Campaign planning
Prepare Search campaigns before budget reaches production.
Planning work keeps a campaign brief tied to a real landing page, measurable goal, approved budget, reviewed keyword structure, and clear operator handoff.
Planning checklist
A launch brief should answer the same questions every time.
The brief should define the target page, conversion event, campaign goal, location and language scope, account owner, budget range, CPC review rule, and the reason the page deserves paid search traffic.
Operators should also record any brand language, restricted claims, legal review notes, tracking requirements, and landing page changes that must be completed before launch.
Launch readiness
Seven fields every Search campaign brief needs.
Before any campaign goes live, operators fill out a brief with these seven fields: target landing page URL, campaign topic or product, target geography and language, primary conversion action (purchase, signup, page engagement), daily budget cap, CPC ceiling rule, and review owner who approves the final build.
The brief also captures policy notes — restricted health claims, trademark language, pricing disclaimers — and any tracking prerequisites like conversion tag verification or UTM parameter formatting. A campaign missing any of these fields stays in draft until the brief is complete.
Landing page QA
How to review a landing page before buying traffic.
Every landing page goes through a six-point check before campaign launch: page load speed (target under 3 seconds on mobile), message match (headline aligns with ad copy promise), mobile layout (no horizontal scroll, tap targets spaced correctly), tracking readiness (conversion tags fire on the expected action), form and link behavior (all CTAs work, no broken links), and policy-sensitive content (claims, testimonials, and disclaimers comply with Google Ads policies).
If any check fails, the campaign stays paused until the page is fixed. Operators document the failure reason and tag the page owner for follow-up. Re-check happens before the campaign is moved back to launch-ready status.
Approval flow
Separating draft work from production changes.
All campaign changes pass through a three-stage queue: draft (operator builds keywords, ad copy, and budget settings), review (a second operator or manager checks the brief against the landing page and policy notes), and approved (changes are applied to the Google Ads account). This prevents accidental spend on unreviewed campaigns.
The same queue applies to mid-flight changes. CPC ceiling increases, new keyword additions, negative keyword removals, and budget raises all require review approval before they reach production. Emergency pauses are the only action operators can take without queue approval.