Stop 4 of 6 · Weekly
Reading the first ads campaign
A four-item checklist for the Google Ads export, and a clear line between what Jess changes and what she takes to the owner.
What it is
Ridgeline runs one small search campaign. Dale set it up two years ago, nobody has looked at it since, and Jess has now been handed the login. The Google Ads interface is built for people who do this all day. The export is not. Download the last 30 days as a CSV, upload it, and the whole thing becomes readable.
Four things to check, in this order. Everything else can wait until you have done these four for three months.
The checklist
| Check | The question |
|---|---|
| Search terms | What did people actually type to get here |
| Negatives | Which of those words should never trigger us again |
| Budget pacing | Are we on track to spend the month, not blow it by the 18th |
| Landing page | Does the page the ad points at match the ad |
Try this
[upload the Google Ads search terms report for the last 30 days] List every search term that spent money with zero calls or form fills. Group them by why they are wrong: jobs we do not do, DIY and parts searches, other companies' names, and towns outside our four counties. Suggest a negative keyword list I can paste in, exact match, and tell me the total spend it would have saved last month.
Our monthly Google Ads budget is [amount]. Today is the [day] of the month and we have spent [amount] so far. Tell me the spend we should be at today, whether we are ahead or behind and by how much, the daily spend that lands us on budget, and one plain sentence I can send Dale.
Here are our three live ad headlines and descriptions: [paste them]. Here is the page they all point at: [paste the page text]. A homeowner clicks the furnace repair ad. Does the page say the same thing in the first screen, and can they call or book without scrolling. List what is missing in three bullets, plainest possible.
What Jess changes, what Jess asks
She changes ad text, negatives once approved, and which page an ad points at. She asks Dale about budget, bids, pausing anything, and adding a new campaign. Nothing is changed in the ad account without the owner, and that rule does not soften once she gets good at this.