Running display ads as a coach usually means one of two bad options: pay a designer for every size, or hand the platform one image and let it crop your face in half. The blank canvas problem is even worse than with text, because now you also have to think about layout, hierarchy, and five different aspect ratios.
This prompt fixes that. It turns the work of making display ads for coaches into a single brief: you give the AI your offer, your reader, and your brand colors, and it returns a unified visual concept plus a ready-to-paste image-generation prompt for every standard Google banner size. By the end of this page you’ll also understand why it works, so your next ad set is sharper than your last.
When to use this
- You’re about to launch a Google Display campaign and need creative in all the standard sizes.
- You want a consistent look across the medium rectangle, leaderboard, and skyscraper instead of three ads that don’t match.
- You’re testing a new offer and want banner variations fast and cheap.
- You don’t have a designer on call but you do have a clear offer and brand colors.
The prompt
Copy this whole block into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini:
You are an expert performance-marketing art director who designs Google Display Network banner ads for coaches and solo service businesses. Your job is to design a complete, on-brand banner ad set and write the image-generation prompts that produce it.
Before designing, ask me up to 3 clarifying questions if anything below is unclear (for example, do I have a logo file, a headshot, or a hard compliance rule). Otherwise, proceed.
CONTEXT
- Brand / coach name: {{COACH_NAME_OR_BRAND}}
- My niche: {{NICHE}}
- Who the ad is for: {{IDEAL_READER}}
- What I'm advertising: {{OFFER}}
- Button (CTA) text: {{CTA}}
- Brand colors: {{BRAND_COLORS}}
- Tone and visual vibe: {{TONE_AND_VIBE}}
TASK
1. Propose ONE headline (max 6 words) and ONE supporting line (max 10 words) that speak directly to my ideal reader's situation, plus the CTA button text.
2. Describe the single visual concept that ties the whole set together (layout, focal element, color use, mood). Keep it simple enough to read at a glance.
3. Produce a ready-to-paste IMAGE-GENERATION PROMPT for each of these 5 standard Google Display sizes, with the exact pixel dimensions stated and the layout adapted to each shape:
- Medium Rectangle 300x250
- Leaderboard 728x90
- Large Rectangle 336x280
- Wide Skyscraper 160x600
- Mobile Leaderboard 320x100
CONSTRAINTS
- Every banner must contain: the headline, the CTA button, and the brand/coach name. The supporting line is optional on the narrow sizes if space is tight.
- Use only my brand colors. State the hex codes in each prompt.
- Keep text minimal and legible; the headline must be readable at a glance on mobile.
- Flat, modern, uncluttered design. No fake testimonials, no invented statistics, no cluttered stock-photo collages.
- Each image prompt must explicitly include: the pixel dimensions, the layout, the exact text to render, the colors (hex), and the style.
OUTPUT FORMAT
- First: Headline, Supporting line, CTA (3 short lines).
- Then: Visual concept (2-3 sentences).
- Then: a numbered list of the 5 image-generation prompts, each labeled with its size and dimensions.
- Finally: 2 alternative headlines I could A/B test.
How to customize it
Replace the seven {{VARIABLES}} before you send it:
| Variable | What to put | Example |
|---|---|---|
{{COACH_NAME_OR_BRAND}} |
Your name or business name | Maya Reyes Coaching |
{{NICHE}} |
Your specific coaching niche | career coaching for women returning to work after maternity leave |
{{IDEAL_READER}} |
The person who will see the ad | moms ready to return to a senior role but worried they’ve fallen behind |
{{OFFER}} |
The exact thing you’re advertising | a free 30-minute ‘return-to-work roadmap’ call |
{{CTA}} |
The button text | Book my free call |
{{BRAND_COLORS}} |
Your colors, ideally with hex codes | deep teal #0B5563, warm cream #F4EDE2, coral accent #E8674A |
{{TONE_AND_VIBE}} |
The look and feel | calm, confident, modern, lots of white space, no stock-photo cheese |
See it in action (full example)
Here is the exact prompt, filled in for a career coach. This is the whole input, nothing hidden:
You are an expert performance-marketing art director who designs Google Display Network banner ads for coaches and solo service businesses. Your job is to design a complete, on-brand banner ad set and write the image-generation prompts that produce it.
Before designing, ask me up to 3 clarifying questions if anything below is unclear (for example, do I have a logo file, a headshot, or a hard compliance rule). Otherwise, proceed.
CONTEXT
- Brand / coach name: Maya Reyes Coaching
- My niche: career coaching for women returning to work after maternity leave
- Who the ad is for: moms ready to return to a senior role but worried they've fallen behind
- What I'm advertising: a free 30-minute 'return-to-work roadmap' call
- Button (CTA) text: Book my free call
- Brand colors: deep teal #0B5563, warm cream #F4EDE2, coral accent #E8674A
- Tone and visual vibe: calm, confident, modern, lots of white space, no stock-photo cheese
TASK
1. Propose ONE headline... [rest of the prompt unchanged]
And here is the complete output the model returns:
A couple of quick questions before I design this: 1. Do you have a logo file and a headshot you want included, or should I keep the set type-only? 2. Is there any compliance line your industry requires on ads (some career-services niches do)? 3. Should the CTA button be the coral accent, or do you prefer it in teal?
(Assuming type-led with optional headshot space, no compliance line, and a coral CTA button, here’s the set.)
Headline: You’re not behind. You’re ready. Supporting line: Career coaching for moms returning to senior roles. CTA: Book my free call
Visual concept: A calm, type-led design on a warm cream (#F4EDE2) background with generous white space. The headline sits in deep teal (#0B5563), with a single coral (#E8674A) rounded CTA button as the only bright accent so the eye lands on it. A thin coral underline beneath the keyword “ready” adds warmth without clutter. The brand name sits small and confident in a corner. Same elements, re-stacked per shape.
Image-generation prompts:
Medium Rectangle (300×250 px): Flat, modern banner ad, 300×250 pixels. Background warm cream #F4EDE2. Headline top-left in two lines, deep teal #0B5563, bold sans-serif: “You’re not behind. You’re ready.” Below it a smaller supporting line in teal: “Career coaching for moms returning to senior roles.” Bottom-left a coral #E8674A rounded button with white text “Book my free call”. Small “Maya Reyes Coaching” wordmark in teal, bottom-right. Lots of white space, uncluttered, crisp legible type. No photos, no clutter.
Leaderboard (728×90 px): Flat, modern horizontal banner, 728×90 pixels. Background warm cream #F4EDE2. Left side: headline in one line, deep teal #0B5563, bold sans-serif: “You’re not behind. You’re ready.” Center: small teal supporting line “Returning to a senior role after maternity leave?”. Right side: coral #E8674A rounded button, white text “Book my free call”. “Maya Reyes Coaching” wordmark small in teal, far left above headline. Generous spacing, legible at a glance.
Large Rectangle (336×280 px): Flat, modern banner ad, 336×280 pixels. Background warm cream #F4EDE2. Headline centered near top, deep teal #0B5563, bold sans-serif, two lines: “You’re not behind. You’re ready.” with a thin coral #E8674A underline under “ready”. Supporting line in smaller teal text below. Coral #E8674A rounded button with white text “Book my free call” centered in the lower third. “Maya Reyes Coaching” wordmark small in teal at the very bottom. Clean, calm, lots of white space.
Wide Skyscraper (160×600 px): Flat, modern vertical banner, 160×600 pixels. Background warm cream #F4EDE2. Top: “Maya Reyes Coaching” wordmark small in deep teal #0B5563. Middle: stacked headline in deep teal bold sans-serif: “You’re not behind. You’re ready.” Below it the supporting line in smaller teal text. Bottom third: full-width coral #E8674A rounded button, white text “Book my free call”. Vertical layout, generous spacing, legible, no clutter.
Mobile Leaderboard (320×100 px): Flat, modern compact banner, 320×100 pixels. Background warm cream #F4EDE2. Left two-thirds: headline in deep teal #0B5563, bold sans-serif, two short lines: “You’re not behind. You’re ready.” Tiny “Maya Reyes Coaching” wordmark in teal above it. Right third: coral #E8674A rounded button, white text “Book my free call”. No supporting line (space is tight). Big, legible headline readable at a glance on a phone.
2 alternative headlines to A/B test: 1. “Ready to go back? Let’s plan it.” 2. “Your career didn’t pause. Neither did you.”
Paste each numbered prompt into your image generator, drop in your logo if you have one, and you have a full, matching ad set in minutes.
Why this works
Four LLM principles are doing the heavy lifting here. Learn them and every prompt you write gets better:
- Role priming. The opening line (“You are an expert performance-marketing art director”) tells the model which slice of its knowledge to use. “Make me a banner” pulls from the bland average of the internet; an art-director role pulls from how real display ads are built: one message, one focal point, a button that stands out. Always assign a role.
- Specificity in, specificity out. The output can only be as specific as your brief. Naming the exact reader (“moms returning to senior roles”), the exact offer, and hex color codes is what produces a headline and a layout that actually fit, instead of generic “transform your life” filler. Vague colors like “blue and white” give vague results;
#0B5563gives a consistent set. - Constraints are quality control. The rules aren’t decoration. “Headline max 6 words,” “use only my brand colors,” “no fake testimonials,” and “each prompt must include pixel dimensions, layout, text, colors, and style” each remove a common failure mode. Telling the model what NOT to do (no cluttered stock-photo collages) is as powerful as telling it what to do, and it’s what keeps five separate image prompts looking like one campaign.
- Clarifying questions beat guessing. The “ask me up to 3 clarifying questions first” line lets the model surface the things that actually break ad sets, a missing logo, a compliance rule, button color, before it commits. That single instruction is the biggest fix for generic AI output, because it forces the gaps to be filled by you rather than invented.
Do this now
- Copy the prompt above into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.
- Replace the seven variables with your real brand, niche, reader, offer, CTA, colors, and vibe.
- Answer its clarifying questions honestly, especially the logo and color ones.
- Paste each of the 5 image prompts into your image generator, then upload the results to Google Ads. Done beats perfect.
Pro tips
- Always give hex codes, not color names. “Teal” is a hundred different colors;
#0B5563is one. Hex codes are the single biggest lever for a consistent set. - Keep the headline under 6 words. Display ads are seen in a fraction of a second. If you can’t read it at arm’s length on your phone, it’s too long.
- Generate, then check legibility at actual size. Shrink each banner to its real pixel dimensions before approving it. Text that looks fine zoomed in often turns to mush at 320×100.
- Run the prompt twice with two different headlines. Take the alternative headlines it offers, generate a second set, and let Google’s testing pick the winner.
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