The short answer
Claude becomes genuinely useful to a PPC agency when it stops being a clever tab and becomes a controlled operating workspace. Give it durable client context, connect it to authorized Google Ads accounts, define what it may inspect or change, and make every workflow end with evidence, approval, or verification.
The winning pattern is not “optimize this account.” It is: name the account, define the period, request the evidence, separate recommendations from actions, approve the exact scope, and read the result back. That pattern can support daily triage, weekly reviews, client-call preparation, search-term cleanup, and campaign launches without handing strategy to the model.
What Claude changes for a PPC agency
Claude is the workspace, not the system of record. A remote MCP connector gives Claude structured tools for external services; HireOtto supplies the Google Ads connection and the supported reporting or account actions. Claude can then move from a question to live account evidence and, when explicitly requested, to a supported change.
That removes a lot of interface tax. The operator no longer has to rebuild the same export, copy it into a spreadsheet, summarize it, return to Google Ads, and then verify the edit in another tab. The work can stay in one conversation, but accountability should not.
This article is deliberately narrower than a general Google Ads MCP guide. It focuses on how an agency should structure Claude so recurring work is consistent across people and accounts.
Build the client workspace before the workflows
Use one Claude Project per client or business unit
Claude Projects can hold knowledge and instructions that apply across chats in that project. Context from an ordinary chat is not automatically shared with other chats, so anything the team wants Claude to reuse should live in the project knowledge or instructions.
Useful project knowledge includes:
The authorized Google Ads customer ID, account name, currency, time zone, and agency owner.
The client’s business model, primary conversion, target markets, exclusions, margin or capacity constraints, and lead-quality caveats.
Campaign naming rules, reporting definitions, target ranges, approval policy, and client-safe language.
A short log of current tests and known exceptions that should not be “fixed” accidentally.
Do not upload passwords, OAuth tokens, or undocumented credentials. Claude and HireOtto use the permissions granted through their connection flows; a project brief should describe operating context, not contain secrets.
Turn project instructions into an operating policy
Project instructions should define how Claude works before the first account request. This makes the workflow portable across team members without pretending that the model remembers every prior conversation.
Project-instruction template —
You are the PPC operations assistant for [CLIENT]. The authorized Google Ads account is [CUSTOMER_ID]. Use complete date ranges and state the account, dates, and comparison period at the top of every analysis. Separate tool-returned evidence from your interpretation. Do not make account changes unless the user approves the exact entities and values in the current chat. Before a write, show the current state and proposed state. After a write, read the affected entity back and summarize the confirmed result. Flag missing business context instead of inventing it. Client-facing summaries must be plain English and must not expose internal notes.Treat that as a starting policy, not a substitute for access controls. The connected Google role still determines what the account can read or change.
Keep account scope explicit
Agencies often manage accounts with similar campaign names. Put the customer ID in consequential prompts, even if Claude already appears to know the client. Also name the date range, campaign IDs where relevant, and whether you want an inline summary, a CSV export, or both.
A scoped prompt is slightly longer. A cleanup is much longer.
Five practical Google Ads workflows in Claude
1. Morning delivery triage
Use the morning check to find delivery exceptions, not to conduct a miniature strategy meeting. The current HireOtto daily audit reviews campaign inventory, serving diagnostics, budget pacing, and spend or delivery movement against a preceding baseline. It is read-only.
Prompt —
Run the daily operations audit for Google Ads account [CUSTOMER_ID] for yesterday. Use the preceding 14 days as the delivery baseline. Surface all high- and medium-severity findings, summarize lower-severity findings, and tell me which checks passed. For every finding, show the campaign, evidence, likely explanation, and next check. Do not change the account.The output should become an exception queue: investigate now, monitor, or no action. Search-term analysis is a separate workflow; keeping it separate prevents a daily delivery check from becoming an unfocused account review.
2. Weekly optimization decision queue
A weekly review needs mature data and a comparison period. HireOtto’s weekly optimization audit compares enabled campaigns with an equal preceding period, reviews Search visibility, and builds candidate queues for search terms, keywords, bids, and responsive search ads. It returns evidence and exports without changing the account.
Prompt —
Run the weekly optimization audit for [CUSTOMER_ID]. Compare the last 7 complete days with the previous 7 complete days. Use the default mature search-term window. Return a severity-ranked decision queue with: finding, evidence, business question, recommended action, risk, and approval required. List every CSV export. Do not make changes.The useful output is not a collection of “optimizations.” It is a queue the account owner can accept, reject, defer, or investigate. Audit workflows currently require the Agency plan.
3. Prepare a client-call brief
Client-call preparation works best when performance data and change history are reviewed together. Performance explains what moved. Change history helps test whether account edits may have contributed.
Prompt —
Prepare a client-call brief for Google Ads account [CUSTOMER_ID]. Compare [CURRENT_PERIOD] with [PREVIOUS_PERIOD]. Review campaign performance, spend, conversions, CPA or ROAS where valid, Search impression share, and material search-term movement. Then review change history for the most recent 14 days. Produce: (1) a five-bullet executive summary, (2) performance drivers with evidence, (3) changes that may explain movement, (4) open questions for the client, and (5) an internal action queue. Separate client-safe language from internal notes. Export supporting detail to CSV.Claude should not manufacture causality. A bid change followed by a performance change is a lead to investigate, not proof. Ask it to label observation, inference, and missing evidence separately.
4. Turn search terms into an approved negative-keyword queue
Search-term review is ideal for a two-stage workflow: analysis first, execution second. The first stage should account for conversion lag, query relevance, existing keywords, lead quality, and the campaign’s role.
Analysis prompt —
Pull the search terms report for [CUSTOMER_ID] for the last 30 complete days, excluding the most recent 3 days. Export the full data and show the highest-cost candidates inline. Group possible negatives by campaign. For each term, show cost, clicks, conversions, relevance rationale, match-type recommendation, risk of blocking useful traffic, and whether more context is needed. Do not add negatives.Approval prompt —
For campaign [CAMPAIGN_ID], add only the following reviewed terms as exact-match negatives: [APPROVED_TERMS]. Do not change any other campaign or list. After the update, list the affected negatives and confirm the final state.Never translate “zero conversions” directly into “negative.” Low volume, delayed offline conversions, exploratory intent, or an intentional upper-funnel campaign can make that rule expensive.
5. Build a Search campaign from an approved brief
Claude can help an agency convert an approved brief into a structured campaign build. HireOtto creates a new Search campaign paused, applies opinionated defaults such as presence-based location targeting and Google Search-only coverage, and returns IDs for the next steps. The team can then add ad groups, keywords, negatives, and responsive search ads before activation.
Build prompt —
Using the approved brief below, create a paused Google Search campaign in account [CUSTOMER_ID]. Campaign name: [NAME]. Daily budget: [AMOUNT]. Locations: [LOCATIONS]. Language: [LANGUAGE]. Bidding strategy: [STRATEGY]. Then stop and return the campaign and budget IDs. Do not enable the campaign. [PASTE APPROVED BRIEF]Readback prompt —
Inspect campaign [CAMPAIGN_ID] and return its status, budget, bidding strategy, networks, location mode, locations, language, dates, and URL tracking. Flag any difference from the approved brief. Do not make further changes.Continue with ad groups, keywords, negatives, and ads only after the campaign-level readback passes. Enabling is a separate approval. A paused default is useful; it is not a complete QA process.
Make prompts agency-grade, not merely detailed
The best agency prompts contain six controls:
Identity: customer ID and the exact campaign, ad group, ad, keyword, or setting when relevant.
Time: complete dates, account time zone, comparison period, and conversion-lag treatment.
Evidence: metrics, settings, query rows, or change events supporting each finding.
Output: inline summary, CSV, decision queue, client-safe brief, or a combination.
Authority: inspect only, propose changes, validate, or execute an explicitly approved action.
Verification: read the live state back after any write and report partial failures.
This structure makes prompts reusable without making them generic. The project supplies client context; the prompt supplies the exact job and authority.
How to review Claude’s work
Claude can compress account work, but the agency still owns the decision. Before acting, check:
Whether the dates are complete and comparable.
Whether conversion definitions and offline-conversion lag match the client’s reality.
Whether small samples are being treated as mature evidence.
Whether a recommendation conflicts with a test, brand constraint, sales capacity, margin, or lead-quality signal outside Google Ads.
Whether the exact entities and values are visible before approval.
Whether the final state was read back after execution.
The model is useful precisely because it can do the repetitive retrieval and organization. Do not spend that leverage by letting it quietly inherit the final business decision.
How HireOtto supports this Claude workflow
HireOtto connects Claude to the Google Ads accounts the user authorizes. For agencies, the practical value is that the same conversation can move across account discovery, structured reporting, read-only audits, change history, and supported account actions.
It can list accessible accounts under a connected login and the directly visible children of a manager account. Agencies with access spread across multiple Google logins can connect additional profiles on the Agency plan; deeper nested manager structures require a login with direct access to the inner manager.
For analysis, HireOtto can return campaign, ad group, keyword, ad, search-term, geographic, device, impression-share, demographic, PMax, and other supported reports. Larger pulls can return an inline preview plus a time-limited CSV export. The weekly optimization and account-health audits are read-only and currently available on the Agency plan.
For execution, Claude can ask HireOtto to create or update supported entities and settings after the operator approves the scope. New Search campaigns are created paused. The operator should still confirm the customer ID, inspect proposed values, approve high-impact changes, and read the live result back. Coverage varies by campaign type and setting, and the connected Google Ads role still controls access.
Start with the HireOtto connection guide, then use the reporting guide and weekly optimization audit for the workflows above. Check the Google Ads tools reference for current read/write coverage, and use the Google Ads quickstart to connect your first account.
Frequently asked questions
Do PPC agencies need Claude Projects to use HireOtto?
No. The connector works in ordinary Claude conversations. Projects become useful when the agency wants reusable client context and operating instructions across chats. As of October 2026, Claude Projects are available to all Claude users, with plan-specific limits and collaboration options.
Can Claude work across multiple Google Ads accounts?
Yes, within the access granted to the connected Google login or logins. Use explicit customer IDs in prompts and verify the resolved account before consequential analysis or changes. Additional Google profiles in HireOtto currently require the Agency plan.
Should Claude be allowed to make Google Ads changes automatically?
For agency work, use supervised execution. Let Claude retrieve evidence, draft recommendations, and prepare the exact change. A human should approve the affected entities and values, especially for budgets, bidding, status, targeting, negatives, conversion configuration, or removal actions.
What belongs in Claude project knowledge?
Add durable business and operating context: objectives, conversion definitions, target markets, naming rules, reporting language, approval policy, and known exceptions. Do not add passwords, tokens, or unnecessary personal data.
What is the best first workflow?
Start with a read-only weekly decision queue on one familiar account. Compare the result with the agency’s existing review. Fix false positives and missing context before expanding to more accounts or adding write actions.
About Me
I’m Suyash – badminton junkie, ex‑GroupM ad‑ops grunt, first marketer at a B2B SaaS startup, and creator of Hiretto: MCP servers for performance marketers.
My mission: less clicking, more thinking.
Let’s build leverage together.
