Google Ads

Strategic guide for building new Google Ads campaigns and reporting on existing accounts. Research first, consult intelligently, validate everything, and build with the granular resource tools in dependency order (budget → campaign → targeting → ad groups → ads / asset groups). The API has exactly one campaign create — googleadscampaignscreate — and the campaign type is just advertisingchannel_type; type-specific requirements are enforced by the tools' built-in validators, which return corrective errors. Reporting is GAQL-backed and evidence-first — dashboards are optional presentation surfaces.

Requirements

• Hyper MCP installed and connected. https://app.hyperfx.ai/mcp
• Google Ads integration connected at https://app.hyperfx.ai/apps.

If googleadsaccounts_list is not in the tool list, stop and tell the user to enable Hyper MCP and connect Google Ads.

Out of scope

• Live optimization mutations (bid adjustments, pausing keywords, restructuring existing campaigns). Reports may recommend these changes; applying them needs explicit per-change user approval.
• Creative generation (headlines, descriptions, images) → [ad-creative-generation](../ad-creative-generation).
• Cross-platform campaign launches → use this skill for Google, then invoke meta-ads / tiktok-ads separately.

Tool surface

Reads are GAQL (googleadsgaqlquery covers every resource). Writes are one tool per resource operation, named googleads<resource><create|update|remove>; create/update take (customerid, body) where body is the bare resource object in snakecase.

Rules that must never be forgotten

BUDGETS IN MICROS: $50/day = 50,000,000 micros. Never pass dollar amounts directly.

ALWAYS START PAUSED: Create campaigns with status="PAUSED". Activate only after explicit user approval.

SUMMARIZE BEFORE CREATE: Present the full build plan (budget, campaign settings, targeting, ad groups, ads/assets) and get explicit user approval before the first mutate. Create in dependency order and reference each created resource by the resource_name the mutate returns. The tools validate bodies against the real API schema (writable fields, enum values) plus channel-type rules and return corrective errors — fix and retry rather than guessing.

NEVER INVENT: Don't assume URLs, budgets, or location IDs. Don't skip research. Don't invent keywords or copy — creative comes only from the actual site. Don't build without user buy-in.

GAQL GUARDRAILS: Never join adgroupcriterion with searchtermview. Never query more than 5 sub-accounts in a single batch.

See [references/constraints.md](references/constraints.md) for the full constraint set.

All reference files live in references/. Read them at references/<file> (e.g. references/discovery.md). They are not in the same directory as this SKILL.md.

Core process

Every campaign build follows this sequence. Do not skip steps.

1. Identify the goal — new campaign, reporting/analysis, or both?
2. Check the routing table and read the referenced files before calling any tools
3. Discovery is mandatory for creation ([references/discovery.md](references/discovery.md)) — account setup, site scan, conversion tracking check, market research, consultation
4. Present the pre-creation summary and wait for explicit approval
5. Build in dependency order (budget → campaign PAUSED → targeting → ad groups → ads/assets) after approval, re-checking [references/constraints.md](references/constraints.md) at each step
6. Activate only when the user approves

Full workflow: Initial Setup → Research (site + GAQL + market) → Analyze (goals, audience, keywords) → Consult (options + trade-offs) → Recommend (structure + bids) → Confirm (summary approved) → Create in dependency order (PAUSED) → Verify by GAQL → Activate (post-approval).

Routing table

Reporting responses follow [references/report-template.md](references/report-template.md); keep claims tied to queried data per [references/heuristics.md](references/heuristics.md).