I'm Caroline, a paid media specialist. I help creatives, consumer brands, and online businesses run the ads that move their bottom line, and quietly retire the ones that don't.
Most ad accounts are quietly split in two. Some campaigns pull real weight, others slowly drain money, and from the inside they look exactly the same. So you're left sensing something's off but never quite able to pin it down, spending your evenings squinting at a dashboard when you'd rather be running the business you actually started.
The 3am "is this even working?" spiral. We've all been there.
It's rarely about spending more. It's about knowing where your money's really going, and what it's bringing in. That's the whole job, and it's exactly what I do.
Spot what's working and what's not before you waste another dollar. It's a quick self-check of your ad setup: a little game of red light, green light. No call, no pitch, just a fast head start.
Here's what I'm actually good at: figuring out exactly who your buyer is, building that audience inside Meta, and getting your ad in front of them fast, even in the dead middle of their doom scroll. Targeting is the real work. Nail who sees the ad, and half the battle's won before anyone even clicks. From there I treat your money like it's mine, break everything down so it actually makes sense, and keep it all transparent, no sales call or scary contract required.
Run the 5-Minute Ad Audit and see your red lights and green lights in minutes.
Want a deeper look? I dig into your accounts and hand you a clear, prioritized plan. It even credits toward your first month.
Ready to stop guessing? I manage your ads month to month and make your budget work harder.
Maybe you've got an ad account collecting dust. Maybe you've never opened one. Maybe you just know you should be running ads and have no clue what that actually means yet. That's completely normal, and honestly my favorite place to start, because we get to build it right from the beginning. No judgment, no lectures. Just tell me where you're at, and I'll take it from there.
Start with a quick chatMeta is my home turf and where most small budgets should start. The rest I add when your audience is actually there, not because it looks good on a proposal.
Facebook and Instagram. Eight years in Ads Manager and the place I know cold. Best value for most small budgets, and where I build your audience by hand.
Cheap attention if your creative can earn it. Great for products people discover rather than search for. Rough beats polished here, which is good news for your budget.
People arrive already planning to buy something. Quietly excellent for home, beauty, weddings, food, and anything visual with a long consideration window.
The best place to explain something that needs explaining. Worth it when you have a story longer than six seconds and a budget to match.
LinkedIn: technically yes. It's built for B2B, the clicks cost several dollars each, and almost none of my clients' buyers are there, so I'd usually talk you out of it. If your buyer genuinely is on LinkedIn and the budget's serious, I'll run it and I'll run it well. I'll just be honest with you first about whether it's the right room.
I'd rather be the right fit for a few than a maybe for everyone. So here's the honest version.
No surprise invoices. No "let's circle back." No wondering what you're actually paying for. I do one thing, paid media, and here's what it costs. Tap any card to flip it over.
A full review of your ad accounts and funnel, with a clear, prioritized plan you can act on.
Campaigns, audiences, and tracking built to perform from day one.
Ongoing management that makes your spend smarter every month. Growth & Scale tiers as you grow.
Great ads need something good to run, and most small businesses have nothing ad-ready. I capture vertical, phone-shot video built to perform, not just to look pretty. Since I'm the one running your ads, I shoot for results.
This is ad creative, not content management. I don't post to your feed or run your socials.
Tell me where your business is at and what you're hoping ads can do. It takes about five minutes, and it means our first call is a real strategy conversation instead of twenty minutes of me asking you questions.
Start a project →Something bigger, weirder, or one-off? I take on custom paid media projects too. Tell me what you've got in mind and I'll send a real answer, not a runaround.
These are my management fees. They don't include your recommended ad spend, which goes straight to the ad platforms and stays fully yours. I'll always recommend a budget that fits your goals, never a penny more than makes sense.
Reach the right people, get them to click, turn clicks into leads. Here's 12 months of exactly that for one client, four brands under one roof.
Most freelance ad buyers optimize for clicks. I optimize for what happens after the click. I understand the whole funnel, so I build ads around real customers and real revenue, not vanity metrics.
My lane, on purpose: I manage your paid advertising, the campaigns inside the ad platforms. I don't post to your feed, run your community, or manage your content. I'll work with the creative you have, or scope a one-time piece. That focus is exactly why the ads perform.
You run your own show. So do I. I'm guessing we both like to march to the beat of our own drum.
The honest reason I do this: paid media lights up both sides of my brain, equal parts numbers puzzle and taste game. My favorite part is the human bit underneath, figuring out what a customer actually needs, why they buy, and how to get in front of them. After eight years, from lifestyle brands to media companies to a $70K-a-month program across 52 markets, I'm quietly very good at it.
So I started Prater Paid Media to do that work for people I want to see win. You get my full attention and someone who treats your budget like her own money. And the quiet part out loud: ad platforms are tedious, but if one of us has to suffer through them, it might as well be me. You get your time back and a budget that works harder. Everybody wins.
Oh, and the name. In ad-land, "green" means your numbers are healthy and climbing, your cue to go bigger. My job is getting you there and keeping you there. I may or may not get a little giddy when a dashboard turns green.
Just want the weekly note, no audit required? Think of it as a backstage pass to my actual scribbles: what I saw working across Meta, Google, and TikTok that week, what's shifting with AI, and the occasional experiment that surprised even me.
The market never sits still, so neither do the notes. Short, a little chaotic, genuinely useful, and never a snooze. Unsubscribe anytime, no hard feelings.
basically, the good stuff I'd text a friend.
Start with the 5-Minute Ad Audit, or send a note and tell me what you're working on. No pitch, no pressure.