What we do, how we do it, and what we don't

Tattoo marketing services.

Bonehead runs Meta ads for one industry, tattoo. This page is the plain list: what we do, how the audience gets built, and what we don't do. No sales page, just the method.

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100+ Tattoo artists to date
10 Countries
1 Industry, no exceptions

Tattoo-only since day one.

What we do

Two layers. Chosen per client and market.

Every account we run has the same shape. Underneath sits the audience layer: a behaviour-based pool of local people who engage with your style of tattooing and have never seen your work. It runs first on every account, warms the audience and locks down the targeting. It's the asset that builds up. On top sits the enquiry layer: DM ads, lead forms or a booking flow, depending on what fits.

Which enquiry layer you get is a decision, not a default. It depends on your location, your style, the local competition, and how you actually handle enquiries. Nothing is set in stone; we change it when the numbers say so. We build the ads from what you already post, run and tune them weekly, and report back monthly in plain English. Solo artists and studios get the same engine, set up for their situation.

The three lanes

Audience growth, DMs, or lead forms. When each is right.

Every account runs a traffic layer first. It warms the audience and locks down the targeting. What goes on top, DM ads, lead forms or a booking flow, depends on your location, your style and the local competition. Nothing is set in stone; we change it when the numbers say so.

  • 1. Audience growth

    The long-term customer base, built up month by month. No learning phase, the cheapest reach Meta sells, and it builds the pool everything else draws from. Runs from $300 NZD/month in ad spend. Right for anyone starting out, anyone on a tight budget, and anyone whose real goal is the right followers rather than this week's enquiries. The asset.

  • 2. DMs

    The fastest route to a conversation. High volume, and the strongest lane in NZ, Australia and the US. Weakest on a cold audience, where the objective finds the cheapest conversation, and Meta can't trace a DM through to a booking. DMs work because of the audience, not instead of it. Right for artists and studios who already book through Instagram and don't want a form or a CRM in the way. Plenty of the artists we work with run DMs long-term, and that's a finished setup. Needs $600 NZD/month in ad spend to leave Meta's learning phase.

  • 3. Lead forms

    Fewer enquiries, higher intent, and trackable. They cost more per result, and they need a reply within the hour or they go cold. The tracking is the real prize: once enquiries are tracked, the account can start learning toward bookings instead of chatters. Right for anyone who wants the enquiry to land in an inbox with the details already filled in, and for studios that need enquiries attributed per artist. Lead forms run on top of the audience layer, never instead of it. Same $600 floor.

Been burned by DM ads? If you've run DM ads yourself and got tyre-kickers, that's the objective doing what it does on a cold audience: it finds the cheapest conversation. Run into a warmed audience with a qualifying opener, it's a different inbox. Meta's newer DM automation helps here: one automated greeting or qualifying question in the thread filters the tyre-kickers and saves you time. It says it's automated, it's one message, and everything after that is you.

UK and Europe: Meta's privacy rules there mean DM campaigns don't optimise properly. In those markets the enquiry layer runs on lead forms and profile visits. Audience building, creative and targeting work the same. We've run this for artists across the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.

How the audience gets built

The method, start to finish.

Three parts. How the audience is built, how a high-value client actually arrives, and why the tracking matters. This is the same method on every account we run.

The real product

Targeted audience building, not guess work.

Most people think targeting means picking a few interests and hoping Meta finds the right person. That stopped working years ago. Interest-based targeting is a guess. Behaviour-based targeting is evidence: we watch what your existing clients actually do, then find locals who do the same things.

  1. Start with location

    No point growing an audience on the other side of the world. We lock the geography to the area you actually take bookings from.

  2. Seed the audience with behaviour

    We target people who engage with similar artists to you. Not who follow them passively, who engage. That's the first signal someone cares about your style of tattooing.

  3. Find the commonalities, then exclude

    From that seed pool, we look at what those people have in common. Other artists they engage with, pages they follow, brands they shop. The more overlap we find, the sharper the profile. Then we exclude anyone who already engages with your work, your contacts, and the artists you were seeded against. What's left is a pool of locals who match the profile but have never seen you before.

  4. Let the creative do the targeting

    In 2026, the creative is the targeting. Meta's system matches each ad to the people it fits, so which pieces run, in which style, in which format, is the biggest targeting decision on the account. That's a curation job, and it's ours.

  5. Layer in the buyer signals (once the data lands)

    Once we can see who actually books, usually a few months in, we build a second profile from booking-window behaviour and start optimising toward booked tattoos directly. That's the highest level of targeting Meta will let us reach. One catch, and it matters: DM-only campaigns can't tell us who booked, only who messaged. Getting past that is what the tracking below is for.

What you end up with: local tattoo fans, in your style, showing the signs of someone close to booking. They've never seen your work. Now they're seeing it daily. We don't chase follower count, we chase the right followers.

This runs in the background of every campaign we manage, whether it's set up for DMs, leads, or pure audience growth. The audience is the asset.

The buyer journey

How high-value clients come to you.

Someone booking a sleeve, a back piece, or an ongoing project doesn't tap-and-book. They lurk for months, sometimes years. Generalist agencies write these people off as "non-buyers." AI ads services and Meta's own automation never meet them at all: they optimise toward whoever converts this week. Our entire model is built around catching them.

  1. 01

    Discover

    They scroll past your work in their Explore feed. Maybe save it. Maybe just keep scrolling, but the image sticks.

    Generalist sees: nothing
  2. 02

    Follow

    A week later they remember the piece. Find your account. Follow. Save 5 of your posts to a "tattoo ideas" collection.

    Generalist sees: a follower (low signal)
  3. 03

    Compare

    They follow 4 to 6 other artists doing the same style. Compare portfolios. Read captions. Watch Reels. Build mental shortlist.

    Generalist sees: zero data
  4. 04

    Lurk

    3 to 12 months of liking, watching, considering. Saving healed shots. Showing your work to friends. Quiet evaluation.

    Generalist sees: them as a "non-buyer"
  5. 05

    Decide

    Something clicks. They're ready. They reach out, by DM, lead form, or your contact page, whichever fits how you book. The agency's job just ended. Yours begins.

    Generalist sees: their first signal (too late)

What generalists and AI ads services optimise for

Just step 5. Click-once-DM-now buyers. The lowest-value, most price-sensitive segment.

What we optimise for

Steps 1 to 5. Discovery, retargeting, audience-building, brand presence, then the DM. The high-value sleeve and ongoing-piece buyers live here.

Tracking

Meta only gets smarter if something tells it what worked.

That lurker who finally messages in month three? Meta can't see them either, unless something tells it. Every ad account is a learning machine. It watches who clicks, who messages, who ends up in the chair, and goes looking for more people like them. But it can only learn from what it's told. Most tattoo ad accounts only ever tell Meta "this person sent a DM." So Meta gets brilliant at finding people who send DMs. Not people who book.

A sleeve client might message you today and put a deposit down in three weeks. Unless something reports that back, Meta never finds out the enquiry turned into money, and it keeps optimising toward chatters. When an enquiry turns into a deposit, we make sure the account finds out, wherever your booking flow allows it. The targeting sharpens toward people who actually book.

And the honest limit: Meta's own reporting only connects a booking to an ad for 7 days after the click. A deposit taken in week three is real money your ads produced, but it will never show in Ads Manager, for anyone, on any setup. The real scoreboard has to live outside Meta, which is exactly where ours lives: the monthly report, plus a tracking app in pilot with a few accounts.

What we don't do

Just so we're clear.

A named deliverable

We watch what Meta turns on without telling you.

This year Meta switched new AI settings on across ad accounts on a review window, not an opt-in. Advantage+ expansions, automated placements, AI-enhanced tracking signals. Some of it helps. Some of it quietly widens your targeting to people who will never book. We check your account, decide a position on each setting, and tell you before you read about it somewhere else. Yes, we use Meta's AI. The machine does delivery. We do judgement. And it never generates your creative. Only your work goes in your ads.

  • PMU artists. We work with permanent makeup and cosmetic tattoo artists. Same model, same two layers, same pricing.
  • Laser tattoo removal. Case by case. If the clinic sits inside the tattoo industry and the model fits, we'll say so at application.
  • Tattoo-adjacent brands. Aftercare, supplies, piercing. Case by case, and only if the product is genuinely for the tattoo world.

Not sure which fits?

Apply, and we'll
point you right.

Tell us what you do and where you're based. If it's a fit, we'll say so. If it isn't, we'll tell you that too. We only take a few trials a week and don't accept everyone. If you're accepted, your trial usually starts within two weeks.

Every application gets a reply from Tom. Not a bot. Even if it's to say no.

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