Google Ads Optimisation: A Weekly Workflow for Keywords, Budgets and Bids

Set the goal and reporting period

Choose the outcome you want to improve before reviewing the numbers.

For lead generation, that might be qualified enquiries at an acceptable cost. For ecommerce, it might be purchases and conversion value at a return that supports your margins.

Cost per acquisition, or CPA, is advertising cost divided by recorded conversions. Return on ad spend, or ROAS, is recorded conversion value divided by advertising cost.

Use the most recent complete week to identify changes. Check those findings against a longer period, such as the previous 28 days, before making decisions about campaigns with few conversions.

Recent conversions can arrive after the original ad interaction. Google recommends accounting for conversion delay when assessing performance and allowing one or two conversion cycles after major bidding or budget changes. A conversion cycle includes the time between the ad interaction and the conversion being reported. Google's Smart Bidding measurement guidance.

Connect your account using the setup guide for Claude or ChatGPT, then start with this prompt:

Review Google Ads account [name and ID] for [complete-week dates], compared with [previous-week dates]. Use [longer comparison period] to assess findings with few conversions. Our goal is [business outcome], our target is [CPA or ROAS], and our reporting currency is [currency]. Analyse only. Show the figures behind each recommendation, conversion delay concerns, report limits and missing information.

Use a consistent weekly schedule

This is a suggested 60-minute review plan. Larger accounts will need more time.

The output should be a small set of supported decisions. Some weeks, the right decision is to collect more conversion data before changing a campaign.

1. Check measurement and recent changes

Start by comparing cost, conversions, conversion value, CPA and ROAS across the two periods.

Separate campaigns that serve different purposes. Searches for your company name can produce different results from searches for a product category. Compare each campaign with its own goal and history.

Suppose a campaign spent $1,400 and recorded 28 conversions in the previous period. Its CPA was $50.

In the current period, it spent $1,680 and recorded 42 conversions. Its CPA fell to $40.

Spending rose 20%, conversions rose 50%, and CPA fell 20%. A report that flags the spending increase alone misses the improvement in cost per conversion.

Check recent changes alongside the figures. A promotion, new landing page, budget increase or conversion setting change can affect the comparison.

Compare campaign cost, conversions, conversion value, CPA and ROAS for both periods. Show absolute and percentage changes. Review recent account changes that overlap the dates. Separate observed changes from possible explanations, and flag measurement issues that need checking before optimisation.

Confirm that the recorded conversions represent the outcomes you care about. Compare purchases with order records or leads with your CRM where those checks are available.

2. Review search terms before changing keywords

A keyword is a targeting input. A search term is the phrase someone actually searched before your ad appeared.

Review the reported search terms to find relevant searches, irrelevant searches and queries that need more evidence.

An enquiry about a service you do not offer can justify an exclusion even with little data. A relevant query with no recorded conversions needs a different assessment, particularly when conversions arrive later.

Set a review threshold that reflects your account. For example, if your target CPA is $60, you might investigate relevant queries that have spent $120 without a recorded conversion. Use that threshold to select queries for investigation. Assess relevance and conversion delay before choosing an action.

Review reported search terms for [dates]. Show campaign, ad group, clicks, cost, conversions and conversion value. Identify clearly irrelevant searches, relevant searches worth investigating, and successful searches worth considering as keywords. For negative keyword proposals, specify the phrase, match type and proposed scope. Check existing negatives before recommending additions.

Google omits some low-volume queries from its search terms report for privacy reasons. SourcetoMCP's search terms operation also excludes Performance Max search term data. Treat the returned report as the available query evidence. Google's search terms guidance.

3. Assess keyword performance in context

Review keyword results with campaign, ad group, match type and status.

A keyword can receive relevant traffic and still struggle because the ad promises something the landing page does not explain. Another can have a low average CPC while bringing few useful enquiries.

Use conversion results to identify the keywords that need attention. Then inspect the associated searches, ads and landing pages to decide what to test.

Quality Score can help you investigate expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Keep the business outcome as the measure for judging the proposed change.

Review keyword performance for [dates] and [longer comparison dates]. Group findings by campaign and ad group. Identify keywords with sustained spending above our target, keywords contributing useful conversions, and keywords needing an ad or landing page review. Include match type and current status. Recommend a specific next step with supporting figures.

SourcetoMCP supports keyword creation, status changes and CPC bid updates. Changing an existing keyword's text or match type requires creating a replacement keyword through the appropriate workflow.

4. Review budget allocation and spending pace

Compare each campaign's spending with its results and your total advertising allowance.

Look for campaigns meeting the business target that are constrained by budget. Also investigate campaigns using a large share of spending without producing the required outcome.

Use Search lost impression share from budget where it is available at campaign level. Interpret it alongside conversion performance. More available impressions do not establish that additional spending will achieve your target.

Consider shared budgets before proposing an update. Several campaigns can draw from the same budget, so changing that budget affects the group.

Compare campaign spending and results with our total allowance of [amount] for [period]. Review current budgets, shared budgets and available Search lost impression share from budget. Propose allocation changes with current and proposed amounts, affected campaigns and supporting evidence. Keep the total proposed allowance within [limit]. Present scenarios for review without applying changes.

For most campaigns, Google's daily billed spending limit is twice the average daily budget. Its monthly limit is generally 30.4 times that budget. Changes during the month affect the calculation, so check Google's budget report alongside your own spending plan. Google's spending limits.

A campaign with an unchanged $100 average daily budget running for a full month therefore generally has a $3,040 monthly spending limit. Its spending can vary between individual days.

5. Match bid recommendations to the current strategy

Manual CPC and Smart Bidding require different decisions.

For a Manual CPC campaign, review keyword bids against click costs, conversion rates and the value of the outcome.

A planning calculation can help. If your allowable CPA is $80 and your measured click-to-conversion rate is 4%, the corresponding CPC is:

$80 × 0.04 = $3.20

That calculation assumes the conversion rate remains stable and conversions have the expected business value. Use it as a starting point for investigation.

For Smart Bidding, review the campaign's conversion volume, conversion value, actual CPA or ROAS, target and conversion delay. Google's guidance recommends allowing one or two conversion cycles to assess major changes. Smart Bidding performance guidance.

Identify the current bidding strategy for each campaign and retrieve available targets. For Manual CPC campaigns, review bids against conversion performance. For Smart Bidding campaigns, compare results with the business goal and available targets. Account for conversion delay and recent changes. State which proposed updates the connected tools support and which require a change in Google Ads.

SourcetoMCP supports updates to shared portfolio bidding strategies, including applicable CPA and ROAS targets. Its existing campaign update tool does not cover every standalone bidding setting. Check the strategy and supported action before requesting an update.

6. Turn findings into a measurable action log

Record the evidence before applying changes.

Each entry should include the account, campaign or ad group, current setting, proposed setting, reason, owner and review date. Add the metric you will use to evaluate the result.

For example, a negative keyword addition needs a review of relevant traffic and conversions after the exclusion. A budget increase needs a review of additional spending and the outcomes it produced.

Prepare a weekly action log from this review. For each proposal, include the exact account and entity, supporting figures, current setting, proposed change, expected effect, uncertainty, owner and review date. Identify dependencies between proposals. Apply no changes until I select the actions to carry out.

After an approved update, retrieve the resulting setting and record it. Keep the action log beside your reporting data so the next weekly review can assess what changed.

Start with your connected account

Connect Google Ads to SourcetoMCP, open Claude or ChatGPT, and run the reporting-period prompt above.

Save the findings and selected actions in Google Sheets. At the next review, compare the same measures and check whether the previous changes produced the intended result. Use the Google Sheets marketing dashboard template to retain the reporting figures and update notes.