An AI agent builds your whole search campaign by prompt — scaffold, ad group, keywords, responsive search ad, assets, targeting — each write landing in seconds, in one fixed order, then a review in the Google Ads UI and one final approved click that enables it. Every step below is a prompt you can paste. You stay in control the whole way: until the last step, nothing can spend a rupee, because everything is built paused.
This walkthrough is for a standard search campaign through an AI agent with real write tools — the hosted MCP connector setup. Performance Max has a different build with asset groups: that walkthrough is here.
Write the brief before the first prompt
The agent builds exactly what you specify, so five minutes on the brief saves the session. You need six decisions:
- Offer and landing page — one URL the whole ad group points at
- Theme — the keyword cluster (one theme per ad group)
- Daily budget — a number you would defend
- Bidding — manual CPC or maximise conversions at launch; target CPA only if the account has conversion history to feed it
- Geography and hours — where and when it should serve
- Name — following whatever convention your account uses
One thing to decide now rather than later: bidding strategy is set when the campaign is created. The connector does not switch strategies on existing campaigns — that remains a deliberate act in the Google Ads UI — so the launch choice is the one you live with until you change it there.
Step 1 — create the campaign, paused
In account <account>, create a search campaign:
- name: "Search - <theme> - <month>"
- daily budget: ₹1,500
- bidding: manual CPC
- status: paused — do not enable at any point in this build
Confirm the campaign ID when done.
Your client shows the create_campaign call for approval — name, budget
in micros, bidding, status PAUSED. Approve it. Paused is the default for
campaigns created through the connector, but stating it in the prompt
makes the constraint part of the instruction, not just the plumbing. This
is the approval loop
working at its lowest-stakes setting: approving the creation of something
inert.
Step 2 — ad group and keywords
In that campaign, create an ad group "<theme>" with a default CPC bid of
₹40. Then add these keywords in phrase match:
<paste 8–15 keywords>
If any of them would overlap or compete with each other, tell me before
adding.
Two approvals: create_ad_group, then add_keywords listing every
keyword and match type. Phrase match is the sensible launch default —
broad enough to gather search-term data, tight enough that week one is
not a junk harvest. Start one theme, one ad group; add the second theme
as its own ad group only after this one is fully built.
Step 3 — the responsive search ad, copy first
Draft a responsive search ad for ad group "<theme>", landing on <URL>.
- 12 headlines, each under 30 characters
- 4 descriptions, each under 90 characters
- Value proposition: <two sentences on the offer and the differentiator>
- Include the theme keyword in at least 3 headlines, and at least one
headline with a concrete number or a question.
Show me the copy in the chat for edits. Do not create the ad until I say
the copy is final.
The agent returns the set in the conversation; this is where the session's
real time goes. Cut the weak headlines, fix the claims, then say "copy is
final — create it". One create_responsive_search_ad approval later, the
ad exists in the paused campaign. Drafting in chat before the tool call is
habit three from
the prompt guidelines:
evidence — here, the copy itself — before action.
Step 4 — sitelinks and callouts
Add assets to campaign "Search - <theme> - <month>":
- 4 sitelinks: <page 1>, <page 2>, <page 3>, <page 4>
- 6 callouts drawn from: <paste bullet list of proof points>
Draft all text for my review first, then create and link them on my
approval.
Assets are created and then linked to the campaign, so expect a short chain of approvals. Ads with a full set of assets occupy more of the results page at no extra cost per click — this is the cheapest win in the build.
Step 5 — geography and hours
On the same campaign:
- geo target: <cities/regions>
- ad schedule: Monday–Saturday 9:00–21:00, off Sunday
Restate both in plain words before applying.
Two approvals — set_geo_targets and set_ad_schedule — and the
restatement catches the classic error class: right idea, wrong entity.
The connector adds location targets; excluding locations stays a Google
Ads UI job, so do that there if the brief needs it. Skipping this step
means the account defaults decide where and when your budget serves,
which is how launch-day money ends up in places the brief never
mentioned.
Step 6 — review the draft where you can see everything
Open the campaign in the Google Ads UI and walk it like a reviewer, not a builder:
- Budget and bidding match the brief
- Keywords: right match type, no duplicates, nothing embarrassing
- RSA preview reads properly — combinations, not just individual lines
- Sitelinks resolve to the right pages
- Geo and schedule are what you approved
- Status column: everything paused
Ask the agent for a self-check too — Summarise everything you created in this build, with IDs and settings — and diff its answer against what you
see. The UI review catches what approval prompts cannot: the gestalt of
a campaign, how the pieces read together.
Step 7 — enable it
Everything checks out. Enable campaign "Search - <theme> - <month>".
One set_campaign_status approval — the only spend-affecting click in
the entire build. From this moment the campaign serves.
Then close the loop over the first days:
It's been 48 hours. Show search terms, spend and impressions by keyword
for the new campaign. Anything junk already matching? Propose negatives
if so.
The first search-term sweep on a new campaign nearly always finds something worth blocking, and blocking it in week one — rather than at month end — is the difference between a launch that tightens and one that drifts. From here the campaign joins your weekly routine like everything else in the account.
The fastest way to try the whole sequence: Start a free pilot, connect your account, and run Step 1 with a small budget. Twenty minutes later you will have a complete draft campaign to judge — built by prompt, reviewed by you, and spending nothing until you say so.
Frequently asked questions
How long does an AI-built campaign take from brief to live?
A focused session of twenty to forty minutes, most of it spent editing ad copy and reviewing the draft — the tool calls themselves take seconds each. The build is sequential because each step depends on the last: campaign, then ad group, then keywords and ads. The review in the Google Ads UI before enabling is the step not to compress.
Which bidding strategy should the campaign start with?
Manual CPC or maximise conversions are the sane launch options: manual when you want cost control while search-term data accumulates, maximise conversions when the account already has reliable conversion tracking. Target CPA and target ROAS need conversion history to work from. Choose deliberately at creation — the connector sets bidding strategy when it creates a campaign but does not switch strategies on existing ones.
Can the agent enable the campaign without me?
Not silently. Enabling is a status change — a write — so your client shows the exact call for approval before it runs. If you tell the agent to enable and approve the prompt, it enables; if you never ask, the campaign sits paused indefinitely. Paused-by-default creation plus gated enabling is what makes the whole build zero-risk until you choose otherwise.
Try it on your own account for a week
The full set of tools for the week, so you can see what it actually does — and it still cannot delete anything. No cost, no card, no contract: you connect your own Google account and can withdraw the access whenever you like.
- Up to 5 accounts
- One week
- Full tools
- No card
- Autonomous agentsLevels of autonomy in Google Ads management, which optimisation work is safe unattended versus which needs approval, and why irreversible actions should not be automated.
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- Connect ClaudeStep-by-step instructions for adding a Google Ads MCP connector to Claude Desktop, claude.ai and Claude Code, including what to ask it first and how to revoke access.
- Connect ChatGPTStep-by-step instructions for adding a Google Ads MCP connector to ChatGPT, what it can read and change, and how to withdraw access.