---
title: Google Ads Draft Summary
description: Summarize all pending drafts across accounts. Produces a single prioritized view of what needs review, sorted by impact, risk, and apply order.
category: Marketing
sublabel: Paid Ads
author: Matt Berman
tags: 
license: MIT
source: https://github.com/TheMattBerman/google-ads-copilot
---

# Google Ads Draft Summary

## Why this skill exists

After an audit, search-term review, or tracking diagnosis, the copilot produces individual draft files.
But individual files don't answer the operator's real question:

> "I have 20 minutes. What should I review and apply first?"

This skill answers that.

Read first:
- `drafts/DRAFTS.md` — draft system documentation

Read workspace:
- `workspace/ads/drafts/_index.md` — current queue
- All `workspace/ads/drafts/*.md` — individual draft files
- `workspace/ads/account.md` — account context
- `workspace/ads/findings.md` — for tracking confidence context

---

## What This Produces

A **Draft Summary** — a single document that:

1. Lists every pending draft (status: `proposed` or `approved`)
2. Classifies each by **priority**, **impact**, **risk**, and **reversibility**
3. Shows **dependency chains** (what must be applied before what)
4. Produces a **recommended apply order** (the sequence an operator should follow)
5. Flags **blocked actions** (e.g., budget scaling blocked by tracking problems)
6. Estimates **total impact** of applying all pending changes

This is the current backlog snapshot, not the audit-run packet. `_summary.md` should always reflect the latest pending queue. Durable audit packets belong in `_batch-*.md`.

---

## Priority Classification

Each draft gets a priority level based on these criteria:

### P0 — Fix First (Blocking)
- Tracking problems that gate all other decisions
- Actively harmful configurations (e.g., paying for store visits as conversions)
- Budget bleeding on clearly wrong traffic
- **Apply these before anything else**

### P1 — Quick Wins (High Confidence, Easy, High Impact)
- Clear negative keyword additions with significant waste (>$100/month)
- Keyword pauses with obvious waste
- Simple tracking cleanup (remove micro-conversion from primary)
- **Apply these in the same session as P0**

### P2 — Strategic Moves (Requires Thought)
- Structure changes (campaign splits, ad group reorganization)
- Budget reallocation between campaigns
- Landing page changes
- **Schedule a focused review session for these**

### P3 — Refinement (Low Risk, Incremental)
- RSA headline/description refreshes
- Minor negative additions (<$50/month waste)
- Value setting updates
- **Apply when convenient, batch with other changes**

---

## Impact Assessment

Each draft gets an impact estimate:

| Impact Level | Description | Signal |
|-------------|-------------|--------|
| **Critical** | Stopping active harm or fixing broken measurement | Tracking broken, massive waste |
| **High** | Significant waste reduction or conversion improvement | >$200/month waste, or >20% of spend affected |
| **Medium** | Meaningful improvement in efficiency or clarity | $50-200/month impact, structure improvement |
| **Low** | Minor optimization, incremental improvement | <$50/month, cosmetic structure |

---

## Risk Assessment

| Risk Level | Description | Reversibility |
|-----------|-------------|---------------|
| **High** | Could disrupt Smart Bidding learning, reduce impression share, or block good traffic | Moderate — takes 2-3 weeks to recover |
| **Medium** | Temporary performance dip possible, but recoverable | Easy — undo within a day |
| **Low** | No meaningful risk of regression | Easy — instant undo |

---

## Dependency Chain Logic

Drafts can depend on each other. Common dependency patterns:

```
Tracking Fix (P0)
  ├── blocks → Budget Scaling (P2)
  ├── blocks → Bid Strategy Changes (P2)
  └── informs → Structure Changes (P2)

Negative Keywords (P1)
  └── before → Structure Changes (P2)
      └── before → RSA Refresh (P3)
          └── before → Budget Scaling (P2)
```

**Rules:**
- Tracking fixes always come first (they change the data everything else is based on)
- Negatives before structure (clean the traffic before reorganizing it)
- Structure before RSAs (know the buckets before writing the copy)
- Everything before budget scaling (scale only what's working)

---

## Draft Summary Document Format

```markdown
# Draft Summary — [Date]
Account: [Name] (CID: [ID])
Tracking confidence: [HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW / BROKEN]
Pending drafts: [N]
Total estimated waste addressable: $[amount]/month

## Recommended Apply Order

### Step 1: [Draft name] — P0
- **File:** `workspace/ads/drafts/[filename]`
- **Type:** [tracking-fix / negatives / structure / budget / rsa / landing-review]
- **Summary:** [one sentence]
- **Impact:** [Critical / High / Medium / Low]
- **Risk:** [High / Medium / Low]
- **Reversibility:** [Easy / Moderate / Hard]
- **Estimated waste stopped:** $[amount]/month
- **Blocked by:** [nothing / other draft]
- **Blocks:** [list of drafts that depend on this one]

### Step 2: [Draft name] — P1
[same format]

### Step 3: [Draft name] — P2
[same format]

[... repeat for all pending drafts]

## Dependency Map

```text
[visual or text representation of dependencies]
```

## Blocked Actions
- [action] — blocked by [reason]. Unblocks after [draft] is applied.

## Quick-Apply Candidates
Drafts that are low-risk, high-confidence, and have no dependencies:
- [draft name] — [one-line summary]

## Deferred / Needs More Data
Drafts that shouldn't be applied yet:
- [draft name] — [reason: needs more data / confidence too low / depends on client input]

## Total Impact Estimate
If all pending drafts are applied in the recommended order:
- **Waste reduction:** ~$[amount]/month
- **Tracking improvement:** [description]
- **Structure improvement:** [description]
- **Time to full effect:** [estimate]
```

---

## How to Generate the Summary

### Step 1: Read the Index
Load `workspace/ads/drafts/_index.md` to get the list of all drafts and their current status.

### Step 2: Read Each Pending Draft
For each draft with status `proposed` or `approved`, read the full file to extract:
- Action type(s)
- Confidence level
- Risk and reversibility
- Dependencies
- Estimated impact (waste $ if quantified)

### Step 3: Check Tracking Confidence
Load the most recent tracking diagnosis from `workspace/ads/findings.md`.
Tracking confidence determines which drafts are blocked.

### Step 4: Build the Dependency Chain
Map out which drafts depend on which. Apply the standard ordering:
1. Tracking fixes
2. Keyword pauses (stop active bleeding)
3. Negative keyword additions
4. Structure changes
5. RSA refreshes
6. Landing page improvements
7. Budget reallocation

### Step 5: Assign Priority and Impact
Using the P0-P3 framework and impact/risk tables above.

### Step 6: Write the Summary
Output the Draft Summary document to `workspace/ads/drafts/_summary.md`

---

## Output Locations

- **Summary document:** `workspace/ads/drafts/_summary.md` (overwritten each time)
- **Audit packets:** `workspace/ads/drafts/_batch-YYYY-MM-DD-[account-slug].md` (created by `/google-ads audit` when one run emits 2+ drafts)
- **Index update:** Update `workspace/ads/drafts/_index.md` if any status changes are warranted
- **Console output:** Also display the summary inline for immediate review

---

## Multi-Account Support

When `workspace/ads/drafts/_index.md` contains drafts for multiple accounts (identified by account slug in the filename):

- Group the summary by account
- Show per-account tracking confidence
- Show per-account total impact
- Cross-account dependencies are rare but possible (shared negative lists, MCC-level changes)

---

## Rules

- **Read every pending draft.** Don't summarize from the index alone — the index is a title list, not a summary.
- **Always check tracking confidence.** It gates everything.
- **Be honest about confidence.** If a draft says "Medium confidence," don't promote it to P1.
- **Surface the 20-minute review.** The operator should be able to read the summary, pick the top 2-3 actions, and apply them in one session.
- **Don't create new drafts.** This skill summarizes existing drafts — it doesn't generate new recommendations.
- **Flag stale drafts.** If a draft is >30 days old, note it. The data it was based on may no longer be current.
- **Flag conflicting drafts.** If two drafts recommend contradictory actions, call it out explicitly.