Maximise the impact of automated rules in Google Ads and learn how to optimise your campaigns, save time, and improve your ad performance.
Martin Langborg Hansen
As an agency, we only use automated rules to a limited extent in Google Ads, as we monitor various accounts daily and are therefore able to optimise in more detail. However, if you are managing your own Google Ads, automated rules can help you set basic parameters for your account, saving you time and ensuring your account operates according to effective principles that you define.
It can also be a good solution if you want to make changes during weekends, holidays, or at other times when you may not be available.
An automated rule is a condition you can set up for most elements in Google Ads. For example, it could be a campaign, ad group, or keyword. It is also possible to set rules for audiences, demographics, and many other parameters.
With these rules, you instruct Google Ads to carry out an action automatically based on a trigger you have defined. During setup, you also decide how frequently your account should apply the rule – for example, once every night.
A rule might, for instance, automatically increase bids by 5% for all keywords in one or more ad groups that are, on average, below position 3 in Google’s search results. This rule could run once a week, continuously optimising keywords that are ranking lower.
There are two ways to set up a rule:
1. Go to Tools > Bulk actions > Rules
2. Add a rule at the desired level using the blue “+”
Further down in this article, we will look more closely at setting up the rule itself.
1. Find the menu here and select “How to create an automated rule”
Here, you will automatically create the rule at the level you are currently viewing – for example, for campaigns, ad groups, or keywords.
With these rules, you can save a substantial amount of time. There are many different ways to optimise, far more than I can cover here. Here are three examples of effective rules that can save you time:
Here you can see a concrete example of how to set up one of these rules.
1. Select “Rules for keywords”
2. Choose the rule type “Pause keywords”
Note that here you can also activate keywords, adjust bids, and receive an email notification if you wish.
3. Now set the parameters for your rule
Here you can select all keywords or choose keywords from specific campaigns or ad groups.
Under conditions, select Cost / conv. and set your maximum threshold according to your business needs.
There is a wealth of options within the conditions, so you can spend some time figuring out what to focus on. Once set up, it will run automatically going forward, so you only need to monitor your campaigns to a lesser extent.
Finally, you decide how often the rule should run, whether you want to receive an email in case of errors, and you have the option to preview before saving your rule.
Once you get started with rules, you will quickly understand how the system is structured.
It can be a good idea to set up a rule for a specific campaign you are running. For example, if you have a summer sale with 50% off, you can set a rule for when this sale should no longer be advertised.
If you have created individual ads or campaigns in Google Ads for your sale, I recommend labelling them with a tag. You can set up rules based on your labels, allowing you to automate when all campaigns with attached sale labels should be paused.
This way, you do not have to search for each individual campaign, but can automatically end your entire summer campaign.
If you have a campaign for “Winter boots”, you will likely benefit most from focusing your ad spend on this campaign during winter. Here, you can set up a rule to lower your bids from March to August, and increase them again during the colder months. In some cases, it may make even more sense to pause the campaign entirely and reactivate it when the season returns.
The same applies to other seasonal types, holidays, or events.
Often, you will use ad scheduling in Google Ads to handle this. However, if you want a more dynamic approach, you can also automatically adjust your account by time of day using rules.
For example, if you have a shop and it does not make sense to advertise outside of opening hours, you can use rules to have Google Ads update your advertising automatically from day to day or week to week.
As with the previous point, there may be different times when it makes sense to allocate more ad spend to your campaigns. Depending on your industry, demand can of course rise and fall based on many factors.
Therefore, it can make sense for some to set up rules for their budgets. However, note that you cannot do this for shared budgets, which are typically used to manage an account.
But if you have a specific campaign that converts better than others, you can automatically add more budget to it during the day if it runs out. This saves you from having to monitor it every day.
Last but not least, you can receive an email based on a specific trigger. For example, you can set a rule to notify you if a particular campaign spends more than X amount, or if it achieves more than X conversions, and so on. This allows you to quickly get an overview and make changes to your campaigns when needed.
Unfortunately, it is not all smooth sailing when it comes to automated rules. You still need to keep an eye on your bid adjustments to ensure they do not spiral out of control in case of errors.
Be careful about making changes that broadly cover all your campaigns or keywords simultaneously. Monitor the effectiveness of your rules over a period of time before making larger changes using rules. If you use percentage increases for bids or budgets, avoid going above 5% at a time, as things can quickly escalate – especially if you run rules on a daily basis. If you do use daily rules, it can also be wise not to include data from more than the previous day.
As mentioned earlier, it is not possible to use automated rules on shared budgets, which is an important point to consider. You cannot make budget changes via rules if you have created a shared budget covering multiple campaigns. However, with individual campaign budgets, you can optimise using automated rules.
If you need further assistance or advice on automated rules, do not hesitate to contact us. We are happy to help with any questions you may have.
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