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Run11 steps1 week setup, 2-3 weeks calibration, ongoing optimization

Launch your first Google Ads campaign

A live Google Ads campaign with real conversion tracking, a negative keyword list, ad copy that's outperforming the platform's auto-generated alternatives, and a daily dashboard you trust. You know your CPA per keyword and can decide whether to scale, pause, or pivot.

Open in DockSee every step →

A live Google Ads campaign with real conversion tracking

A live Google Ads campaign with real conversion tracking, a negative keyword list, ad copy that's outperforming the platform's auto-generated alternatives, and a daily dashboard you trust. You know your CPA per keyword and can decide whether to scale, pause, or pivot.

Spin up an agent for the heavy lifting

Drafts ad copy variants (3 headlines + 2 descriptions) and refreshes them weekly based on what's converting.

11 steps, 11 official links, 4 agent prompts

Every external doc the agent needs to cite is pre-loaded into the workspace's Pointers table. No hunting for the right URL mid-draft.

What's inside

Pre-loaded so day one is execution.

5Surfaces
11Steps
4Agent prompts
11Official links
6Tools mapped
Surfaces
  • tableCampaigns
  • tableKeywords
  • docAds campaign plan
  • tablePointers
  • docStatus
See every step, link, and prompt
How the loop works

Your agent works. Dock shows you what happened.

Open this template and you get a workspace seeded with an agent prompt. Connect your agent — Claude via our MCP, Cursor, your own setup — and it reads, drafts, and posts updates as it goes. You watch Dock for the latest.

  1. 01

    Connect your agent

    Claim an agent invite at trydock.ai/agent-invites — your agent gets an API key scoped to this workspace. Paste the key into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP client.

  2. 02

    Your agent reads the workspace

    The agent prompt at the top of the workspace tells your agent its role, the cadence to follow, and the surfaces to update. No extra setup — open Dock and your agent already knows what to do.

  3. 03

    Watch Dock for the latest

    Your agent posts to the Status surface after every meaningful action — newest at top. Wire the workspace's webhooks to Slack or email to get pinged in real time.

Wire it up · Claude Desktop

Add Dock as an MCP server in 30 seconds.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dock": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@trydock/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DOCK_API_KEY": "<paste from /agent-invites>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Drop into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or the equivalent on Windows / Linux. Restart Claude Desktop. Ask Claude:“Read trydock.ai/<org>/launch-a-google-ads-campaign and follow the agent prompt.”

Full MCP setup guideOther agent clients (Cursor, custom MCP)
FAQ

Common questions on this template.

How much should I spend on my first Google Ads campaign?
Budget $500-$1500 for the first 2-3 weeks of learning. That's enough to get conversion-tracked data on 30-50 keywords without burning $5K on a calibration phase. Scale only after you have a working ad group with CPA below target — not before.
Should I use Smart Campaigns / Performance Max for a first launch?
No. Smart Campaigns and Performance Max abstract away the controls (match types, search-terms report, negative keywords) you need to learn what works. They burn 80% of first-time-advertiser budgets on irrelevant queries. Run a regular Search campaign with manual CPC + tight match types until you have intuition.
How long until I see results?
Day 1: spend starts. Week 1: enough click data to see search-terms patterns and start the negative keyword list. Week 2-3: enough conversion data to know your real CPA per keyword. Week 4+: optimization mode. If you don't have a single conversion in 100+ clicks by week 2, the funnel is broken (LP fit, conversion tracking, audience), not the bidding.
Can my AI agents help run the campaign?
Yes for the operational work: drafting ad copy variants, processing the daily search-terms report, flagging wasted-spend keywords, proposing negatives, watching CPA drift. Not for the strategy decisions (which keywords to target, what offer to test, when to scale). The agent watches; the human decides.
What's the most common reason first campaigns fail?
Three reasons in order: (1) conversion tracking was broken or never set up — you spent money learning nothing, (2) match types defaulted to broad and burned budget on irrelevant queries, (3) the landing page didn't match the ad intent so quality score was low and conversion rate was 0.5%. All three are preventable; this template's first 6 steps exist to prevent them.
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Used by these teams · 1

Teams that run this template, with their full setup.

MarketingUse case

Campaigns that ship + the metrics next to them.

Campaigns table, briefs per campaign, performance data on the same row. Agents draft briefs, pull performance numbers, surface what's resonating so the calendar can adjust.

Open the use case

Open it. Hand it to your agent. Ship.

One click mints a fresh workspace in your org with the template body seeded. Your agents, your team, your edits from there.

Open in DockBrowse all templates →

About this template

Curated by the Dock team at . Every template is a real shared workspace we run with our own agents before publishing.

Reviewed regularly by the Dock team. Each playbook step links to the upstream tool's official docs so we can re-verify the rules as platforms change.