One ad system for every tournament.

Situation.

American Grappling Federation (AGF) runs Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) tournaments across the US. The audit found about $8K already spent on Facebook Event Response campaigns. Engagement was cheap, but only because it all happened on Facebook event pages, so nobody could say how many responses turned into paid competitors. The ads ran from a personal ad account, on lifetime budgets, with long raw links in the copy, and the creative wore out fast.

What I did.

1. Conversion campaigns, not Event Responses.

   I built campaigns to optimize for Purchases and send people to each tournament's own sign-up page, so spend tied back to paid competitors. Each ad set was one region plus one interest (BJJ, grappling, or mixed martial arts), men and women 18 to 60, with detailed targeting expansion on.

2. Four angles in every market.

   Each market got the same four top-of-funnel ads. They were written so a new tournament meant swapping the city and the registration link, not starting over. Every link carried UTM tags, so sign-ups traced back to a campaign.

   Angle 1

   Featured Grappler

   Angle 2

   Elevate Your Jiu-Jitsu Game

   Angle 3

   Grow and Network With the Local Community

   Angle 4

   You Either Win or You Learn

3. Cheap tests, written down.

   The testing log covers Lubbock, Jackson, New Mexico, and Wichita. Every ad went in with its spend, link CTR, and link CPC, a Good, Average, or Bad call, and a note on why. Ads that soaked up spend without earning it got turned off, and ad sets that could not get delivery got flagged.

4. A checklist before anything went live.

   Campaigns, ad sets, and ads each had their own checklist tab: naming, placements, attribution window, conversion event, copy, creative in every size, the link loaded by hand, UTMs, and the tracking event. Names followed one pattern (funnel stage, region, objective, budget type, test number) so results read at a glance.

5. The No Gi Pro Series.

   I was the Facebook ads manager on a five-person team with a copywriter, a creative director, a designer, and a project manager. The brief called for four top-of-funnel ads (recognition, facing the best, the chance to win, scarcity) and four retargeting ads (objections, testimonials, why this tournament, highlight reel), each as image and video in square, vertical, and horizontal. The first stop was New Orleans on April 30, 2022, and everything was built as a template for the tournaments after it.

6. Email.

   AGF also ordered an email sequence and automation build. I was the marketing manager on it, working with an email designer and developer and the project manager.

Takeaway.

A company that launches tournaments in city after city needs a system more than it needs any single ad. One structure, one set of angles, one checklist, and one log meant a new tournament was a swap, not a rebuild.