A simple paid plan for a proven email engine
Marc's words on 29 April: “stay focussed on doing the TEST painting sale to begin with — we need to make sure the TEST campaign works before we move onto anything else.” This is that plan. You run the 4 EDMs Jessie is building, we run a small paid layer locked to AU and New York around them. Every enquiry not from your EDM is one we found. That's the measurement contract, agreed on the call, and it's the whole point of the test.
The Fine-Art Collector Profile
Marc's 2 May note: mirror your existing AU buyer base. We've built the targeting around the profile that actually buys fine art at A$2k+ — cross-checked against Charlestons' 90-day Google Ads data (they sell a lot of your work, their buyer profile is a useful external confirmation). Wildlife is the creative hook; the targeting underneath is sharper than that.
- Primary seed: Mailchimp list lookalike (your ~30k past-buyers — highest-fidelity collector signal)
- Interest overlays: Home Decor Enthusiasts · Fine Art · Art Collectors · Australian Art · major auction-house audiences
- Age lock: 45–65+ (fine-art collector bracket — confirmed across both your list and the external cross-check)
- Device: desktop + mobile (not mobile-only — this is a considered A$2k+ purchase)
- Creative hook: wildlife + Love The Last charity angle (what earns attention) — targeting underneath filters for collector-level buying intent
- AU (primary): Sydney 2000/2021/2026/2088/2065 · Brisbane 4000-cluster · Melbourne 3004/CBD · Adelaide 5000 · Perth 6000
- US: New York City + Los Angeles
- UK: London (zones 1–3)
- NZ: Auckland
- Canada: Vancouver + Toronto
Pulled your Meta account to see what ran during the Sept 2025 sale. 7 sale-specific ads ran under the “EVERYTHING MUST GO – 50% OFF” headline — A$4,589 total spend, 2.68M impressions, 29,755 clicks, 1.11% CTR. Copy led with “We're clearing the studio to fund our next monumental sculpture exhibition dedicated to saving endangered animals” + “Every painting purchase comes with a FREE sculpture and goodie pack” — the wildlife/charity framing already worked once, at scale.
For May 2026 we keep that creative DNA (50% off + FREE sculpture + wildlife-mission framing) and add what was missing last time: (a) the tightened collector-profile audience + inner-metro geo lock above — not broad wildlife interest, (b) paid traffic routed to a dedicated landing page with a trackable enquiry form, not a mailto: link, (c) Meta CAPI + form_submit_pify event wired so we actually know which ad drove which enquiry.
Three Phases · Meta-Led · Wildlife Story First
A small, contained test. Every phase has a specific job. The conversion path follows how you actually sell: ad → collection page → enquiry form → your team emails the catalogue PDF → conversation → invoice. We don't force a checkout you've deliberately removed.
Marc's words: “the only emails we're going to get from our EDM are from our database. Anything that we get in that's not from that — we'll know you guys did it for us.” That's the test. Every enquiry arriving during the sale window that isn't from a known EDM subscriber is attributable to paid. We'll tag the enquiry form with hidden fields so there's a paper trail, but the final call on attribution is yours. Simple, transparent, no agency arithmetic.
form_submit_pify.
Clear Lanes · You Run Email · We Run Paid
- All email — Jessie runs Mailchimp, copy, imagery, schedule
- Sale timing, pricing, negotiation headroom
- Enquiry inbox response — catalogue PDF, phone/email close
- Invoicing, payment, logistics, delivery
- Creative approval — Jessie signs off every paid ad
- Instagram boosting continues as today
- Meta Ads — DPA retargeting + cold LAL prospecting, geo-locked
- Google Ads — Paintings Sale Search + AU Brand boost + PMAX paintings (on Evan's structure)
- Tracking —
form_submit_pifyinto Meta CAPI + Google, pixel audit - Enquiry form instrumentation (UTMs, fbclid, catalogue-of-interest)
- Creative briefs + copy drafts mirroring Jessie's EDM tone
- Weekly check-ins + post-sale report with EDM-vs-paid attribution
A$5,000 Fee · A$12,000 Media
Fixed fee covers everything end-to-end. Media is billed directly by Meta and Google — zero 121 Group mark-up, zero flow-through. One clean number each side.
| Line item | Amount | Paid to | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 121 Group fee | A$5,000 ex GST · discounted from A$7,000 |
121 Group | Set-up, tracking, pixel audit, audience build, landing page brief, creative, copy, launch, daily optimisation, weekly check-ins, post-sale report |
| Meta Ads spend | A$10,000 | Meta (direct) | Phase 1 warm-up (wildlife + charity story) + Phase 2 DPA retargeting + cold LAL prospecting with sale creative + Phase 3 tail retargeting |
| Google Ads spend | A$2,000 | Google (direct) | New Paintings Sale Search campaign + AU Brand daily-budget boost + PMAX Bronze paintings product group (layered on Evan's working structure) |
| Total investment | A$17,000 over 3-week window |
A$5k to us (ex GST) + A$12k direct to platforms · one clean split, nothing hidden | |
What “Worked” Looks Like — Measured Your Way
At the end of the 3-week window plus a 3-week reconciliation tail, we deliver a post-sale report with exactly the evidence you need to decide if this continues. Using Marc's definition: any enquiry that isn't from the EDM is one we found.
form_submit_pify firing in Meta + GA4 throughoutWeek by Week
| Week | What happens |
|---|---|
| Mon 4 – Fri 8 May Approval + setup |
Approval signed · Mailchimp list export · Jessie drafts EDMs + shares creative pack · Meta pixel consolidation · landing page scoped with Michael |
| Mon 11 – Tue 12 May Launch day minus 1 |
Landing page live · form_submit_pify wired into Meta CAPI + Google Ads · Phase 1 warm-up Meta ads launched · Jessie approves every ad |
| Tue 13 – Tue 20 May 🎨 Sale window |
Phase 2 live · Meta DPA + cold LAL + Google Paintings Sale Search + AU Brand boost + PMAX paintings · EDMs 1–3 drop · daily optimisation · mid-sale check-in Fri 16 May |
| Wed 21 – Tue 27 May Tail |
Phase 3 retargeting only · EDM 4 final reminder · paid spend tapers to zero · optional extension to Tue 3 Jun by Jessie's call |
| ~Wed 17 Jun Decision meeting |
Post-sale report: every enquiry tagged by source, matched to invoiced sales, EDM-vs-paid attribution · go/no-go on the 12-month engagement |
Three Things Between Here and Launch
/paintings-sale) covering all four catalogues in one scroll with an enquiry form, catalogue-of-interest dropdown, and hidden UTM capture fields. Michael scopes with Jessie this week.
1345840819115125), archive 1,621 dormant campaigns, lock active campaigns to the collector-metro geos. Done by Mon 12 May — one day before Phase 2 launch.
Reply confirming (1) A$5,000 ex GST 121 Group fee, (2) A$10,000 Meta + A$2,000 Google Ads media spend (billed direct by platforms), (3) sale dates Tue 13 May → Tue 20 May with optional extension to Tue 3 Jun. Pre-flight work starts the next business day.