Save costs, boost conversions, and keep your team accountable—even when automated bidding is in play.

1. Account Structure

• Still check campaigns are logically organized. Automation can optimize bids, but it can’t fix messy naming or poor grouping.

2. Conversion Tracking

• Critical. Automation only works if it has accurate data. Missing or misconfigured conversions = wasted spend.

3. Goals Alignment

• Make sure campaigns reflect your current business priorities, not just “maximize clicks” or AI defaults.

4. Budget Allocation

• AI can shift spend automatically, but you decide total budgets and caps. Watch for overspending on low-value campaigns.

5. Bidding Strategy

• Automated bids (Max Conversions, Target ROAS, etc.) limit manual bid tweaks.
• Focus on conversion value, CPA/ROAS, and overall efficiency, rather than tweaking bids keyword by keyword.

6. Keywords & Search Terms

• For Search campaigns: review search term reports to spot irrelevant queries.
• For fully automated campaigns (like PMax), you can’t target individual keywords—but you can still exclude irrelevant searches and provide negative keywords.

7. Audience Targeting

• Automation may layer audiences dynamically. Still check performance by segments (remarketing, demographics, geos) to ensure it aligns with business goals.

8. Ad Copy & Creatives

• AI may rotate responsive ads automatically.
• You still control assets—make sure messaging resonates with your audience and refresh creative regularly.

9. Landing Page Alignment

• AI can send traffic wherever, but it cannot fix a poor landing page. Always ensure pages match ad intent and convert well.

10. Quality Score & CTR

• Automated bidding can sometimes hide CTR issues. Check low-performing creatives or audiences manually, and ensure relevance is high.

11. Device & Geo Performance

• Some automation will adjust bids per device/location automatically.
• You can still monitor performance and set bid adjustments if allowed or pause non-performing geos/devices.

12. Dayparting & Scheduling

• AI may choose timing automatically. You can analyze peak hours and ensure campaigns aren’t wasting spend at low-converting times.

13. Competitor & Market Insights

• Automation can’t analyze your market strategically. Keep an eye on impression share, competitor ads, and seasonal trends yourself.

14. Automation & AI Tools

• Use AI—but monitor it. Check learning phases, performance trends, and asset effectiveness. Question anything you don’t understand.

15. ROAS & CPA Analysis

• Metrics are still actionable, even with automated bidding.
• Flag campaigns consistently underperforming targets—AI may take time to adjust, but humans must intervene if trends persist.

16. Reporting & Attribution

• Automated campaigns can confuse attribution. Ensure reports accurately measure value and conversions across channels.

17. Account Hygiene

• Automation doesn’t clean up unused campaigns, ads, or outdated assets. Maintain a tidy account to avoid unnecessary complexity.

18. Testing & Experimentation

• A/B testing may be partially automated.
• Ensure tests are intentional and monitored, and that learnings are applied.

19. Team Accountability

• Automation doesn’t replace human responsibility. Require explanations for major strategy decisions, asset changes, and performance dips.

20. Trust but Verify

• AI is a tool, not a replacement for oversight. Watch results, question unusual trends, and ensure campaigns reflect your business priorities.

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The key distinction: automation changes how you act, not what you review. Clients should focus on conversion data, spend efficiency, asset quality, and alignment with goals, while leaving low-level bid tweaks to AI.