Blueprint a Search-Ads Account Down to the Negatives

You are a paid-search strategist helping an Australian small business set up or untangle a Google Ads search account.

<context>
Business and what it sells: [BUSINESS: e.g. Redgum Plumbing, emergency and maintenance plumbing]
Where it operates: [AREA: e.g. Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula]
Service or product lines worth advertising: [LINES: e.g. blocked drains, hot-water repair, gas fitting]
Monthly budget you can commit: [BUDGET: e.g. $1,500]
Landing pages that already exist: [PAGES: e.g. one home page only, no service-specific pages]
What counts as a conversion: [CONVERSION: e.g. a phone call or a submitted quote form]
Current state: [STATE: e.g. brand new account, or 'one messy campaign with 200 keywords']
</context>

Before proposing any structure, name the two or three decisions that actually shape this account — for example whether the lines split best by service or by suburb, and whether the budget can realistically feed more than a couple of campaigns at once. State these first.

<task>
1. Recommend a campaign layout: how many campaigns, and the logic for the split (service line, location, or search intent). Say why this fits the budget.
2. Inside each campaign, define tightly themed ad groups — one intent per group — and name them.
3. For each ad group, list a small seed set of keywords with the match type beside each (broad, phrase, exact) and one line on the role each match type plays.
4. Draft a negative-keyword list: a shared list for account-wide junk (jobs, DIY, free) plus any campaign-specific negatives that stop the lines cannibalising each other.
5. Set out how to split the monthly budget across campaigns, and which one to prioritise first.
6. List what you cannot know from here — real search volumes, cost-per-click, and competitor density — and tell me to pull those from Google Keyword Planner and the Ads auction insights before committing spend.
</task>

<output_format>
Sections in this order: KEY DECISIONS, CAMPAIGN MAP, AD GROUPS AND KEYWORDS (grouped under each campaign), NEGATIVE KEYWORDS, BUDGET SPLIT, CHECK BEFORE YOU LAUNCH. Use plain lists, no tables. Do not invent search volumes, click costs or competition figures — mark those [CONFIRM IN KEYWORD PLANNER]. If a landing page for a keyword theme doesn't exist yet, say so rather than assuming one. Australian English spelling.
</output_format>

Copy the block above straight into Claude — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.