Always remember: automation doesn’t replace strategy. It amplifies it — for better or worse.
Too many accounts I audit look like this: PMax and Smart Bidding everywhere, zero strategy behind it. No clear objectives, no structure, no well-defined targets, no profit tracking, no guardrails, no clue. Just Google “optimizing” itself into your client’s wallet.
Think of Smart Bidding like a self-driving car: great at following a route, terrible at picking destinations. If you don’t set the destination, Google will — and it always leads to Mountain View. If you don’t define what “good” looks like (e.g., profit, ROAS, CPA, new customers), Google will define it for you -> it optimizes for spend, not success.
So before you turn on PMax / smart bidding, ask yourself:
1. What is the machine optimizing towards?
* Have you translated business objectives into the right Google Ads goals?
2. Does the machine get the right input?
* Are you tracking the thing you want to optimize for? (e.g., profit, new customers)
* Are you feeding the machine the right data? (product data, audience data, creatives)
3. What do you do when the machine gets it wrong?
* Too much wasted spend in the learning phase? (how to prevent/anticipate)
* Campaign not meeting its target? (how to fix beyond simply editing the tROAS/tCPA setting)
Implement your strategy first. Build scripts or automated rules to monitor if the machine starts drifting off-course. Guide it — don’t blindly trust it.
Otherwise, automation won’t save you time. It’ll just make your mistakes happen faster.
– Nils
PS: Here’s a link to my SMX Advanced session that presents some ideas and scripts related to the above.