Google Ads Beta Explains Mysterious New Keywords Added

Overspending mysterious keywords. Last week I saw one of my client’s budget was overspending. Digging into the offending campaign, I found keywords that I never saw before. There was no record of these keywords even being added (in the change history), but here they were overspending by 50% of my target budget.

A Beta that “changes everything.” Upset and confused, I called Google’s support for an answer. After a long conversation, they gave me a URL to access my agency’s “Auto Applied Recommendations Control Center” – a Beta that seems to give Google permission to automatically make changes to 33 different parts of an account.

The URL Google provided me took me to “Auto Applied Recommendations Control Center:”

The FAQ explains the different changes that can be made automatically:

You can choose to “Customize” and select from the available options:

(image edited only to fit all items on one screen)

My client had “Maximize impact” selected and he was automatically opted into all the options:

(Bottom section didn’t fit screen, but all options seen under “Customize” (above) were selected)

Changes are currently hidden from Google Ads Interface. Per the FAQ section, you cannot see any changes in the Google Ads account – it will not show up in the change history – so you would need to log into the Control Center to see what changes are being made:

Are you or your clients opted in? The last column of the dashboard in this beta is called “Activation History.” This is where I found out that my client activated this Beta before they engaged our services (his email-user set the status to “active”). I called the client to ask how and why he did it. He said that a Google Rep called him, and for over an hour advised him to click on and change many settings. He said he did not understand the implications of this Beta, nor does he remember specifically opting into it.

Biggest risk for agencies. As an agency offering Google Ads services, we are accountable for our client’s results. But if you do not know about this Beta, and new or existing clients are Active in this Beta, it will be very difficult to be successful.
In my case, Google added the keyword “+taxes com” in my campaign for “tax preparation.” Since every keyword I added contains the root words “tax” and “preparation,” this keyword stuck out quickly. We don’t have a process for checking all our client campaigns for randomly added keywords, so unfortunately this keyword had to overspend before it got caught.

Check your account today: https://partnerdash.google.com/apps/auto-applied-recommendations/home

What do you think about this Beta?

(Please share this post so others can know about the Beta and check their Google Ads accounts as well)