Manage Google Ads, Meta Ads, and Apple Search Ads seamlessly through Claude chat.

Paid Ads Autopilot

Manage Google Ads, Meta Ads, and Apple Search Ads from a single Claude chat window.

Inspired by Austin Lau's workflow at Anthropic, where he runs all paid search operations (search term mining, negative keywords, budget changes, RSA generation) through Claude + MCP. This plugin recreates that setup and extends it with account creation guides, multi-platform support, and a customizable playbook.

What it does

Mine search terms across campaigns, flag wasted spend by category, and add negative keywords in batches
Optimize budgets by analyzing impression share loss by day and recommending adjustments
Generate RSA copy with 15 headlines + 4 descriptions, character-validated and ready for Google Ads Editor
Audit ad copy for quality, compliance, and performance issues
Find wasted spend across all campaigns (high CPA, zero-conversion ad groups, broad match bleed)
Generate reports with 30-day performance trends, anomalies, and period-over-period comparison
Set up from scratch with step-by-step guides for creating Google/Meta/Apple ad accounts and connecting via MCP

Skills

Command	Description
`/mine-search-terms`	Audit search terms, flag wasted spend, add negative keywords in batches
`/budget-optimizer`	Analyze impression share by day, recommend and apply budget changes
`/rsa-generator`	Generate Responsive Search Ad headlines + descriptions
`/spend-efficiency`	Find optimization opportunities across all campaigns
`/ad-copy-audit`	Audit active RSAs for quality, compliance, and performance
`/campaign-report`	Generate a 30-day performance report with trends and anomalies
`/ads-setup`	Walk through ad account creation and MCP connection from scratch

Plus the ads-playbook skill: a customizable "brain" that stores your business context, CPA targets, wasted spend thresholds, and negative keyword taxonomy. Every other skill reads from it.

How it works

The plugin follows Austin's architecture:

GAQL MCP (read): Google's official MCP server handles all queries (search terms, impression share, campaign data)
Google Ads API (write): A separate connection handles mutations (adding negatives, changing budgets)
Playbook-driven evaluation: Every search term gets scored against your custom methodology, not generic rules
Human-in-the-loop: Nothing gets modified without your explicit approval. Changes are batched and confirmed individually.

From Austin's own replies: "You need to provide a strong base of examples on what to actually query. If you want to know why spend dropped you need to look at impression share as well but Claude might not know that out the gate." The playbook encodes these patterns.

Quick start

1. Install the plugin

In Claude Code:

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/nichecata/paid-ads-autopilot.git

# Copy to your project's .claude directory
cp -r paid-ads-autopilot/skills your-project/.claude/skills/
cp paid-ads-autopilot/CLAUDE.md your-project/.claude/CLAUDE.md

In Cowork: Go to Plugins > Upload Plugin, and point it to this repo.

2. Connect your ad platform via MCP

Run /ads-setup and follow the prompts. Or set it up manually:

Google Ads (read-only, recommended to start):

Install Google's official GAQL MCP:

git clone https://github.com/googleads/google-ads-mcp.git
cd google-ads-mcp
pip install -r requirements.txt

Add to your .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-ads": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "google_ads_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_ADS_YAML_PATH": "/path/to/your/google-ads.yaml"
      }
    }
  }
}

You need: a Developer Token, OAuth Client ID/Secret, Refresh Token, and Customer ID. The /ads-setup skill walks you through getting each one.

Google Ads (read + write):

For write operations (adding negatives, changing budgets), use the community MCP server with 29 tools:

pip install git+https://github.com/itallstartedwithaidea/google-ads-mcp.git

Meta Ads and Apple Search Ads: Full setup guides included in /ads-setup.

3. Customize your playbook

Edit skills/ads-playbook/SKILL.md and replace every [CUSTOMIZE] marker:

Your business context and what you sell
Target CPA and wasted spend thresholds
Negative keyword categories with examples specific to your business
Brand voice guidelines for RSA copy

The more specific you make it, the better every skill performs.

4. Run your first audit

/mine-search-terms audit my [campaign name] over the last 14 days

You'll get:

A CSV with every flagged term, performance data, and reasoning
An in-chat summary with top wasted spend terms and category breakdown
An offer to add negatives in batches (grouped by ad group, applied at campaign level)

Playbook features

The ads-playbook skill includes more than just thresholds. It also encodes:

Negative keyword taxonomy (8 categories from Austin's actual output):

Wrong intent
Brand/bottom-funnel leakage
Job/interview intent
Research-only intent
Comparison shoppers
Developer/coding intent
Too generic
Fully off-theme

GAQL query intelligence: Patterns for diagnosing spend drops (check impression share), CPA increases (check conversion tracking), CTR drops (check ad position), and conversion drops (check tracking first).

Account health checklist (from Austin's thread replies):

Conversion windows and repeat rates
Primary vs secondary conversion actions
Location targeting set to "Presence in"
AI features OFF unless tested
Final URL expansion OFF unless tested
Automated assets OFF
And more

Match type strategy: Start with exact/phrase. Graduate to broad only with solid negative keyword coverage.

AI enhancements policy: Auto-apply recommendations, auto-created assets, final URL expansion all OFF by default.

Brand bidding guidance: Manual CPC with bid cap often beats Smart Bidding on brand terms.

Safety

Every write operation requires explicit "yes" from you
Dry-run by default. Skills show what WOULD happen before doing anything
Negative keywords are batched and each batch needs individual approval
All cost values converted from micros to human-readable dollars
CSV output for manual review before any changes

File structure

paid-ads-autopilot/
  .claude-plugin/
    marketplace.json          # Plugin metadata
  CLAUDE.md                   # Plugin overview and safety rules
  README.md                   # This file
  LICENSE                     # MIT
  skills/
    ads-playbook/SKILL.md     # Customizable methodology (the "brain")
    mine-search-terms/SKILL.md # Search term mining + negative keywords
    budget-optimizer/SKILL.md  # Impression share + budget recommendations
    rsa-generator/SKILL.md     # RSA copy generation
    spend-efficiency/SKILL.md  # Cross-campaign optimization finder
    ad-copy-audit/SKILL.md     # RSA quality/compliance audit
    campaign-report/SKILL.md   # 30-day performance report
    ads-setup/SKILL.md         # Account creation + MCP setup guides

Don't have an ad account yet?

The /ads-setup skill walks you through creating one from scratch:

Google Ads: Account creation, Expert Mode setup, billing, MCC setup, conversion tracking, Developer Token, OAuth credentials, MCP connection
Meta Ads: Facebook Page, Business Suite, ad account, Meta Pixel, domain verification, API credentials, MCP connection
Apple Search Ads: Apple Developer account, Search Ads Advanced setup, API certificate, JWT generation, MCP connection

Credits

Workflow inspired by Austin Lau (growth marketer at Anthropic)
Austin's original thread with screenshots and technical details
Google's official GAQL MCP
Community read+write MCP

License

MIT