Launching a product

Before launch

• Enter unit costs first. A launch without COGS reports meaningless margins, and break-even ACoS is what launch bids are judged against.
• Keyword research: use the keyword tools to map the terms that matter - your target set, their volumes, and who ranks today. Pick a primary set you actually intend to win.

Launch structure

Keep it simple enough to read: an auto campaign for discovery, an exact campaign for your primary terms, and a broad or phrase campaign to feed the auto's findings. The Campaign Builder keeps families together and enforces naming.

Expectations by phase

• Weeks 1-2: buy data, not efficiency. High ACoS is the cost of learning which terms convert. Judge clicks and conversion rate, not profit.
• Weeks 3-4: prune with the search-term report - negate the non-converters, harvest the converters into exact targeting, and start pushing bids where conversion is proven.
• After a month: the product graduates to normal management - break-even-relative bidding, the weekly review, and automation or workforce coverage.

A launch is one of the few times deliberately unprofitable spend is correct - the mistake is letting it run past the point where the data has answered the question.