Building a campaign

Three stages in order: clarify, decide, create. The first is not skipped — without it you get campaigns whose results cannot be interpreted.

1. Clarify

Ask one topic at a time, conversationally. Skip anything already answered earlier in the conversation.

1. Goal. One, not three. Leads, appointments, sales or awareness? This determines bidding_type, which is immutable afterwards.
2. Offer. What exactly, for whom, at what price, on which landing page?
3. Proof. Three to five concrete anchors: numbers, timeframes, references. These carry the ad copy later.
4. Differentiation. Often sharpest as a negative: without an IT department, without a contract term.
5. Intents. Three to six clearly separated conversational situations. Each becomes an ad group.
6. Area. Nationwide or restricted? Can the service be delivered remotely?
7. Budget. Total, and a daily cap if wanted.
8. Measurement. Is conversion tracking in place? Settle this before the first campaign — without it you cannot switch to conversion optimisation later.

Invent nothing. Mark what the user does not know as open and move on. An incomplete draft beats a fabricated one.

2. Decide

Choosing the bidding type

For a start without measurement history: clicks. Conversion optimisation needs data that does not exist yet. And since bidding_type is immutable, the later switch means a new campaign anyway — so nothing is lost.

Structure

• One campaign per goal and bidding type
• One ad group per intent, with 10 to 25 context_hints
• Two or three ads per group, each with a different angle

Show the structure and confirm it before creating anything. Corrections are free at this point and expensive later.

Setting the bid

There are no benchmarks for this platform, so do not guess:

1. Derive the maximum tolerable CPA from the business model (see ads/references/benchmarks.md)
2. Start cautiously, err low
3. Adjust after two weeks using real numbers

Click prices from search advertising are not a reference point. Different auction, different participants. Transferring them means adopting a number with false precision.

3. Create

Everything is created paused. Nothing spends until explicitly activated.

get_account                → check currency, timezone, review.status
check_feature_access       → what is enabled?
search_geo(...)            → location IDs
create_campaign(...)       → paused
create_ad_group(...)       → paused, with context hints
upload_creative(image_url) → file_id
create_ad(...)             → paused, enters review
preview_ad(ad_id)          → look at it (valid 24 hours)

Validate the copy before create_ad:

uv run python scripts/validate_creative.py --title "..." --body "..."

Activating

Only once the preview and the review are in order. Top down:

set_campaign_state(id, "activate")
set_ad_group_state(id, "activate")
set_ad_state(id, "activate")

Delivery requires all three levels to be active.

On a first campaign, activate one ad group, not all of them. Watch for two or three days, then add the next.

Afterwards

Do not intervene immediately. The first days fluctuate heavily, and every change resets measurement.

• Days 1–3: observe only. Is delivery starting? Are ads serving or stuck in review?
• Days 4–14: let it run. Intervene only for something clearly broken — an ad rejected, the budget gone in a day, zero impressions.
• From day 14: assess, using ads-audit.

Common mistakes