Launch your first Google Ads campaign

A campaign brief defines who you're targeting, what you're selling, the offer, the conversion event (sign-up, demo, trial, purchase), and the CPA you're willing to pay. Without it, you'll optimize toward 'low CPC' instead of 'profitable customers'. Cheap clicks that don't convert are still 100% wasted spend.

If you launch without conversion tracking, you're spending money to learn nothing. Conversion tracking lets Google's algorithm optimize toward your goal and lets you measure CPA per keyword. Set up Google Tag Manager + GA4 + a Google Ads conversion action, then verify with Tag Assistant before the first dollar spends.

Keyword research at the start is about finding 20-50 high-intent queries, not 5000 vaguely relevant ones. High-intent = the searcher is ready to buy or sign up. 'Best CRM for solopreneurs' beats 'CRM' by 100x in conversion rate. Pull from Keyword Planner, then layer Ahrefs / SEMrush to find competitor terms Google's silo doesn't show you.

Research keywords for this Google Ads campaign.

Read the Brief. Output:

1. 30-50 candidate keywords organized into 3-5 ad groups by intent
2. For each: search volume estimate, intent score (1-5), match type recommendation (exact / phrase)
3. A 'do not use' list — vague-intent variants of these keywords that will burn budget
4. 5-10 competitor ad headlines you observed in the search results
5. 20-30 negative keyword candidates to add as a starting list (free, careers, jobs, salary, login, customer-service variants)

Constraints:
- Skip keywords with <100 search volume — too thin to test
- Flag any keyword with suggested bid >$20 — those are expensive to test for first-time advertisers
- Group by intent, not by topic ('best vs cheap vs how-to' are different ad groups)

Match type controls what queries trigger your ad. Google's default is 'broad match' which matches anything Google decides is 'related'. For first-time campaigns, broad match torches budget on queries you'd never approve. Start with phrase match + exact match. Add broad match only after you have 30 days of conversion data and a hard negative keyword list.

Negative keywords are the keywords you DON'T want to match. Without them, a 'CRM software' campaign will match 'CRM software jobs', 'CRM software salary', 'free CRM software', 'CRM software for nonprofits'. Negatives save 30-50% of budget on day 1 and improve ad relevance scores (lower CPC).

Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are the only ad format Google offers now. You write up to 15 headlines + 4 descriptions; Google mixes them. The strongest performers usually have: (1) the keyword in headline 1, (2) a specific outcome in headline 2, (3) social proof in headline 3, (4) a CTA in headline 4. Test 3-5 variants per ad group, refresh weekly based on what converts.

Draft ad copy for this ad group.

Read the Brief + the Keywords table for this ad group.

Output:
1. 8 headlines (30 chars max each), each labeled by intent: keyword-match / outcome / social-proof / urgency / CTA
2. 3 descriptions (90 chars max each)
3. 4 sitelink suggestions (link text + 90-char description)
4. 4 callout extension suggestions (25 chars each)
5. A note on which headlines should be PINNED (brand or compliance constraints) vs let Google rotate

Constraints:
- Headlines under 30 chars (count carefully — emoji and punctuation count)
- No 'best ever', 'amazing', 'revolutionary'. Specific outcomes only.
- Include the keyword in at least 3 headlines for ad relevance score
- Don't claim 'free' if the offer is a free trial that requires credit card

The landing page determines half your CPC via Quality Score. A landing page that mentions the searched keyword in the H1, loads in <2.5s, and has a clear single CTA gets a high quality score = lower CPC. A homepage targeting 5 audiences gets a low quality score = higher CPC. Build a dedicated landing page per ad group if budget allows.

Launch with a daily budget of $20-$50. Don't change anything for 7 days — Google's algorithm needs the data to calibrate. Resist the urge to pause keywords on day 2 because they're 'expensive'. After 7 days you'll have enough conversion data to start making optimizations.

The search-terms report shows the actual queries that triggered your ads. It's where you find out 'CRM software for small business' triggered ads on 'CRM software definition' (which converts at 0%). The first 2 weeks should be aggressive negative-keyword building from the search-terms report — it's the single highest-leverage optimization you can do.

Process today's search-terms report.

I'll paste the export. Output:

1. Top 10 converting search terms — propose adding as exact-match keywords if not already
2. Top 10 wasted-spend search terms (high spend, no conversions, irrelevant intent) — propose adding as negative keywords
3. Any 'long-tail surprises': search terms that converted at unusually low CPA — flag for new ad-group creation
4. The week-over-week trend in wasted-spend ratio

Constraints:
- Don't propose negatives for terms that converted, even once
- Flag conversions that look like bot/click-fraud signals (sign-up < 10 sec on landing page)
- Output proposed changes as draft rows in the Keywords table; don't apply directly

After 30 days you'll know your CPA per keyword + ad group. If you have 30+ conversions in the last 30 days, switch to Target CPA bidding — Google will optimize bids per auction with more data than you have. If you have <30 conversions, stay on manual CPC and broaden your funnel (more keywords, longer time window, lower friction conversion event).

After the calibration period, every campaign + ad group + keyword is in one of three buckets: scale (CPA < target, increase budget), pause (CPA > target * 2, no path to fix), pivot (CPA > target but trend is improving, change something specific). Make the call weekly. Indecision is the most expensive optimization.