Skip to content

Automation · Content and publishing

Build a complete Google Ads search campaign

An AI agent builds a Google Ads Search campaign with budget, targeting, a responsive ad and keywords, then leaves it paused for review.

How do I build a complete Google Ads search campaign and review it before it spends?

A Met connected to Google Ads builds a Search campaign without mixing creation with spend. It picks the account, checks for an existing campaign and resolves the identifiers for the locations you specify. It creates the campaign with its daily budget and leaves it PAUSED, then adds targeting, the ad group, the responsive ad and the keywords you approved. Before activation, it reads ad strength and the configuration stored in the account, and shows you the budget again. Activation happens in a separate message: the Met waits for an explicit yes for that campaign and amount, even if you initially asked it to leave the campaign running. From there it can read cost, clicks and conversions already configured, or pause the campaign. It does not create conversions and there is no rollback between steps: if one call fails, earlier resources may remain created and paused.

What starts it

When someone asks for it

The recipe starts when someone on the team asks in the internal chat to prepare a search campaign and provides the offer, final URL, budget, locations, language, bid and keyword list. It is not triggered by a prospect message and does not run in the background.

A manual task: someone on the team runs it with a button, or asks the Met for it in chat.

Who runs it

Search advertising Met

Social team

Not a named, seeded Met. It is the Marketing Met with Google Ads connected, working in the ad account you already own. Its job here is to execute a structure you decide, verify what Google received, and keep the decision to spend on the human side.

What you need connected

10 steps · 13 tools

The procedure, step by step

Each step shows the tool that runs. They belong to the real connector: if one of them stopped existing, this page would not build.

  1. 1

    Pick the account and rule out a duplicate campaign

    The Met lists the accounts visible to the Google permission and works on the one you confirm. In that account it reads campaigns with their type, status and daily budget before creating anything. If it finds a Search campaign with the same name or job, it does not invent another one: it shows the existing campaign and asks whether you want to adjust it or build a new one under another name.

  2. 2

    Resolve the locations you chose

    Google Ads does not target the text "Medellin" or "Colombia" but identifiers from its catalog. The Met searches every name with the country you specified and shows the type and reach of each match so you can select the right one. It does not infer a city from the business address or widen the territory by itself.

  3. 3

    Create the Search campaign with the confirmed budget

    With the name and daily budget in the account currency, the tool first creates the budget object and then a SEARCH campaign. The campaign is born PAUSED and uses manual cost per click bidding; it still has no targeting, group, ad or keywords. The Met keeps the identifier Google returns and does not try to activate it in this step.

  4. 4

    Apply location, language and schedule without guessing

    The Met passes the chosen location identifiers to the campaign. If a language id is needed, it queries the Google catalog; schedules use the time bands you supplied, in fifteen minute increments. With no schedule it runs all the time. With no location it would run worldwide, so this step happens before building the rest and long before activation.

  5. 5

    Create the ad group, still paused

    The campaign gets the group that will contain the ad and keywords. The name and maximum cost per click bid come from what you defined with the team; the bid is optional, not a number the Met fills in to get the task out of the way. The group is also born PAUSED, so it still cannot deliver or spend.

  6. 6

    Create the responsive search ad

    The ad contains three to fifteen headlines of up to thirty characters, two to four descriptions of up to ninety, and a final URL with http or https. The Met works from the facts, offer and URL you provided; it does not invent prices, guarantees or superlatives. When the sector may touch a policy, it can first simulate so Google validates the content without creating anything, then repeat the call to create it PAUSED.

  7. 7

    Load keywords and exclusions

    The list is loaded as clean text with match type in a separate field: EXACT, PHRASE or BROAD. The recipe starts from the words you approved and uses PHRASE when you did not choose another, because that is the connector default; it does not turn a campaign idea into keywords on its own. Negative keywords are added as exclusions and never carry a bid.

  8. 8

    Read quality and audit the stored configuration

    With the structure created, the Met reads the ad strength Google assigns and the advice it returns already written. It then reads the campaign, criteria, group, ad and keywords over GAQL, and lists the campaign again to show the PAUSED status and daily budget stored in the account. A recommendation is displayed; it is not applied by itself.

  9. 9

    Wait for a second yes before activation

    The summary names the campaign, account, locations, ad, match type and daily budget, and ends with an activation question. The Met does not call this tool in the same turn in which it builds or reviews: it waits for a new, explicit response confirming that campaign and budget. Activating starts spending real money under the Google Ads configuration.

  10. 10

    Read performance and pause if the team decides

    Once active, the campaign is queried over a defined window for cost, impressions, clicks, click-through rate, average cost per click and the conversions the account already measures. This is reading for a decision, not accounting or conversion setup. If the team decides to stop it, the Met pauses it by id; that action stops spend and can be reversed with another approval.

Before you start

What you need ready

The Met solves none of these for you. If one is missing, the automation stops there.

The limits

What this automation does NOT solve

Better said here than discovered halfway through the rollout.

FAQ

Questions about this automation

It is complete for this Search scope: budget, targeting, ad group, responsive ad and keywords, all created and paused. It does not include conversions, extensions, Shopping, Display, Video or Performance Max. Review happens before any activation decision.

The initial request authorizes assembly, not spend. After creating, the Met shows the daily budget stored in Google Ads and waits for a new message confirming that campaign and amount. Only then does it call activate.

It lists campaigns in the account before creating and compares name, type, status and budget. If it finds one that appears to solve the same job, it shows it and asks. Google does not enforce unique names, so the control depends on this check, not a constraint.

Earlier work is not rolled back. A campaign, group or ad already created remains in the account and paused. If the failure happened between budget and campaign, the orphan budget remains and the error returns its identifier. Your team must remove it by hand and reconcile the resources that were created before retrying.

It can read conversions that Google Ads already attributes to the campaign in the account. It does not create the conversion action, install a tag or decide how it is counted. A zero may mean there were no conversions or measurement was not configured.

Not as part of this recipe. Your team supplies and approves the list and match type. The Met validates Google limits, loads the keywords, and can later read search terms so you can decide which negatives to add.

This recipe does not create Google's messaging asset or promise click-to-WhatsApp. It creates a standard search ad and uses the final URL you defined. First-class ads that open WhatsApp live in Meta Ads today, not in this flow.

Keep going

Other automations built on the same tools

Want this automation running on your own data?

We will show it to you with your accounts connected, not with a canned demo.