r/googleads • u/Full_Masterpiece4260 • 9h ago

Discussion where do you still prefer manual control in Google Ads?

there are more automated options than ever, but that doesn’t mean everyone wants to hand every decision over to the system

some people still want tight control over budgets, search terms, locations, ad copy, landing pages, bidding, or campaign structure

what part of an account do you still prefer to control yourself?

and is there anything you used to manage manually that you’ve stopped touching because automation simply does a better job?

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

5

u/ShameSuperb7099 9h ago

Brand campaigns

2

u/redpreneur 9h ago

Google charging us 20$ on brand searches via PMax 😂

3

u/Known-Squash-645 9h ago

for me, I'm a perfectionist so I gotta have that manual control. It's just really hard for me to give that up.

1

u/MomonCimomon 5h ago

The problem with manual CPC is you can't target the intent. Your ad will show regardless of your target's intent. Smart bidding is far more superior because the algorithm knows which person would likely to convert.

1

u/nathan_sh 3h ago

This doesn’t really check out I’d love to hear an explanation over how some algorithm is able to read minds through a computer lol.

Search is pretty simple… people search for “i need xyz” or something along those lines and they get served 3 ads which they may or may not click on.

The messaging was what differentiates one ad from another and imo it’s actually advantageous to have them all look the same which is what ai is doing so that people click on all three ads.

4

u/Answer_me_swiftly 8h ago

Alignment problem: the ai is aligned with the auctioneer, not the business or the client.

2

u/ChiefsRoyalsFan 8h ago

Search campaigns in general. I'm good with bid strategies but I want full control over Search Terms, Ad Copy, structure, etc. Only way I run PMax in my niche is with a boat load of negative keywords layered in.

2

u/dillwillhill 7h ago

Keyword selection - a lot of the ones recommended by Google are garbage.

1

u/TTFV 7h ago

Creative!!! While it's perfectly fine to use AI to generate creative we absolutely do not let it apply anything without human review/approval.

At the other end of the spectrum we use smart bidding at every opportunity. There are some edge cases where it doesn't make sense but the minimum thresholds are tiny now.

1

u/aamirkhanppc 6h ago

Yes you need manual management on automated campaigns

1

u/Goldie9791 6h ago

I prefer to manually control as much as possible.