you. You can archive or update directives anytime. The Decision Log includes dates so you can see when directives were last validated.
Yes. The agent prompt is a markdown file. Edit it to change default behaviors, add custom workflows, or modify how the agent interacts with you. The source is in the ads-mcp repository.
Last modified on February 28, 2026