# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Test and retire ad copy variants automatically for Google Search Ads.
The #roadway-skill block on this page holds a SKILL.md for it, including the full prompt. Treat that file as a starting point. It will not just work if you paste it into ChatGPT or Claude.
To run it outside Roadway you would need to connect each ad platform's API (and any MCP it names), build the data pulls, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in. Open it in a new chat at https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/generate-test-and-retire-creative-variants-autonomously-for-google-search-ads
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/generate-test-and-retire-creative-variants-autonomously-for-google-search-ads
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: generate-test-and-retire-creative-variants-autonomously-for-google-search-ads
description: >-
Writes new responsive search ad headlines and descriptions from your winning angles, tests each against the current best with a fixed split, and retires the losers once there is enough data.
---
# Test and retire ad copy variants automatically for Google Search Ads
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/generate-test-and-retire-creative-variants-autonomously-for-google-search-ads
From the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway.
## Before you use this outside Roadway
This SKILL.md is a starting point. It needs adjusting before it will work outside Roadway.
You would need to connect the ad platform API for each channel this workflow covers, build the data pulls for the variables below, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts. If the prompt names an MCP tool, you also need that MCP connected.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in.
## What it does
Writes new responsive search ad headlines and descriptions from your winning angles, tests each against the current best with a fixed split, and retires the losers once there is enough data.
Writes new responsive search ad headlines and descriptions from your winning angles, tests each against the current best with a fixed split, and retires the losers once there is enough data. It runs the test with a fair split and waits for enough data before it calls a winner. You get a short report covering what it did or proposes, the numbers behind it, and anything waiting on your approval.
## Steps
1. Collect the inputs listed under Variables. In Roadway they come from your connected accounts. Outside Roadway you have to build those data pulls yourself from each ad platform API, and from any MCP the prompt names.
2. Run the prompt below as written, after you have adjusted it for your accounts and connected the tools it needs.
3. Review the result. Apply changes to a live ad account only after you approve them. Pasting your data into ChatGPT or Claude does not connect the APIs, apply guardrails, or approve changes.
## Variables
approved_claims, auto_approve, brand_voice, cost_per_goal_baseline, creative_library, funnel_metrics, goal_metric, max_change_pct, min_sample_size, monthly_budget_cap, task_history
## Prompt
Test and retire ad copy variants automatically for Google Search Ads
Run this cycle's ad copy test loop for my Google Ads account. For each active ad group, decide:
1. Generate new variants
2. Promote variant
3. Retire variant
4. Pause loop for this group
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- The brand voice: [set this to your own brand voice]. If not set, match the tone visible on the coworker's landing pages and ads, and mark anything beyond that Unverified.
- The approved claims: [set this to your own approved claims]. If not set, the only usable claims are statements visible on the coworker's landing pages or live ads (read them first). Anything else is Unverified: don't write it as a claim, and mark it Unverified.
- The minimum number of conversions: [set this to your own min sample size] goal events per variant. If not set, 30.
- The baseline cost per goal: [set this to your own cost per goal baseline]. If not set, compute it: Roadway spend ÷ Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric] for the same campaigns over the lookback window, and state the number.
- The ad copy library: [set this to your own creative library]. If not set, use the ad platform's asset performance and Task History.
- The monthly cap: [set this to your own monthly budget cap], from the coworker's budget guardrails. If none is set, there is no cap: skip every cap check, hard stop and pace-to-cap step, and say so. Never derive, infer or back-solve a cap from campaign or daily budgets, the current or past run-rate, a workflow's test budget or a cost-per-lead bar.
- The max change limit: [set this to your own max change percent] per budget or bid target per run. If not set, 20%. It does not apply to experiment traffic splits.
- Auto-approve: [set this to your own auto approve]. If not set, it's off: list every change as a proposal for approval.
Rules:
- Test each new variant against the current best with a fixed, even traffic split (or the platform's own experiment or rotation settings), not a setup that keeps shifting traffic mid-test. Keep new variants to a small share of the group's spend, and do not change the split, budget or bid while a test is running, because constant shifting keeps the group in its learning phase.
- Generate at most 2 new variants per cycle from the winning concept, and only when no test is already running in that group, changing one element each time (the angle, proof point, offer or call to action). Follow up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions per RSA, plus sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, image and price assets, the brand voice and the approved claims, and never repeat a retired angle.
- Promote a variant only when it beats the incumbent on Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric] per dollar with enough data to call a clear winner: at least [set this to your own min sample size] conversions per variant and at least 14 days of data. Impressions or clicks alone are not enough. Move traffic to the winner in steps of at most [set this to your own max change percent] per run, and retire a variant only after its test ends or it has spent 2x the baseline cost per goal with no [set this to your own goal metric].
- Pause the loop for a group that is in learning, spending under 1x the baseline cost per goal per week, or under policy review.
- Log every variant, its angle and result in the ad copy library so the next cycle and other channels can reuse what was learned.
- Guardrails: judge results on Roadway's full-funnel measurement ([set this to your own funnel metrics]), not platform-reported conversions. Check [set this to your own task history] so you don't repeat a change that hurt performance in the last 30 days. Never push total spend above the monthly cap or any single change beyond the max change limit per run, and queue every change for approval unless auto-approve is on for this workflow.
Decision standard:
- Justify every keep, cut, bid, budget or test decision with Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric] and cost per goal against the baseline. Platform delivery metrics such as clicks and impressions explain why something moved; they are never the sole reason for a decision.
- Compute what Roadway doesn't expose directly: cost per goal = Roadway spend ÷ Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric], and conversion rate (lead rate) = Roadway [set this to your own goal metric] ÷ Roadway new visitors. Don't substitute platform-reported conversions or conversion rates.
- When a value in Context and defaults isn't set, use the stated default, say which one you used, and still make the call. Don't stop to ask.
- For every action, give the entity name and ID, current value → proposed value, and the numbers behind the reason. Write "None" under any empty heading.
- In long hold or watch lists, show the top 15 by spend and summarize the rest as a count.
Give me a report of each with reasoning for each action. Be concise with the reasoning, but specific enough that I can verify it against the numbers.
Report structure:
Google Search ad copy test report
Summary:
The variants generated, promoted and retired this cycle, the angles that are winning, and the updated ad copy library entries.
Generate new variants:
- [ad group / variant] - [reason]
Promote variant:
- [ad group / variant] - [reason]
Retire variant:
- [ad group / variant] - [reason]
Pause loop for this group:
- [ad group / variant] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/generate-test-and-retire-creative-variants-autonomously-for-google-search-ads
Test and retire ad copy variants automatically for Google Search Ads
Test and retire ad copy variants automatically for Google Search Ads
Writes new responsive search ad headlines and descriptions from your winning angles, tests each against the current best with a fixed split, and retires the losers once there is enough data.
Writes new responsive search ad headlines and descriptions from your winning angles, tests each against the current best with a fixed split, and retires the losers once there is enough data. It runs the test with a fair split and waits for enough data before it calls a winner. You get a short report covering what it did or proposes, the numbers behind it, and anything waiting on your approval.
