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Auto-apply recommendations

Auto-apply recommendations is a Google Ads setting that lets Google apply the recommendation types you select without asking you to approve each change.

How it works

Google Ads recommendations normally wait for you to apply or dismiss them. With auto-apply, you select recommendation types once, and Google regularly applies new recommendations of those types. The setting covers the whole account. In the Google Ads API, each selected type is a separate subscription that is either enabled or paused.

The API lists the types that can be auto-applied, among them setting or lowering a target ROAS, setting or raising a target CPA, adding keywords, adding broad match keywords and opting into search partners. Raising the budget is not on the list. Our guide to auto-applied recommendations shows how to find what Google applied and which types a store should switch off.

Where you see it

  • Google Ads: auto-apply settings open from the top bar of the Recommendations page. Its History tab lists recently applied recommendations, and change history records each change.
  • Google Ads API: change_event rows with the client type GOOGLE_ADS_RECOMMENDATIONS_SUBSCRIPTION, for the past 30 days only.

Example

Example store, not client data.

Over 30 days, the tableware shop’s change history lists 48 changes. Eighteen of them came from auto-apply, so 18 ÷ 48 = 37.5% of the changes happened without anyone pressing Apply.

Not to be confused with

  • Optimization score — Google’s estimate of how well the account is set up to perform. Google says applying or dismissing recommendations raises it, and auto-apply is one way of applying them.
  • Automated rules — changes you define yourself, as a condition and an action. Auto-apply applies Google’s own suggestions.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Nobody on the team pressed Apply, so Google changed nothing.” Right: with auto-apply on, the selected types are applied without a click. Change history shows which changes Google applied.
  • Wrong: “Raising the budget isn’t on the list, so auto-apply can’t change how the money is spent.” Right: a lower target ROAS or broad match keywords change which auctions the same budget goes to.

Sources