Last Updated: May 20, 2026

How To Buy Axon Traffic

Prerequisites

Best for Axon Buyers already familiar with the platform. If you're less familiar, check out Axon 101 first.

Tierra's best practices for buying Axon traffic effectively. While there are exceptions to every rule, these principles apply across 90%+ of clients. Adhere closely. Only disregard when specifically approved by the Growth Strategist. If unclear on any of this, check in with Tierra's Lead Media Buyer on Slack.

Creative vs Platform Optimization

Axon, like Meta, is a creative-first platform. The vast majority of your performance (90%+) is driven by your creative and landing page.

Platform optimizations are important — but spend 10x more time and effort on account creative than campaign optimization.

Make engaging ads and landers that convert, and performance will follow.

Media Buying Implementers

For Axon, Tierra is training Project Managers as implementers who can manage straightforward media buying tasks like uploading assets, launching ads, and downloading reports.

Implementers don't touch Performance Tracking Sheets

That task is always completed by the media buyer managing the traffic.

Tasks below where implementers can act with clear direction from the media buyer are flagged in context.

New Account Launch

Step 1 — Set Branding

Add branding copy and assets to the Axon Branding tab of the Creative Approval Sheet
Once approved by the client, add the branding to the account

Step 2 — Create Catalog

Set up the catalog from the Shopify App, a CSV file (3rd-party tool), or inferred from the Axon pixel
Exclude any products that clearly don't belong (gift cards, expedited shipping, upsell-only products, etc.)
If using a 3rd-party tool, optimize key fields like title and image

Step 3 — Upload Assets (implementer-capable with direction)

Upload assets (videos & endcards) to the media library
Media buyer provides direction for which assets get uploaded
If assets are rejected:
- Media Buyer decides: go to Axon rep, or edit the asset
- Going to Axon rep: share in the Slack channel and get the rep's feedback (and possible action from their end)
- Editing the asset: paste the rejected message in the creative sheet and ping the Creative Strategist to make necessary changes

Step 4 — Build Campaign

Set the campaign properties:

Property	Notes
Name	Follow naming convention
Catalog	From step 2
URL & parameters	Lander + tracking matter for CVR and optimization. Make sure Triple Whale is integrated.
Geo targeting	Per client setup
Goal Type	Match client's KPI goal — CPA/CPP or ROAS
Day target	Start with D0 for faster learnings. Use D7 if product requires significant customer consideration, or swap to D7 later in testing.
Goal	Set ~10% "worse" than the client's KPI target to allow better spend pacing. (Example: client's $50 CPA target → set campaign goal to $55)
Budget	See Budget Changes for why this is so impactful
End date	Do not set one

Step 5 — Build Creative Sets (implementer-capable with direction)

Combine assets, save as live Creative Sets
Media buyer provides direction for which assets get combined
For new ad launches, stick to campaign-level URL and account-level branding unless directed otherwise
Always follow the naming convention.

Import limitations

Import is only used to clone existing creative assets. At this time, there is no way to bulk upload new Creative Sets.

Step 6 — Launch Campaign

Media buyer reviews campaign & creative sets before launching (verify all desired assets added correctly)
Media buyer checks frequently over the first few days to verify events are firing correctly

Regular Account Maintenance

New Campaign Launches

Only run a single scaling campaign.
1–2 other campaigns at lower budgets for testing
Example testing structure:
- Take the top 5 creative sets in the primary campaign, clone them into a new campaign, change only the lander
- Run them in the new campaign at $1k/day for 10 days
- If performance is strong, take the top 10 best creative sets in the primary campaign, clone them but running to the new lander, let them compete amongst the other ads

Goal Changes

Testing-light

We don't have a clear picture of what we recommend for testing Goal Changes at this time. Needs additional testing.

From Axon:

Lever	What it does
CPP vs ROAS	No detail from Axon at this time
D0 vs D7	Impacts how quickly data matures. D0 within a few days, D7 can take 2 weeks. Start with D0 unless the product requires more consideration.
Goal Target	Only impacts spend pacing.

Budget Changes

Always change budgets at 12am UTC

4pm PST / 7pm EST (November to March)
5pm PDT / 8pm EDT (March to November)

Budget changes later in the day (UTC time) will accelerate the spend, often to the account's detriment (spending $1,000s in the last hour, etc.).

Why Budget Is So Impactful

Beyond the standard "spend more, performance drops" rule, budget on Axon matters especially in terms of audience targeting:

Lower budgets tend toward lower-funnel audiences (retargeting & retention)
Clients who care about new customer acquisition may look at low new-customer performance and think "we need to drop the budget"
Instead, explain that lower budgets will continue to strain new customer performance because it will be optimizing toward returning customers
The best way to improve new customer performance is to increase scale and test creative aimed at generating new customers

Example scaling pattern Axon recommends:

Start small at $1–2k/day, run for a week to get initial reads & optimize creative
Once performance is hitting goals, move to $3–5k for a few days
Monitor performance (account for intra-week seasonality — weekends vs Mondays)
Keep pushing scale until you find a ceiling

Scaling pace: OK to increase by more than 20% in a day. Don't go from $1k → $10k immediately, but $1k → $3k → $6k → $10k over a 10-day period is fine.

Don't surf the budget. Don't change budget multiple times throughout the day. Twice a day max in most circumstances.

Ad Launches (implementer-capable with direction)

If an implementer is launching, the media buyer must provide direction on:

What assets to add from the media library
Use campaign or alternate URL
Use campaign or alternate parameters
Use account-level or alternate branding

Ideal timing: launch at 12am UTC (same as budget changes above)

Ideal cadence: launch new ads every day

Single- vs Multi-Asset Creative Sets

From Axon: there's no algorithmic difference between launching 1 multi-asset creative set with 5 videos + 5 endcards vs launching 25 unique creative sets with every combination.

Current Tierra approach: keep launching all combinations of Single Asset Creative Sets to see more actionable data. Multi-Asset Creative Sets can be used for launching iterations.

Top Asset Relaunches

Launch new Single Asset Creative Sets using combinations of top-performing assets
Especially important for accounts with historical data.
From Axon: an asset that hasn't been live in the account for 2+ months can be treated like a brand new asset

Creative Set Clones

Currently only being used to duplicate Creative Sets across multiple campaigns during testing
Worth testing to see how clones perform in the same campaign

Learning Phase Impact

Aim to get to 15 conversions/day as quickly as possible
Don't make too many changes at once. Give the system 2–3 days before making another significant change.
Uploading a significant number of new creative sets, especially after a long time of limited uploads, may cause the campaign to go back into a learning phase

Ad Pauses