Campaign Setup & Launch Standards

Pre-Launch Checklist: Before any PMax campaign goes live, the CS must confirm every item below is complete. This checklist should be documented in the client account notes and fulfillment.

● Client meets eligibility criteria

● Existing Search campaign is live and stable in the account

● Conversion tracking verified and tested

● Call tracking in place with minimum call duration set (recommended: 40 seconds)

● 30+ conversions in account in the last 30 days, preferably 3 months consecutively

● Full asset set complete

● Audience signals prepared (customer lists, remarketing audiences, custom intent)

● Brand exclusions added

● Initial negative keyword list applied (see negative keyword standards below)

● Final URL Expansion setting reviewed and confirmed

● Campaign goal and bidding strategy confirmed and aligned to client objective

Bidding Strategy: Bidding strategy selection should be based on the client’s primary objective:

● Maximize Conversions: use when the goal is lead volume and the account has sufficient conversion history. Should be what the majority of our clients are set up with if they just have standard calls and form fills.

● Maximize Conversion Value: use when leads have different values - ex. A booked appointment is worth more than a general inquiry. Requires conversion values to be assigned.

Audience Signals: Audience signals are how we steer the AI toward the right people. They do not restrict who the campaign can reach (Google may still serve outside these signals) but they give the algorithm a strong starting point. Every PMax campaign should launch with, at minimum:
● Website visitor remarketing: if the client has enough website traffic to build one.
● Custom intent audiences: built around the search terms and URLs most relevant to the client’s service
● BONUS! Customer list upload: even a small existing customer list gives PMax a meaningful signal about who the client’s best customers are.

Negative Keywords: Negative keywords are one of our most important ongoing management tools in PMax. Every campaign should launch with a foundational negative keyword list in place, not built from scratch after the campaign has already  spent significant budget on irrelevant traffic. These should be submitted with the fulfillment. Standard negative keywords that work for all campaigns:
● Free, cheap, DIY, how to, jobs, careers, salary (AdOps already has these created)
● Competitor brand names (unless conquest is a part of the strategy)
● Key terms flagged as irrelevant in the existing Search campaign’s search term report.

Local markets should review search term insights weekly during the first 60 days and add negatives as needed. After the initial learning period, a bi-weekly review cadence is acceptable.

Learning Phase Expectations: Once launched, PMax enters a learning phase during which performance data will be inconsistent and potentially underwhelming. This is normal and expected. The following standards apply during this period:
● Allow a minimum of 6 weeks before making any major campaign changes
● Do not adjust bids, budgets, or campaign goals during the learning phase unless performance is severely off track
● Minor additions - new negative keywords, additional assets - are acceptable and
encouraged
● Do not pause or restart the campaign during the learning phase.This resets the learning period entirely.

Local markets should proactively communicate the learning phase timeline to clients at launch so that early performance dips do not create unnecessary concern or pressure to make premature changes.

Final URL Expansion: By default, PMax may override the designated landing page and serve a different page from the client’s domain if it believes another page will convert better. For clients with a single strongly conversion optimized landing page, this should be turned off. For clients with a well-structured website and multiple relevant landing pages, leaving it on is acceptable. This decision should be made intentionally at set up and documented in the notes.

PMax works best when viewed holistically rather than siloed by service line. In a standard Search campaign, we typically build dedicated campaigns for each service each with its own targeted landing page. PMax consolidates this into a single campaign and, with Final URL Expansion enabled, can dynamically serve the most relevant page on the client's site based on the user's intent. For an HVAC client offering multiple services, this is actually an advantage. The AI routes users to the right service page without us having to manually manage that segmentation. In cases like this, leaving Final URL Expansion on is the recommended approach.