What this playbook is
This is the master map for keeping a launched Google Ads campaign healthy and growing. It’s split across five documents you can open independently during actual work:
- This overview: the system map, the gates, and the Day 1 Health Check (one-time)
- optimization-daily.md: 5 to 10 minutes per day per campaign, forever
- optimization-weekly.md: 30 to 60 minutes per week per campaign, forever
- optimization-monthly.md: 60 to 90 minutes per month per campaign, with two variants depending on bidding state
- optimization-the-switch.md: one-time event when the campaign is ready to transition from Maximize Clicks to Smart Bidding
The cadences run concurrently, not sequentially. A campaign at Day 45 is being touched daily, weekly, and monthly. Switching from Maximize Clicks to Smart Bidding (the only meaningful “phase change”) swaps which monthly variant you use. Nothing else changes.
Who this is for
Any LeadLiftOff team member managing a live client campaign. Ownership transfers from the launch operator to the optimization operator at the moment the campaign goes live. They may be the same person.
How the docs fit together
(campaign goes live)
|
v
Day 1 Health Check ← one-time, in this overview
|
v
+---------------+----------------+
| | |
v v v
[DAILY] [WEEKLY] [MONTHLY] ← cadences run concurrently, forever
(forever) (forever) (Max Clicks
variant)
|
| Gate 2: Transition Readiness met
| → run optimization-the-switch.md
v
[MONTHLY] ← variant flips after the switch
(Smart Bidding
variant)
(forever)
[DAILY] and [WEEKLY] never change once they start. The only structural shift over time: [MONTHLY] flips from the Max Clicks variant to the Smart Bidding variant after the campaign clears Gate 2 and you execute The Switch. Both variants live in the same optimization-monthly.md doc.
The cadences at a glance
| Cadence | Doc | Time per campaign | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 (one-time) | this doc | ~30 min | Catch catastrophic launch failures in the first 24 hours |
| Daily | optimization-daily.md | 5 to 10 min | Negative-keyword review on yesterday’s search terms |
| Weekly | optimization-weekly.md | 30 to 60 min | Drift checks (CPA, ad-group performance) + tactical adjustments |
| Monthly (Max Clicks variant) | optimization-monthly.md | 60 to 90 min | Bid adjustments on the 4 levers Google still respects under Maximize Clicks |
| Monthly (Smart Bidding variant) | optimization-monthly.md | 60 to 90 min | Exclusions and Target CPA tuning under Smart Bidding (bid adjustments are ignored) |
| The Switch (one-time) | optimization-the-switch.md | 45 to 60 min | Transition from Maximize Clicks to Maximize Conversions with Target CPA |
The 3 critical gates
Three checkpoints govern the campaign’s optimization lifecycle. Each gate has its own pass criteria. Don’t skip them.
| # | Gate | When | Doc | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Day 1 launch verified | 24 hours post-launch | this doc (below) | |
| 2 | Transition Readiness | Before The Switch | optimization-the-switch.md | |
| 3 | Switch executed cleanly | Within 24 hours of The Switch | optimization-the-switch.md |
The mindset shift between Max Clicks and Smart Bidding
This is the single most important conceptual distinction in this playbook. Internalize this distinction.
| Phase 1: Maximize Clicks (M09b) | Phase 2: Smart Bidding (M09c) |
|---|---|
| Manual bid adjustments work | Manual bid adjustments are ignored |
| Steer with location, schedule, device, demographic % adjustments | Exclude underperformers entirely; tune Target CPA |
| Reallocation is the lever | Structural control is the lever |
| Mantra: “adjust to optimize” | Mantra: “exclude, don’t adjust” |
If you ever find yourself adding a +20% bid to a city in a Smart Bidding campaign, stop. Google ignores it. Either exclude that city or split it into a separate campaign with its own Target CPA.
Day 1 Post-Launch Health Check (one-time)
What this delivers: Confirmation that the campaign is actually serving impressions, conversions are firing, and no policy errors blocked the launch. Catches catastrophic stuff in the first 24 hours.
Before you start
- Onboarding playbook complete through Gate 5 (campaign flipped to Enabled)
- 12 to 24 hours have elapsed since flip-to-Enabled
Steps
-
Check campaign status. Confirm Enabled, ad groups Enabled, ads Eligible (not Disapproved or Pending).
-
Verify impressions are accumulating. Open campaign Overview; you should see impressions in the last 24 hours. Zero impressions means a problem (bid too low, location wrong, ad disapproval, billing issue).
-
Re-verify conversion tracking is firing. Goals → Conversions; every action shows green (Primary).
-
Confirm Conversion Goals are still Campaign Specific. Settings → Conversion Goals should still read “Campaign Specific” not “Account Default.”
-
Spot-check the search terms report. Even with 24 hours of data, you’ll see 5 to 20 unique search terms. Add any obvious misfires as negatives now.
-
Verify the landing page is still up. Visit the live URL in incognito; submit a test form; confirm lead alert email arrives.
-
Send the client a Day 1 update.
[Inferred client-comms cadence]Brief, factual:
“Quick Day 1 update: campaign is live, [X] impressions in the first 24 hours, [Y] clicks, conversions tracking. We’re in the 5-day Maximize Clicks learning phase per the onboarding plan. Real performance data starts Week 2. Full update at end of Week 1.”
🔴 GATE 1: Day 1 Verified
- ✅ Campaign Enabled, ad groups Enabled, all ads Eligible
- ✅ Impressions > 0 in the last 24 hours
- ✅ Every conversion action shows green (Primary)
- ✅ Conversion Goals still Campaign Specific
- ✅ Landing page still serving; test form fires the lead alert
- ✅ Day 1 client update sent
If any criterion fails, fix before starting the daily/weekly cadences.
Watch out for
- Disapproved ads (most common: phone numbers in headlines, implied medical claims, trademark uses)
- Billing suspensions from declined cards (red banners in Tools & Settings → Billing)
- Single ad disapproval silencing the whole ad group (pause the bad ad rather than leaving it disapproved)
Hand-off to ongoing maintenance
Once Day 1 is green, the recurring rhythm takes over. From Day 2 forward:
- Tomorrow morning, open optimization-daily.md and start the daily routine. It runs every day forever.
- On Day 7, open optimization-weekly.md and run the first weekly review. It runs every 7 days forever.
- On Day 30, open optimization-monthly.md (use the Maximize Clicks variant) for the first monthly review. It runs every 30 days forever, with the variant flipping after The Switch.
- When Gate 2 (Transition Readiness) goes green (typically Day 30 to 90), open optimization-the-switch.md and execute the transition.
The optimization operator owns this rhythm for the entire client relationship. Document every change in clients/<client>/optimization-log.md. When advanced reporting (booked-appointment uploads, revenue attribution per M11) makes sense, that’s a separate playbook.