This process uses the Google campaign brief, the marketing campaign brief, the three naming conventions, the UTM standards, the Google creative specs and copy templates, and the Google pre-launch checklist.
What you’ll end up with
Three things that point at each other:- A completed Google campaign brief, filed in the campaign library under the Google folder.
- A live campaign in Google Ads, named per the three naming conventions, pointing at a tagged landing page, optimizing toward a conversion action defined in the event tracking plan.
- Links back from the marketing campaign brief to this campaign’s brief, finished assets, and finished copy.
Before you start
Every input below has to exist, or be deliberately marked as not applicable, before the build starts.The process at a glance
1
Confirm the campaign has a parent
Every Google campaign belongs to a marketing campaign brief.
2
Pick the campaign type
The type decides which assets, copy templates, and structure the rest of the build needs.
3
Gather the inputs
Work the table above. Pick what exists, brief what doesn’t.
4
Fill in the Google campaign brief
Conversion goal, budget, bid strategy, structure, targeting, assets.
5
Assemble names and UTMs
All three naming levels and the tagged URLs, written down before anything is built.
6
Register an experiment, if you're testing
Only if there is a control. Register the ID before launch.
7
Build the campaign, groups, and ads
Copy the decided values in.
8
Run the pre-launch checklist
The last pass before spend starts.
9
Launch and link back
Set live, then link the campaign and its assets into the marketing campaign brief.
10
File the brief
Into the campaign library, Google folder.
1. Confirm the campaign has a parent
Open the marketing campaign brief this spend belongs to and confirm Google is listed in its channels table, with a reason and a budget line.2. Pick the campaign type
The campaign type is the first real decision, because everything downstream depends on it: which assets you need, which copy template applies, and how the campaign is structured.3. Gather the inputs
Work down the table in Before you start. Customer profiles. Link them from the customer profile library, and note how each is implemented on Google: a Customer Match list, an in-market segment, or an audience signal. On Performance Max and Demand Gen, record explicitly that signals are signals and not restrictions, so nobody later reads broader delivery as a fault. Conversion action. Find the event in the event tracking plan and confirm it is importing and firing. Then check which conversion actions are set as primary for this campaign. Smart Bidding optimizes toward every primary action, so a campaign inheriting account defaults will chase conversions that have nothing to do with its objective. Destination. Check the landing page library first. On Search in particular, the match between the query, the ad, and the page is doing real work, so a page built for a different offer usually costs more than it saves. Assets and copy. Both are briefed. Check the creative drive and copy drive before commissioning anything new, then run the creative brief process and the copywriting process for what’s missing.4. Fill in the Google campaign brief
Copy the Google campaign brief and work down it. Every campaign gets its own. The brief fixes campaign type, conversion goal, budget, bid strategy, and structure. Those get reviewed before the build. Keyword additions and negatives, target adjustments, and asset rotation stay with the media buyer, who is making those calls against live data.5. Assemble names and UTMs
Write all three names and the tagged URLs into the brief before opening Google Ads. Decide auto-tagging and manual UTMs together. Auto-tagging adds agclid for Google Ads reporting; it does not fill the utm_source and utm_medium fields your analytics groups by. Most accounts run both, and the brief is where that decision gets recorded rather than re-argued.
6. Register an experiment, if you’re testing
Only if there is a control. Follow creating an experiment: register the ID, apply it at the level the hypothesis targets, and don’t change it after launch.7. Build the campaign, groups, and ads
Build from the brief. Work down the levels:- Campaign: type, networks, conversion goals, budget, bid strategy, locations and languages, campaign name.
- Ad groups or asset groups: one per row of the brief’s structure table. Keywords and match types, or audience signals and assets. Group name.
- Ads: copy from the filled copy template, assets from the approved files, final URL with UTMs attached, ad name.
8. Run the pre-launch checklist
Run the Google pre-launch checklist with the campaign built and paused.9. Launch and link back
Set the campaign live, then:- Paste the finished assets and finished copy links into the marketing campaign brief.
- Add the campaign to the reporting dashboard named in the brief.
- Record the launch date and the mid-flight review date in the brief.
10. File the brief
File the completed Google campaign brief in the campaign library, under the Google folder, named per the file naming conventions.Exceptions
- The campaign is always-on brand defence. It still gets a brief, but experiment and mid-flight review may not apply. Keep the core: type, conversion goal, budget, bid strategy, and structure.
- You are adding an ad or asset to a live campaign. Skip steps 1 to 6. Confirm the copy and assets are approved, name the ad per the ad naming conventions, attach the UTMs, and run the ad-level rows of the pre-launch checklist.
- The campaign is cancelled before launch. File the brief with a short note on why it stopped.
Related resources
- Google campaign brief The workbook this process runs on.
- Google pre-launch checklist The pass before spend starts.
- Campaign brief process The parent process, one level up.
- Creative brief process and copywriting process
- Google Merchant Center For Shopping and retail Performance Max.
- Creating an experiment When the campaign carries a controlled test.