4 Google Ads features you shouldn’t blindly trust

Auto-apply recommendations, Display Network expansion, Search Partners, and budget recommendations are all settings that deserve close attention. Before making changes, it’s important to evaluate whether they align with your campaign goals and overall strategy.

Google Ads is constantly evolving, and testing new features is an essential part of every PPC specialist’s work. Below are four key settings and recommendations that should be carefully reviewed before enabling them.

Auto-apply recommendations

Shortly after introducing the Recommendations tab, Google launched the Auto-apply feature, which allows the platform to automatically implement selected optimization recommendations.

It’s important to distinguish between these two features. The Recommendations tab provides optimization suggestions for all Google Ads accounts by default. Auto-apply, on the other hand, is a separate setting that authorizes Google to automatically apply selected recommendations without manual approval.

These recommendations range from relatively safe optimizations, such as “Use optimized ad rotation,” to more significant changes, including “Improve Responsive Search Ads” (automatically generating headlines and descriptions) and “Enable Display Expansion.”

Auto-apply should only be enabled for recommendation types that fully align with your advertising strategy and brand guidelines. For example:

• Regulated industries: Businesses operating in regulated sectors require strict control over ad copy and creative assets. Automatically generated advertising content may not comply with legal or internal brand requirements.
• Target CPA / Target ROAS: Recommendations such as “Set a Target CPA” or “Set a Target ROAS” should only be auto-applied if you are comfortable allowing Google’s algorithms to determine these bidding targets.

Although Google actively promotes the Auto-apply feature, these recommendations are not universally suitable for every advertiser. Enable them only when they are fully aligned with your business objectives, campaign strategy, and internal requirements.

Display expansion

Google Search and the Google Display Network (GDN) serve fundamentally different purposes and engage users in different ways:

• Search advertising follows a pull marketing approach. It responds to existing user intent by showing ads to people who are actively searching for a specific product or service.
• Display advertising follows a push marketing approach. It captures users’ attention while they browse content, helping build brand awareness and encouraging future engagement or conversions.

Because of these differences, the tactical approach and key performance indicators (KPIs) for each channel vary significantly:

• Search campaigns typically deliver higher click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates because they target users with clear purchase intent.
• Display campaigns generally have lower CTRs and conversion rates, as they reach users who are not actively searching at the time the ad is shown. However, the Display Network offers significantly greater reach and impressions, often at a lower cost per click (CPC) due to the large inventory of available ad placements.

As a result, while enabling Display Expansion may increase overall traffic, combining Search and Display inventory within the same campaign (with the exception of Performance Max campaigns) is generally not recommended. Mixing these two channels can distort campaign reporting and make overall performance metrics appear weaker, making it more difficult to evaluate results accurately.

Network settings

Network selection requires particular attention, especially for Demand Gen campaigns.

In Demand Gen campaigns, network settings are configured at the ad group level, not the campaign level. To maintain better budget control and traffic quality, it is recommended to:

• Enable only the networks that align with your campaign objectives.
• Use network-level segmentation to evaluate the performance of each placement individually.

Google may recommend expanding your campaign to additional networks in order to increase reach. However, in practice, broader distribution can lead to lower-quality traffic and a higher cost per acquisition (CPA). Before enabling additional inventory, carefully assess whether the expected increase in reach justifies the potential impact on campaign performance.

Google Search Partners

Google frequently recommends enabling Search Partners to expand campaign reach. However, their performance should be evaluated separately from Google Search by using the “Network (with Search Partners)” segment in Google Ads.

If Search Partners fail to meet your target conversion rate or cost-per-acquisition (CPA) goals, it is generally advisable to disable them—unless maximizing reach is a higher priority than maintaining efficiency.

Budget recommendations

Google’s automated recommendations—and suggestions from Google representatives—to increase conversions or expand reach often require a significant increase in advertising spend. However, these recommendations are not always economically justified.

Before increasing your campaign budget, consider the following:

• Cost vs. expected results. A projected increase in conversions may require a disproportionate increase in ad spend. For example, doubling your daily budget may result in only a few additional conversions per week.
• Budget changes are not automatically reversed. Once a budget has been increased, Google Ads will not reduce it automatically. Any budget adjustment should be closely monitored, and if the expected performance improvements are not achieved, the budget should be reverted to its previous level.

Conclusion

Carefully reviewing Auto-apply recommendations, Display Expansion, network settings, and budget recommendations can help advertisers avoid unnecessary spending and ensure that Google Ads campaigns remain aligned with their business objectives.

While Google’s recommendations can be valuable, they should not be implemented automatically. Every account has unique goals, budgets, and performance targets, making it essential to evaluate each recommendation before applying it.

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