The digital landscape evolves rapidly, and the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) exemplifies this constant change. Global occurrences, trending topics on social media, and even celebrity news cycles can significantly influence search patterns, directly affecting the effectiveness of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns.

It’s remarkable how quickly the top searches from just last year now seem irrelevant! Despite the SERP’s dynamic nature, expecting even the most dedicated PPC expert to monitor campaigns continuously is unrealistic. So, how can you ensure your ads stay current, even when you’re not working?

Fortunately, Google Ads offers automated rules that empower PPC managers to monitor, modify, and optimize their accounts proactively. With careful planning and strategic foresight, these rules become a potent asset in your PPC arsenal.

Demystifying Google Ads Automated Rules

Automated rules grant advertisers the ability to schedule changes within their Google Ads accounts. The beauty of these rules lies in their remarkable flexibility. Whether it’s a single adjustment or thousands, scheduled to run once or multiple times daily, the possibilities are vast. From significant actions like pausing all campaigns to sending you campaign performance emails upon your return from a vacation, the level of granularity is impressive. Microsoft Advertising also provides similar automated rules to complement Google’s automated rules. Alternatively, advertisers can sync their Microsoft Advertising campaigns with Google Ads by automatically importing changes, ensuring consistency and up-to-date campaigns across both platforms.

Creating an Automated Rule in Google Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide

Within Google Ads, navigate to the “Tools and settings” menu and select “Rules” under “Bulk Actions” to create automated rules.

This section empowers you to create automated rules for various elements of your account: campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads themselves, asset groups, target audiences, demographic targeting parameters, and even display placements. Alternatively, while browsing these elements, you can create an automated rule directly from the element’s view by clicking the three dots icon labeled “More” on the right. Selecting “Create an automated rule” opens the framework to automate the element you are currently viewing.

Each automated rule in Google Ads consists of five core elements that allow you to tailor the automation to your specific requirements.

1. Action: This defines the modification you want Google to implement in your account. Whether big or small, you’re in control. Examples of automated actions include:

• Activating campaigns or ads
• Pausing campaigns or ads
• Modifying Budgets
• Adjusting Bids
• Altering Bid Adjustments
• Updating Final URLs
• Changing Labels
• Triggering Email Notifications 2. Apply to: This specifies the scope of the action. Will it apply universally across your entire account (e.g., all campaigns, ads, keywords), or will it be applied to a specific selection of campaigns, ads, or keywords? 3. Conditions: Here, you can define additional prerequisites that Google must verify before executing the action. These conditions encompass various performance metrics like clicks, cost, conversions, CPA, and other viewable attributes within Google Ads. 4. Frequency: This dictates how often Google will evaluate the condition and potentially execute the action. You can schedule rules to run:
• Once, at a predefined future time
• Hourly
• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly When setting the frequency, you also define the timeframe Google should consider when assessing the condition. This could involve reviewing data from earlier that day, month, or even year. 5. Email results: Lastly, you have the option to receive email notifications, sent to you, a colleague, or your client. These notifications can be configured to send every time the rule runs or only when it triggers an action.

Navigating Google Ads Automated Rules: Best Practices

The idea of relinquishing control and allowing Google to autonomously make changes to your account can be daunting. Without proper understanding and guidance, particularly for those starting out, automated rules can quickly turn from helpful assistants to detrimental saboteurs. 1. Articulate Your Rules Aloud The setup process for automated rules can seem technical—because it is! Remember, programmers, not marketers, designed the language of automated rules in Google Ads. To avoid misinterpretations, it’s always a good practice to verbalize what you’re instructing Google to do. Use this sentence structure: “At **[frequency],** verify if [conditions] are met based on data from [date range specified in frequency]. If these conditions hold true, then [perform action] on [apply to groups]. While this might sound technical in isolation, consider a real-world rule: At 3 p.m. every day, check if these campaigns have spent $5,000 so far this month. If this is the case, then pause these selected campaigns. 2. Preview Before Implementing Google provides a “preview” function before you save your rule. This feature allows Google to test your conditions and illustrate what would happen if the rule were to run at that moment. Rest assured, Google doesn’t implement these changes during the preview; it’s simply a safe way to assess the potential impact of your new rule.

3. Exercise Caution with Frequency A frequent pitfall is setting rules to run too often or using data that doesn’t align with the rule’s frequency. For instance, an hourly rule referencing data from the previous day will either execute 0 or 24 times, never just once. While your rule may only increase your budget by $100, this seemingly minor error could lead to a $2,400 increase by day’s end! 4. Start Small, Scale Gradually While fortune might favor the bold, it’s best not to automate your boldness in this context. Small changes accumulate quickly, and you wouldn’t want an erratic automated rule depleting your annual budget over a weekend or drastically altering your campaigns without your supervision. Start by instructing Google to make minor adjustments, around 5% to 10% of a value per execution. Once you’re confident that the automated rules are functioning correctly and positively impacting performance, you can gradually grant them more autonomy to make substantial changes.

22 Essential Google Ads Automated Rules Every Advertiser Should Know

Automated rules possess incredible potential to simplify the management of your Google Ads account. With careful planning, they can handle various manual tasks, allowing you to concentrate on other priorities during peak periods or simply unwind during your downtime. Here’s a selection of frequently used examples:

Simplifying Campaign Management with Google Automated Rules

These automated rules can alleviate the burden of managing your Google Ads campaigns.

1. Pausing Campaigns During Holidays

If your business observes holidays, use this rule to preemptively pause your campaigns, providing peace of mind before your time off.

• Rule type: Campaign
• Action: Pause campaigns
• Apply to: All campaigns
• Conditions: Campaign status: All enabled
• Frequency: Once, at the close of business on the day before the holiday closure.

2. Resuming Campaigns Post-Holiday

This rule acts as a counterpart to the previous one, ensuring your campaigns resume as your team returns to work. Set this up in conjunction with your campaign pausing rule.

• Rule type: Campaign
• Action: Enable campaigns
• Apply to: Selected campaigns (all currently active campaigns)
• Conditions: None
• Frequency: Once, at the start of the business day following the holiday.

3. Launching New Ads for Promotions or Sales

Ensure your new ads go live precisely when a sale or significant event begins, eliminating the need for last-minute updates. Using labels for ads associated with specific sales or promotions can streamline the automation. Also, consider scheduling a corresponding rule to reactivate your regular ads after the promotional period.

• Rule type: Ads
• Action: Enable ads
• Apply to: All ads (or manually chosen ads)
• Conditions: Ad text includes [your ads’ specific offer]
• Frequency: Once, at the precise moment your promotion commences.

4. Pausing Ads After a Sale

This rule works in tandem with the previous one, pausing your regular ads during the promotional period and then deactivating the sale-specific ads afterward.

• Rule type: Ads
• Action: Pause ads
• Apply to: All ads (or manually chosen ads)
• Conditions: Ad text includes [your ads’ specific offer]
• Frequency: Once, at the designated end time of your promotion.

5. Tailoring Ads for Nighttime Audiences

Messages like “24/7 availability” or “Open late” resonate differently with audiences at night. Similarly, if your team is unavailable after hours, a softer call to action, perhaps guiding users to a contact form, can be more effective.

• Rule type: Ads
• Action: Enable ads
• Apply to: All ads (or manually chosen ads)
• Conditions: Ad text includes [your ads’ designated late-night messaging]
• Frequency: Daily, at 5 p.m. This rule, like many others, is best implemented with three counterpart rules: one to pause your “daytime” ads at 5 p.m., another to reactivate them at 9 a.m., and a final one to pause your “nighttime” ads at 9 a.m.

An example of a search ad that might benefit from this rule, as the business closes at 5 p.m.

6. Implementing Weekend-Specific Ads

If you offer special weekend rates or operate while competitors are closed, highlighting these points can be effective for weekend searchers. Remember to pair this rule with corresponding rules to pause these ads on Monday, reactivate your weekday ads on Monday, and pause your standard weekday ads on Friday.

• Rule type: Ads
• Action: Enable ads
• Apply to: All ads (or manually chosen ads)
• Conditions: Ad text includes [your ads’ designated weekend messaging]
• Frequency: Weekly, Saturday at 12 a.m. 7. Updating Your Landing Page URL When introducing a new landing page for your ads, this rule eliminates the need for late-night updates to your keyword’s final URL.
• Rule type: Ads
• Action: Modify keyword final URLs
• Apply to: All ads (or manually chosen ads)
• Conditions: None
• Frequency: Once, at a designated time It’s well-documented that utilizing a greater number of landing pages generates more leads. Therefore, this Google Ads automated rule proves valuable as you develop landing pages tailored for specific PPC keywords.

Simplifying Budget Management with Automated Rules

These Google Ads automated rules can make budget management significantly less tedious.

8. Preventing Campaign Overspending

Google Ads has a tendency to spend up to double your set daily campaign budget. This rule allows you to regain control and restrict Google’s spending to a predetermined amount per day.

• Rule type: Campaigns
• Action: Pause campaign
• Apply to: Chosen campaigns
• Conditions: Spend exceeds $[your daily budget]
• Frequency: Hourly, using data from the same day.

9. Reactivating Campaigns After Budget Resets

This rule complements the previous one, reactivating campaigns that were paused due to reaching their daily budget limit.

• Rule type: Campaigns
• Action: Enable campaign
• Apply to: Chosen campaigns
• Conditions: Spend exceeds $[your daily budget]
• Frequency: Daily at 12 a.m., using data from the previous day.

10. Maintaining Consistent Monthly Budgets

It’s a minor annoyance, but experienced marketers know that setting a monthly budget doesn’t translate neatly into a daily budget when accounting for months with 28, 30, or 31 days. Manually recalculating budgets each month is cumbersome, especially with other priorities demanding attention. These 10 rules can eliminate a year’s worth of manual budget adjustments.

• Rule type: Campaigns
• Action: Modify budgets Create a separate rule for each date, set to run once at 12 a.m. on that date, and adjust the budget accordingly:
• Feb 1 – Increase daily budgets by 10.7%
• Mar 1 – Decrease daily budgets by 9.7%
• Apr 1– Increase daily budgets by 3.3%
• May 1– Decrease daily budgets by 3.2%
• June 1– Increase daily budgets by 3.3%
• July 1– Decrease daily budgets by 3.2%
• Sept 1– Increase daily budgets by 3.3%
• Oct 1– Decrease daily budgets by 3.2%
• Nov 1– Increase daily budgets by 3.3%
• Dec 1– Decrease daily budgets by 3.2%

11. Implementing Weekly Campaign Budgets

Whether you have a dedicated budget for a holiday week or prefer managing your campaigns with a weekly budget, this rule accommodates your needs.

• Rule type: Campaigns
• Action: Pause campaign
• Apply to: Chosen campaigns
• Conditions: Spend exceeds $[your weekly budget]
• Frequency: Hourly, utilizing data from the current week.

12. Setting Monthly Campaign Budgets

While Google Ads allows you to set a maximum spending cap for your entire account, this rule provides more granular control, enabling you to manage a set monthly budget for specific campaigns.

• Rule type: Campaigns
• Action: Pause campaign
• Apply to: Chosen campaigns
• Conditions: Spend exceeds $[your monthly budget]
• Frequency: Hourly, utilizing data from the current month.

An example of how to set a monthly spending limit for your entire account. However, Google Ads automated rules offer the flexibility to implement this setting at the campaign level.

13. Weekend Budget Adjustments

Depending on your target audience, search traffic might surge or decline over the weekend. While dayparting can adjust bids or ad scheduling for weekends, you can also fine-tune your budgets throughout the week. This ensures you can capitalize on increased traffic when your ideal customers are actively searching.

• Rule type: Campaigns
• Action: Modify budgets
• Apply to: Chosen campaigns
• Conditions: None
• Frequency: Weekly, on Saturdays at 12 a.m. Create a complementary rule to reverse this change on Mondays at 12 a.m.

Using Google Ads Automated Rules to Manage Campaign Performance

Effective performance metrics in Google Ads are subjective and vary significantly across industries. What’s considered “good” for a law firm might be abysmal for an e-commerce store. Therefore, it’s essential to consider your account’s unique performance trends when defining specific conditions for these rules.

14. Addressing Low Keyword Visibility

Optimizing keywords that aren’t generating impressions is challenging. This rule identifies keywords not appearing in search results due to low bids.

• Rule type: Keywords
• Action: Increase bids to first-page CPC
• Apply to: All keywords
• Conditions: Keyword status reason includes any bid below the first-page bid.
• Frequency: Daily

15. Capitalizing on Strong Performance with Budget Increases

Unexpected surges in search traffic happen. This rule acts as a performance booster, providing your campaigns with additional marketing budget when they’re performing well, which can be especially beneficial during major sales events or holidays.

• Rule type: Campaigns
• Action: Increase budget by 5%
• Apply to: Chosen campaigns
• Conditions: Conversions exceed 5, and CPA (or ROAS) aligns with your targets
• Frequency: Daily at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m., and 6 p.m., utilizing data from that same day

16. Optimizing Performance with Bid Increases

Smart bidding, a feature in Google Ads, automatically adjusts your keyword bids to strive towards a particular goal. However, if you prefer a more hands-on approach with manual CPC bidding, automated rules can still be valuable.

• Rule type: Keywords
• Action: Increase bids by 5%
• Apply to: All keywords
• Conditions: Conversions exceed 5, and CPA (or ROAS) aligns with your targets
• Frequency: Weekly, utilizing data from the previous week.

17. Mitigating Poor Performance

Excessive exposure isn’t always positive in the context of PPC. This rule acts as a safety net to prevent a bad day from spiraling out of control. It addresses situations where your campaigns might be attracting a high volume of low-quality searches.

• Rule type: Campaign
• Action: Pause campaign or decrease budget
• Apply to: Chosen campaigns
• Conditions: Spend surpasses [70% of your budget], and CPA (or ROAS) is significantly below target
• Frequency: Daily at 12 p.m., 3 p.m., and 6 p.m., utilizing data from that same day. Remember that Google might take a few hours to attribute conversions to your campaigns. Set your “very bad” performance thresholds accordingly. It’s also advisable to configure email notifications whenever this rule is triggered so you can promptly investigate the root cause of the poor performance.

18. Fine-Tuning Bids for Optimization

Minor bid adjustments are an effective way to maintain keyword optimization and minimize wasted ad spend, all without requiring you to log into Google Ads.

• Rule type: Keywords
• Action: Decrease bids by 5%
• Apply to: All keywords
• Conditions: Conversions exceed 5, and CPA (or ROAS) deviates from your target by 20% or more.
• Frequency: Weekly, utilizing data from the previous week.

19. Pausing Underperforming Keywords

Even meticulously researched keywords can fall short of expectations. Utilize this rule to pause keywords that attract substantial traffic but fail to convert.

• Rule type: Keywords
• Action: Pause keyword
• Apply to: All keywords
• Conditions: Clicks exceed 100, spend is high, and CPA is significantly below target
• Frequency: Monthly, utilizing data from the previous month.

20. Identifying and Pausing Ineffective Ads

Regular A/B testing is crucial for optimizing your Google Ads campaigns. This rule helps pinpoint and pause the underperforming ads within an ad group.

• Rule type: Ads
• Action: Pause ad
• Apply to: Ads within chosen campaigns (consider limiting this to search campaigns, for example)
• Conditions: Ad impressions exceed 1000, ad CTR falls below 0.5%, and ad group CTR is above 1%
• Frequency: Monthly, utilizing data from the previous month.

Using Rules for Campaign Activity Monitoring

These Google Ads automated rules transform Google into your watchful assistant, monitoring campaign activities and alerting you to potential issues.

21. Budget Underutilization Alerts

If your campaigns are not on track to exhaust their monthly budget, this rule can send timely alerts, allowing you to address any issues before the month concludes.

• Rule type: Campaign
• Action: Send email notification
• Apply to: All campaigns
• Conditions: Spend falls below [33% of the monthly budget]
• Frequency: Monthly on the 15th, utilizing data from the current month

22. Monitoring Account Activity

If you’ve entrusted a teammate or agency with managing your accounts, it can be frustrating to discover a lack of activity. This rule acts as a silent observer, notifying you if a week passes without any modifications to your account. While some accounts might not require daily or even weekly adjustments, this rule provides reassurance and helps maintain accountability.

• Rule type: Campaign
• Action: Send email notification
• Apply to: All campaigns
• Conditions: Change history shows zero changes
• Frequency: Weekly, utilizing data from the past week

Harnessing the Power of Google Ads Automated Rules

Strategically implemented Google Ads automated rules can significantly streamline the management of your PPC campaigns. With a bit of forethought, you can automate numerous manual tasks, freeing up time to focus on other crucial aspects of your business or simply enjoy a well-deserved break. However, always remember that with great power comes great responsibility. Exercise caution regarding the number and frequency of changes your rules implement, and diligently monitor their performance until you achieve optimal fine-tuning within your account.