Google Ads Rescue Playbook

You're spending $1,500 to $5,000 a month on Google Ads and can't tell if it's working. The agency that set it up vanished. Broad match is bleeding budget on searches you'd never target yourself. Smart Bidding is learning from 12 conversions a month, which means it's guessing. Pausing feels reckless. Scaling feels worse.

Open your Google Ads account in one tab and this playbook in another. Work through the twenty failure modes in order. You'll catch 12 to 16 of them in the first hour. Don't fix anything until you've diagnosed everything - that's how you avoid making it worse. Most rescues are subtractions.

**What's inside**

- 20 failure modes with symptoms and fixes: broad match, Search Terms neglect, Smart Bidding misfires, weak extensions, poor landing page match, Display on Search, location targeting, audience gaps, day-parting, Auction Insights, PMax guardrails, branded search, Quality Score, RLSA and more

- 15 Claude copy prompts: 15 headlines, 200-term negative keyword list, descriptions, sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, landing page H1 rewrites, weekly Search Terms triage, competitor analysis, monthly performance narrative

- The budget calculator that works back from customer LTV to max allowable CAC to max CPC to monthly budget

- Three campaign structure templates scoped by budget ($500-$1,500/mo, $1,500-$5,000/mo, $5,000-$15,000/mo)

- Monthly operating rhythm with weekly Monday tasks you can finish in 30 minutes

- A 90-minute next-steps plan so you ship your first three fixes today

**Who it's for**

- AU small businesses spending $500 to $15,000/mo on Google Ads and getting opaque reporting

- Service businesses (tradies, allied health, consultants) running local search who want ownership back

- Anyone inheriting a Google Ads account from an agency or former marketing hire

**Who it's NOT for**

- Businesses with under $500/month ad spend (invest in GBP first)

- Enterprise accounts with 50+ campaigns needing full agency-level restructure

**Cost to run**

- Google Ads spend (your own budget)

- GA4 and Search Console: free

- Claude free tier for every prompt: $0

- Optional Claude Pro: $27/mo AUD

**Who made it**

Rachel Ponte. 15+ years AU experience in digital marketing and advertising solutions for national and global brands. Maeve Media products are built by one senior marketer and priced so solo operators can afford to own them.

Download. Diagnose. Grow.

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