Creating a Campaign Step by Step

Table of Contents

• Campaign creation wizard
• Pre-launch checklists
• Draft mode vs. active campaign

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Campaign creation wizard

To create a new campaign, go to Campaigns → Create campaign. The wizard will guide you through each step — you can move between steps freely until you save.

Step 1 — Configuration

Select the advertising channel (Google or Microsoft Advertising) and campaign type:

Channel	Available campaign types
Google	Shopping campaign, Performance Max, Search campaign, DSA campaign, DSA brand, DSA category, Search brand, Search category
Microsoft Advertising	Search campaign, Shopping campaign

Then fill in:

• Campaign name — visible in Sembot and in the advertising account
• Google connections / Microsoft Advertising connection in project — advertising account
• Merchant Center ID — required for Shopping and Performance Max campaigns
• Data source (target country) — if you have multiple feeds for different markets

Step 2 — Budget and strategy

• Daily budget — the maximum amount spent per day
• Shared budget — option to share the budget across multiple campaigns
• Dynamic budget adjustment — Google automatically evens out the budget over the course of the month
• Strategy — choose one of the available options: Manual CPC, Sembot CPC, Target ROAS, Maximize clicks, Maximize conversions, and others

Step 3 — Products

Set filters to determine which products from the feed should be included in the campaign. You can filter by brand, category, product type, Custom label 0–4, price, and other attributes.

Sembot continuously shows how many products match the defined conditions.

Step 4 — Keywords (search campaign only)

Choose how to generate keywords: Generate from product titles, Add manually, or Upload CSV. Set match types (Exact match, Phrase match, Broad match) and optionally add Negative keywords.

Step 5 — Segmentation (search and Shopping campaigns)

Decide how to divide products into ad groups — by Brand, Product type, Google product category, Custom label 0–4, or Google ID.

The Segmentation preview section shows in real time how many campaigns and groups will be created and what they will be named. If the number of campaigns exceeds 50, Sembot will display a warning asking for confirmation.

Step 6 — Templates (search campaign only)

Build ad templates using headlines (max. 30 characters) and descriptions (max. 90 characters). Insert Product values (brand, title, price, etc.) and apply formatting options: Capitalize, Lowercase, Truncate, Stop at (?.!). The Product preview section shows how the ad will look for a specific product.

Step 7 — Assets (Performance Max only)

Provide ad assets: Headlines (min. 3), Long headlines (min. 1), Descriptions (min. 2), Marketing images (min. 1), Square marketing images (min. 1), Logos (min. 1). Optionally add YouTube videos and specify audiences as a signal for the Google algorithm.

Step 8 — Goals

Specify the conversion goals the campaign should pursue. Sembot retrieves available goals from the connected advertising account.

Step 9 — Sync

The final step before saving includes a Campaign preview — the number of campaigns and groups that will be created.

Key toggle: Enable campaign activation automation

• Enabled — the campaign will be automatically activated in the Google Ads / Microsoft Advertising account immediately after syncing
• Disabled — the campaign will appear in the account as an inactive campaign; you activate it manually in Google Ads or Sembot

Click Finish to save the campaign and start syncing.

The first sync with Google Ads will begin immediately. Subsequent syncs will be processed after each product feed update. If new products meet your filtering rules, they will be added to existing groups or new groups will be created.

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Pre-launch checklists

Before saving the campaign, make sure the following items are ready. An incomplete configuration may cause a sync error or ads being served without proper targeting.

General requirements (all types)

• [ ] Advertising account connection configured in Integrations → Connections (Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising)
• [ ] Connection added to the project (visible in the project connections list)
• [ ] Campaign name filled in and does not contain a deleted identifier (e.g., #60461ba6e2898)
• [ ] Budget set and entered
• [ ] Bid strategy selected and configured (e.g., Target ROAS entered)
• [ ] Product filters set — Sembot shows a product match count greater than zero

Shopping campaign and Performance Max

• [ ] Merchant Center ID selected — account with an active product feed
• [ ] Product feed verified and approved in Google Merchant Center (no critical errors)
• [ ] Segmentation configured (or intentionally skipped — the campaign will have one group with all products)

Search campaign

• [ ] Keywords generated or uploaded — list is not empty
• [ ] At least one Negative keyword added for low-quality terms (optional, but recommended)
• [ ] Ad template filled in: min. 3 headlines and 2 descriptions
• [ ] Segmentation configured — check the Segmentation preview

Performance Max

• [ ] Headlines (min. 3), Long headlines (min. 1), Descriptions (min. 2) filled in
• [ ] Marketing images (min. 1 landscape + 1 square) uploaded
• [ ] Logos (min. 1) uploaded
• [ ] Final URL entered and leads to a working page
• [ ] At least one description is under 60 characters (Google requirement)

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Draft mode vs. active campaign

Draft

A campaign saved as a Draft exists only in Sembot. It is not sent to Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising and generates no costs.

In Draft mode you can:

• freely edit all configuration steps
• return to the wizard and change filters, segmentation, templates, and budget
• save progress and complete the configuration later

An unsaved campaign that you leave will also be preserved as a Draft — Sembot will display a message asking whether to save before exiting.

After syncing

After clicking Finish, the campaign goes through the following states:

Status	What it means
Sync in progress	Sembot is creating the campaign on the advertising platform
Synced	Campaign published; configuration is locked for editing
Sync error	Sync failed; check the error details in the interface
Paused	Campaign paused on the platform

Once synced, the campaign in Sembot becomes read-only — configuration forms are locked. You can make budget changes directly from the campaign list using the Modify budget option, without needing to re-sync the entire campaign.

Returning to Draft

A synced campaign cannot be reverted to edit mode in Sembot. Configuration changes (filters, segmentation, templates) require contacting the system administrator or — for minor changes — making them directly in the Google Ads / Microsoft Advertising panel.