Video Transcript
Most people think Google’s recommendations inside your Ads account are a quick way to improve results.
You know the ones I’m talking about — the “Recommendations” tab and it’s full of prompts like “Raise your budgets,” “Switch to Smart Bidding,” or “Add broad match keywords.”
At first glance, they make it look like you’re only one click away from more conversions, more sales and more growth.
But here’s the thing. Those recommendations aren’t really there for your benefit. They’re there for Google’s benefit.
They put a percentage on it so it looks like you could get a higher score but if you just hide them you’ll see the percentage go up anyway.
Now if that was a true indicator you’d get a better performance the percentage wouldn’t go up.
See, Google’s number one customer is… Google. And a lot of the time these automated suggestions are nudging you towards spending more money and not necessarily making more money.
So, let’s break it down and show you the most common types of recommendations Google pushes, why they can backfire if you just accept them blindly, and then give you a simple framework for which ones are actually worth testing.
The Most Common Types of Google Recommendations
First up, budget and bidding.
You’ll often see “Your campaign is limited by budget — raise it to capture more traffic.” Or, “Switch to Maximize Conversions.”
Sounds harmless enough, right? But after testing we’ve found that blindly following them usually means spending a lot more money without the same increase in revenue
and the majority of time the ridiculous recommended increase will usually be way over the safe 15 – 20% mark and just slam your campaign right into a learning phase which then just gives Google free reign to spend your budget faster than a speeding ferrari.
Then there’s keywords. Google loves recommending broad match keywords.
What They’ll tell you is to “expand your reach” by adding these broad versions of your keywords.
Now, broad match does have a place as a few of my other videos will show you. Ill link to em in the description.
when they’re paired with strong Smart Bidding and a good negative keyword strategies.
But if you just switch everything to broad because Google says so, you’ll quickly be paying for loads of irrelevant traffic.
Next up, you’ve got ads and assets. Things like “Improve your Performance Max asset groups
” or “Improve ad strength.”
Now some of these can be useful reminders, like making sure you’re using sitelinks or callouts or making sure your copy and assets are on point. What im saying is don’t just let Google do it. If you see these recommendations go and take a look yourself.
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The big danger is Google’s auto-generated ads. By blindly accepting they’ll create new ad copy for you, and if you’re not checking, those ads can go live automatically after 14 days. And let me tell you — most of the time they’re not great. Generic, off-brand, sometimes even awkward.
Finally, audience and targeting expansion. You might see “Add search partners” or “Expand your audience.” Again, this often just means spending money on lower-quality traffic.
Again the key here is automation don’t just blindly accept as it hands over the reigns to google to just try whatever they like. Instead
Have a look yourself. Are there any audiences you think might be a good fit? Are there any audiences you can bring to the table from your site data that are now large enough to qualify?
Now don’t get me wrong — not every recommendation is bad. Some of the “repair” ones like fixing tracking, disapproved ads, or completing verification are for obvious reasons actually very helpful.
But the big takeaway is this: not all recommendations are created equal and don’t just blindly follow what Google says as at the end of the day they’re a money making machine first and a helpful advertiser second.
[Midway Sales Pitch]
I’m Mark Farrell, the owner of Rocket Reach PPC.
If you’re running Google Ads in the home and garden space and aren’t happy with the results you’re getting, then let me take a proper look.
All you’ve got to do is go to www.rocketreachppc.com, click the button, fill in a few simple details, and request a free PPC audit today.
I’ll personally look over your account and fire over a no-nonsense video that shows all of the changes you need to be making to get better results quickly.
No hard sell.
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Just great advice.
If after receiving the video you want an expert to work on your account to save you the time, then give me a shout.
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Head over to www.rocketreachppc.com now and request your completely free audit today.
Why Blindly Following Google Backfires
So let’s get into why blindly following these recommendations can be dangerous if you just hit “apply.”
Overspending: Increasing budgets or loosening CPA/ROAS targets nearly always benefits Google more than you. You might see more conversions, but at a much worse cost per conversion until Google sorts itself out so it depends on whether you can soak that up or not..
Irrelevant traffic: Broad match is infamous for pulling in clicks that have nothing to do with your actual offer or product. You’ll burn cash quickly if you don’t control it.
Yes it has got better at recognising intent but overall unless your watching your ads like a hawk you’ll get lots of traffic you dont want.
Ad quality: Auto-generated ads usually underperform compared to ads you write yourself. Why? Because nobody knows your business better than you or at least a human. They’ll give it their best shot and sometimes it might come off but is it worth the risk.
Loss of control: The scariest one for me is auto-apply. If you allow Google to automatically apply recommendations, you’re basically giving Google free rein to change your campaigns without asking and I’ve seen accounts wrecked overnight by this as Google will experiment if given the chance.
Again I want to point out that it has got miles better but I’d always recommend keeping Google on a tight leash unless your running PMAX or Demand Gen campaigns in which case that’s why you’re using em..
How to Approach Recommendations the Smart Way
So if you shouldn’t just accept them blindly, what should you do instead?
Number one — pause and check if it aligns with your KPIs. If your main goals profitability, does this recommendation actually support that? Or is it just chasing clicks and more ad spend?
Number two — worst case “test it” in a controlled way. If Google suggests a new bid strategy, run an experiment with 50% of the traffic instead of rolling it out everywhere.
Number three — focus on the “hygiene” fixes first. Things like fixing disapproved ads, adding sitelinks, removing conflicting negatives. These carry little risk and are often worth doing.
Number four — turn off auto-apply. Always review changes yourself before they go live.
And number five — treat recommendations as ideas and not orders. Think of them as a checklist to review, not a playbook to blindly follow.
Wrap Up
So, here’s the bottom line: Google’s recommendations can be useful as a conversation starter, but they’re not gospel. If you follow them all blindly, you risk overspending, pulling in low-quality traffic, and losing control of your campaigns.
Use them wisely, test carefully, and remember — you know your business better than Google’s AI ever will.
That’s it from me.
Hope you’ve found this video useful. If you have, give it a like and subscribe — it really helps me out.
Cheers for watching, and I’ll see you next time.
