MakerSquare · Channel Playbooks · Settings + Keywords

How to set up each channel — exactly.

Per-channel: the keywords to target, the campaign settings, bidding, budget thresholds, targeting, creative specs, and the traps. Researched against current (2026) platform guidance. Pair with the creative suite for the ads themselves.

← Back to creative suite

01 Google Search

Standard Search campaigns. Keyword-driven intent capture.

Use Search (not Performance Max) — you want keyword control and search-term transparency for a low-volume niche. One campaign per audience so budgets don't compete.

Campaign settings

Campaign type
Search only. UNCHECK 'Search partners' and 'Display network'.
Networks
Google Search + Search partners OFF
Bidding
Start Maximize Conversions (no tCPA — you don't know your CPA yet). Add Target CPA only after 15–30 conversions. Never set bid limits.
Match types
Start Phrase + Exact for control at low volume. Graduate winners to Broad + Smart Bidding once ≥30 conv/mo AND negatives are active.
Ad group structure
3–10 themed ad groups (below). Do NOT build single-keyword ad groups — it fragments the data Smart Bidding needs.
Conversion goal
One goal, deep as possible: 'Submit lead form' / 'Qualified lead'. Needs ≥15 conv/30 days at account level. Import offline 'closed' events if you can.
Assets (required)
RSA: 15 headlines / 4 descriptions (in the suite). + Sitelinks, Callouts, Structured snippets, Lead-form asset, Call asset.
Location
US. Add radius or target-city geo per your priority metros.
AI Max
Optional toggle — expands via broad + keywordless. Test AFTER you have a phrase/exact baseline, not day one.

Negative keywords — master account list

The "ai training data / dataset / model" cluster is a trap — that's people building AI, not learning it, and it has real volume at $30+ CPC. Block it.

jobs job salary remote free data dataset datasets database model models annotation "training data" "how to" DIY student "certification free"

Review search-term report weekly minimum and keep adding. Broad match without this = wasted spend.

Keyword plan (DataForSEO, US · monthly volume · CPC)

KeywordVolCPCMatch
Ad group 1 · Team / corporate training → /pricing.html + /corporate.html
ai training for employees320$51.63Exact + Phrase
employee ai training10$77.72Exact
corporate ai training50$37.33Phrase
ai training for teams20$31.81Phrase
ai training company320$11.58Phrase
ai training program(s)720$15.94Phrase
ai upskilling210$15.58Phrase
ai skills training260$8.09Phrase
Ad group 2 · AI adoption / literacy → /corporate.html
ai adoption1,000$19.68Phrase
ai literacy training320$6.08Phrase
generative ai training320$16.23Phrase
Ad group 3 · Individual bootcamp → /enroll.html
prompt engineering course2,900$8.96Exact + Phrase
ai bootcamp2,400$10.06Exact + Phrase
ai training certification480$14.35Phrase
ai course110$12.13Phrase
learn ai90$13.38Phrase
no code ai course50$14.77Phrase
Ad group 4 · Broad (turn on only after ≥30 conv/mo + negatives live)
ai training9,900$12.14Broad
ai training courses3,600$13.67Broad

Skip: "ai governance training" (1,300/mo, low difficulty) looks tempting but it's compliance/risk training — not our build-focused offer. Only chase it if the curriculum actually covers governance.

02 Meta — Facebook + Instagram

Leads objective + Instant Forms. Feed the algorithm CRM signal.

Campaign settings

Objective
Leads → Instant Form (exec, AUD2/3). Individual (AUD1): Sales/Conversions optimizing the Lead / CompleteRegistration event.
Form type
Higher Intent for exec (adds review step, +15–25% lead-to-meeting, worth the ~20% higher CPL). 'More Volume' only for pure top-funnel.
Budget
Advantage+ campaign budget (CBO) at campaign level with 3+ ad sets. B2B: $75–150/day/ad set; individual: $50–100.
Bidding
Start Highest volume (cost per result) for 7–14 days to get a baseline, then switch to Cost cap at ~120% of observed CPL.
Learning phase
Needs ~50 optimization events / ad set / week to exit. Don't touch a campaign or judge it before then. Scale ≤20–25% every 3–4 days.
Audience — exec
US, 30–60, job titles: owners, founders, C-suite, VP/Dir Ops/HR/Marketing/Finance. Lock audience controls (Advantage+ will expand otherwise).
Audience — individual
US, 25–45, interests: no-code, ChatGPT, Notion, Zapier, entrepreneurship, career dev. Let Advantage+ placements ON (finds Reels).
Placements — exec
FB Feed + IG Feed only; Advantage+ audience expansion OFF.

Tracking & quality (do this or CPL lies)

Pixel + CAPI
Fire BOTH — Pixel LeadSubmitted + CAPI Lead, same event_id for dedupe. Pixel alone catches only 40–70% now.
EMQ score
Check Events Manager — keep Event Match Quality > 6.0 (hash email + phone in the payload).
Conversion Leads
Pass CRM stages back (Lead → Qualified → Closed) via CAPI and optimize to the deepest event that still gets 50+/wk. 30–50% better lead quality.
Lead form Q's
Company size · How many to train · Austin cohort / private on-site / not sure (routing) · Work email. Multiple-choice, not open-ended.
Speed to lead
Auto-notify sales; call B2B within <1 hr (B2C <5 min). 9× conversion vs 30-min delay.
Exclusions
Exclude existing customers + recent leads from acquisition ad sets.

03 X (Twitter)

Advanced campaign, Website Traffic + conversion. Exec only.

Campaign settings

Campaign mode
Advanced (not Simple) — Simple can't do conversion optimization.
Objective
Website Traffic paired with a conversion event (or the new Sales objective). Pay by impression, Standard pacing.
Pixel
Install the X pixel; create a Signup / Lead event. Goal = Site visits → that event.
Bidding
Autobid to start; test Max/Target bid after you have benchmark data. Second-price auction — you pay $0.01 over next bid.
Budget
$50–100/day minimum (needs 5–10 conv/day to optimize). Run ≥2 weeks before judging.
CBO
Off (single ad group). Skip campaign spend cap.

Targeting & creative

Primary targeting
Follower look-alikes of AI/founder/industry accounts your buyer follows (bigger accounts = better modeling) + Keywords.
Keywords (25+, broad)
X needs POPULAR terms, not Google-specific ones: AI, ChatGPT, artificial intelligence, AI tools, automation, no code, upskilling, AI adoption, future of work, prompt engineering, small business AI. Target ≥25 (max 750).
Audience size
Aim ≥500k estimate; 100k floor. Keep 'Optimize targeting' OFF for this niche.
Creative
Single image, 1:1 @ 800×800, website card, headline ≤50 chars, text overlay <25% of image, high contrast vs UI. Use IMG-UNUSED / on-site 16:9.
Test
3 ads, let X pick the winner.

04 TikTok

Individual only. Broad targeting, TikTok-only placement.

Campaign settings

Objective
Start Traffic → /enroll.html to build signal. Move to Sales or Lead Generation once you can hit 50 events/wk. For lead QUALITY use a landing page, not the native Instant Form.
Smart+
Optional — 2026 Smart+ lets you toggle automation per module (targeting/budget/placement). Fine to test; keep placement manual (below).
Placement
SELECT placements → TikTok only. Turn OFF Pangle — Pangle is ~50% lower conversion quality and ON by default. Critical.
Bidding
Maximum Delivery to start; Cost Cap only after 50 events/wk. Budget-to-bid ratio ≥ 50:1.
Learning phase
50 events / ad group / week. Calibrates in 3–7 days. Don't edit for the first 7 days. Raise budget ≤50%/day. Refresh by ADDING 2–5 creatives (don't delete the set).
Targeting
Broad (TikTok best practice) — US, min age 25, interests: Education, Career, Technology, Business. Lookalikes/interests as overlays only; lookalike source needs ≥100 users.

Creative specs

Format
9:16 vertical, 720p+, sound ON, dynamic motion throughout, 5–60s. Respect safe zones (top 250px / bottom 400px).
Hook
Core proposition in first 3 seconds, hook by 6s. Captions at ~5–10 words/sec. Clear CTA at the end.
Asset
IMG-BA (before/after 9:16) as motion/slideshow until the real testimonial video is shot.
Spark Ads
If you build any organic MakerSquare/creator posts with real engagement, run them as Spark Ads — engagement accrues to the post and builds proof.
Flag
Exec creative does NOT run here. And flag before scaling cold — TikTok wants real video, not a static.

05 Giant negative keyword list

197+ negatives across 12 buckets. Load before you spend a dollar.

Add these as an account-level negative keyword list in Google Ads (Tools → Shared library → Negative keyword lists → apply to all campaigns). Use phrase match for multi-word terms and broad for single words. Same list doubles as exclusions/keywords-to-avoid on X & TikTok. ↓ Download the flat .txt for bulk paste.

Job seekers / employment (biggest waste — 'ai training jobs' = 14,800/mo, wrong intent)

jobs job careers career hiring hire salary salaries pay wage recruiter recruitment apply resume cv internship intern vacancy vacancies employment work from home remote job entry level how to become become an get a job gig

Free / cheap / discount seekers

free free course free training gratis no cost cheap cheapest low cost budget coupon promo code discount voucher deal under $ for free 100% free

DIY / self-taught / passive low-intent

youtube reddit pdf download ebook book books cheat sheet tutorial tutorials how to diy self taught self study at home podcast blog

WRONG INTENT — building AI / ML engineering / data (not learning to use it)

data dataset datasets database training data model models model training train a model fine tuning fine-tune llm training machine learning engineer ml engineer ai engineer data annotation data labeling labeling annotation gpu tensorflow pytorch hugging face kaggle neural network dataset for

AI consumer tools / entertainment (irrelevant)

girlfriend boyfriend waifu nsfw porn image generator photo generator video generator art generator face swap voice generator music generator character ai chatbot free ai detector humanizer essay homework cheat

Students / kids / academic / degrees

student students kids children child teen high school college degree university masters phd bachelors degree scholarship school project for beginners kids k-12 gcse

Certification / exam only (not our build-first program)

certification free free certificate exam exam dump practice test quiz google certification microsoft certification aws certification coursera udemy edx khan academy

Other meanings of 'training' (dog, fitness, etc.)

dog puppy pet gym fitness workout potty toilet strength marathon personal trainer military first aid cpr forklift osha safety training corporate wellness

Informational / definitions (no purchase intent)

what is meaning definition examples vs difference between wiki wikipedia explained pros and cons statistics history of is ai

Adjacent-but-wrong AI topics (skip unless we teach them)

governance compliance ethics policy regulation law legal security cybersecurity risk audit privacy gdpr

Geography mismatch (US-only program)

india uk london canada australia philippines near me london dubai singapore online only fully remote

Free platforms / competitors' free tiers (review before adding brand terms)

chatgpt free gemini free copilot free free ai tools free ai app

The one that matters most: the "building AI / data / model" bucket. "ai training" broad-matches to "ai training data", "ai model training", "ai training dataset" — high volume, $30+ CPC, and the exact opposite of a buyer. If you add nothing else, add that bucket.

Review the search-term report weekly and keep appending. This list is the starting floor, not the finish line.

06 Universal rules