Google Ads Campaign Launch Checklist

Verify the account is linked to the agency or in-house MCC (My Client Center) with Standard or Admin access for the right users. Check billing profile, time zone, and currency — these cannot be changed after the first impression without creating a new account.

Link GA4 property under Tools > Linked Accounts so you can import GA4 conversions and audiences. Link Search Console for paid & organic report. Link Merchant Center if running Shopping or Performance Max with feed.

Install the global site tag (gtag) or Google Ads conversion linker through Google Tag Manager. Gate firing on consent state via the Consent Mode v2 signal — pixels firing before consent is the most common GDPR/CCPA finding in paid-media audits.

Decide which conversions count as Primary (used for bidding) vs. Secondary (observation only). Set conversion windows, attribution model (data-driven by default), and category. Avoid double-counting by importing GA4 conversions OR firing native gtag events — not both for the same action.

Use Tag Assistant or the GA4 DebugView to walk a real conversion path end-to-end. Confirm the event fires once per conversion, with the correct value and currency. Mis-mapped events firing on field-blur instead of submit are a common reason reported conversions run 3-5x reality.

Only run this step if the verification in Tag Assistant failed. Check trigger conditions in GTM, consent gating, conversion linker placement, and whether the thank-you page actually loads (SPAs often need a history-change trigger). Re-test before proceeding to campaign build.

Write the one-line objective: lead volume, ROAS target, CPA ceiling, or share-of-voice on a branded query set. The objective drives bidding strategy, attribution model, and which conversion is Primary.

Use Keyword Planner plus Ahrefs or Semrush for volume and intent signals. Group by tight ad-group themes (SKAG-light) and apply a shared negative list at the account level — common negatives include 'free', 'jobs', 'reviews', and competitor brand misspellings unless conquesting.

Daily budget = monthly target / 30.4. Choose Manual CPC for the learning period if conversion volume is under 30/month; otherwise tCPA or tROAS. Set tCPA roughly 20% above your true CPA target — Smart Bidding undershoots when set too aggressively and starves the campaign.

Default location targeting changed in 2023 — confirm 'Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations' is selected, not 'Presence or interest'. Layer first-party audiences (Customer Match) and in-market segments as Observation initially, Targeting only after data justifies it.

Set final URL suffix at the account or campaign level: utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaignid}&utm_content={creative}&utm_term={keyword}. Convention drift is the #1 cause of uncomparable GA4 reports — reference the team's UTM convention doc, do not improvise.

Provide 12-15 headlines and 3-4 descriptions per RSA, with at least 3 headlines pinned to position 1 if a brand or compliance constraint requires it. Aim for Ad Strength of 'Good' or 'Excellent' — Google deprioritizes 'Poor' RSAs in the auction.

Run each landing page through PageSpeed Insights — LCP under 2.5s, CLS under 0.1. Confirm the H1 and first 100 words match the ad-group keyword theme; mismatch tanks Quality Score and inflates CPC.

At minimum: 6 sitelinks with descriptions, 6 callouts, 1 structured snippet, 1 lead form asset (if applicable), and call asset with hours scheduled. Asset coverage directly affects ad rank — campaigns without enough assets are routinely outranked by competitors at the same bid.

Route the full creative set — RSAs, sitelinks, landing page copy — through legal for any comparative claims, superlatives, or testimonials. Maintain a substantiation file for tested claims (Lanham Act); regulated industries (financial, health, legal) need additional review.

Common disapproval triggers: trademarked terms in headlines, excessive capitalization, '!' in headlines, misleading claims, missing disclaimers on financial or health products. Save policy disapprovals to the account's policy log for appeal context.

Confirm: budget set, bidding strategy correct, location target verified, conversion goals attached at campaign level, ad schedule, audience signals (PMax), final URLs return 200, UTMs build correctly via Auto-tagging override. Have a second team member sign off — solo launches miss things.

Watch impression share, CPC, and conversion firing for the first two days. If impression share is below 10% within 24 hours, check budget pacing, bid strategy learning status, and policy review queue. Do not make optimization changes during the Smart Bidding learning period (typically 7 days).

By day 14 you should have enough query data to filter. Add irrelevant queries to the campaign or shared negative list. Watch for broad-match drift — broad keywords paired with Smart Bidding often pull queries far from the intended theme in week one.

Pull a weekly view: spend, conversions, CPA, ROAS, impression share, top vs. absolute-top IS, search lost IS (budget) and search lost IS (rank). The two 'lost IS' columns tell you whether to raise budget or raise bids.

Use the Experiments tool with a 50/50 traffic split. Test one variable at a time — headline theme, offer framing, or landing page. Run for at least 2 weeks or until statistical significance per Google's experiment scorecard.

Add Quality Score, Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience columns to the keyword view. Anything at 'Below average' on Landing Page Experience is a content or speed problem to escalate to web — not a bidding problem.

Pull from Google Ads + GA4 + the CRM for closed-loop attribution. Include spend, leads, MQLs, SQLs (when available), CPA, ROAS, top-performing ad groups, lost IS analysis, and 2-3 specific changes recommended for next month.