Google Ads Automation in 2024 — Tools and Software

PPC ads cause many arguments in the marketing community. Some sources make reference to researches and insist that 79% of marketers confirm the benefits of PPC advertising, while others refer to almost opposite data and consider PPCs expensive and useless. Actually, the answer is at the surface. How many people do you know who open page 2 or 3 of search results?  Well, not many. Hence, PPC ads are still alive and working.

Wordstream has recently posted interesting and ‘scary PPC stats’:

People do not list search pages. Google ads matter. Full stop. PPC ads help to increase brand visibility and generate traffic, leads, and sales.

Fact: An average marketer makes from $5 to $10 for every dollar invested in Google Ads.

In the focus of our attention today — Google Ads automation, or various tools and software designed to ease marketers’ nightmares and headaches.

Managing Google Ads is not as simple as it seems. First, you struggle with keywords research, study competitors, and get upset. Then, you plan your budget, launch an ad campaign, and stay round-the-clock monitoring statistics. Next, you do another research, implement adjustments, and keep a close watch on results.

Imagine, you have a large-scale campaign on several platforms or you run several ad campaigns simultaneously. Luckily, it is 2022. We do have multiple solutions to help with this tedious and challenging task of managing Google Ads.

Below you will find a list of instruments with brief descriptions of their functionality to automate Google Ads and take your campaigns to the new, higher level. Then, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Google Ads automation.

PPC automation: Integration&Reporting, Scripts, Custom Builds, Comprehensive Software  

As trending as automation tools are, they can be divided into several categories based on their key functionality and complexity.

Some sources specify two major types of automation software:

• Rule-driven automation. You set up the rules for your ad campaign, such as bids, budget, or status, and the tool will notify you of all declines and limits.
• Data-driven automation. This type of automation helps with the comprehensive analysis of your data.  

However, Neil Patel marks out the following 4 groups of PPC automation. Let's look at each of them.

Integrations and Reporting

Automated integration means that a tool can pull data from different platforms for further analysis and reports. In fact, most reporting tools offer integration with different platforms. So, if you are looking for an automated reporting solution make sure the chosen tool provides integration with the required platforms.

• Reporting Ninja. This tool is well-known in the marketing industry as a practical time-saver. Reporting Ninja offers integration with all major platforms, including YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, HubSpot, Pinterest, Facebook & Instagram, Bing Ads, Google Ads, and Google Analytics.

Marketers can choose between four pricing plans, from Starter at $20/month to Large at $120/month.

• Swydo is another popular tool for automated reporting and monitoring for digital marketers. Prices start from $39/month for 10 data sources with $1.5-$3 per additional data source (the rate depends on the total number of data sources).  Besides collecting data across all channels, Swydo allows setting and tracking KPIs, combining metrics for custom reports, sharing reports via an online dashboard, and some other useful features.

Scripts

The Google Ads platform allows making automated changes in your Google Ads account. With JavaScript code, marketers can "change bids, pause ad groups, and add keywords with written scripts directly instead of manually within your Google Ads account." Scripts are useful for large campaigns and save a great deal of your time.

Google recommends several solutions built with Google Ads scripts that are ready to be used. Marketers can adjust ready-to-use codes to adapt scripts to specific marketing needs. Some scripts include the AdsManager (MCC) version for processing multiple Google Ads accounts. Google offers Account Summary for generating reports, Declining Ad Groups for determining groups with declining performance, Search Query for generating reports with actual search queries that trigger your ads, and many others.      

Custom Builds

These are specially coded automations that allow customizing various aspects of ad campaigns. They require experience and expertise, so if you are still at the beginning of your marketing career, you’d better find a developer to help you with this task. Custom builds allow focusing on unique parameters important to make ad campaigns profitable.  

Comprehensive Software

This type of automation tool is the most sought-after because it includes all the above-mentioned types and allows customizing, automating, and managing campaigns. The key advantage is the user-friendly interface and functionality.   

Tools and Software for Google Ads Automation    

The list below includes the best automation tools that proved their efficiency in managing ad campaigns.  

• WordStream PPC Advisor. The tool has been specifically designed for PPC campaign management. The software is targeted at smaller businesses and individual marketers who need to automate PPC ads and don’t have the budget line for hiring a dedicated specialist. The tool helps with keyword analysis (positive and negative keywords), bid management, and ad budget planning. When you activate the 20 Minutes Work Week instrument, you can easily track your PPC campaigns.

• Optmyzr. This is one of the most popular automation tools for managing PPC advertising campaigns on a large scale. Targeted mainly at large businesses, Optmyzr allows running several ad campaigns and offers multiple advanced tools for managing keywords and bids.  

  

The software helps to track performance and make required adjustments.

• SEMRush. You might have heard the name already in the context of keyword research. But SEMRush is much more than just a tool for analyzing keywords. In fact, this PPC automation software is capable of analyzing competitors, conducting keyword research, managing a bidding strategy, and overall campaign planning. As for the pricing plans, the pro version is $119, the guru version is $229, and the business version costs $449. The company offers a free trial.  

Many successful marketers rely on this tool to see the performance of market competitors and discover competitive keywords. The good thing is that the tool represents a great automation option for businesses of all levels.            

Himanshu Sharma from OptimizeSmart, a marketer with 15 years of experience, highlights how useful SEMRush is for automation of keyword research and analysis of competitors:

He published a step-by-step case of implementing SEMRush technology for his project and confirmed the benefits of the automation tool that helped him to optimize his campaign and website ranking.

• Acquisio. One of the most advanced tools for managing ad campaigns. Acquisio provides a unified dashboard for working and editing multiple accounts and the KPI builder to see underperforming campaigns. Besides, you can improve ad campaigns with the search query keyword expansion tool. Acquisio allows improving ad performance with self-improving AI and customized cross-channel reports.

Acquisio algorithms help to adjust and distribute bids considering time, day of the week, and even season. Both small and large businesses will benefit from using software; pricing plans are flexible.

• Adalysis. The tool has been developed for businesses of all levels. You can set alerts on multiple parameters, including bidding, budgets, ad testing, quality score, and many others. Besides, the tool helps to validate your marketing strategy and gain fresh insights into the overall campaign performance. The pricing plans start from $99 (for monthly spending up to $50k). You can learn more about the functionality of the software through a 14-day free trial.

• Opteo. This is an all-in-one toolkit for managing Google Ads campaigns. The tool ensures round-the-clock monitoring of your Google Ads accounts and notifies you about all significant trends or downfalls. Based on a detailed analysis of your data, Opteo provides suggestions on the way you can improve your campaigns and increase their performance. The tool tracks ad spending, delivers custom reports, and monitors performance.  

Opteo offers several pricing plans that match the requirements of businesses of different levels, starting from $99/month for the Basic plan.

• RevealBot. One of the popular tools for experienced marketers and marketing agencies. It allows adjusting and monitoring even the most complex campaigns. RevealBot’s Visual Builder has a simple drag-and-drop interface for creating automations (20+ actions and their combinations in single automation). The tool helps to optimize all aspects of sophisticated Google Ads structure: you can set automated rules for campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords. The pricing depends on your monthly ad spend with a minimum of $83/month for ad spend under $10k.  

• Adzooma. This is one of the universal automation tools. First of all, Adzooma is free. The tool allows tracking Google, Microsoft, and Facebook campaigns in a single place. With Adzooma you can set automated rules to streamline multiple tasks and improve your campaign. Besides, you will have performance reports to make further adjustments. There is an Adzooma Plus version for marketing agencies and gurus for 69GBP. The Plus version offers extended functionality, including landing page analysis, bid adjustments, 80+ automation templates, and advanced SEO insights on overall performance.

• Adline. You might have heard about this tool that offers automation for Google Ads and Facebook Ads. It allows automating almost all parameters of your campaigns, tracking performance, and detailed reporting. Adline offers Easy Ad Creator, Automatic Budget Optimization, Easy-to-Understand Marketing Analytics, 1:1 Monthly Campaign Strategy Calls, and the 1st Campaign created by team Adline. Individual marketers and beginners might benefit from communication with the qualified team via calls and can upgrade their level by learning from the campaign developed by Adline experts. There are 3 pricing plans: Starter for $59/month, Growth for $149/month, and Premium for $349 per month.

• SpyFu. This is a very interesting tool, which is not just automation software.

SpyFu serves as the Google Ads Competitor Keyword Spy Tool and helps to monitor PPC competitors, find competitors’ keywords you do not use, delivers competitor Google Ads campaign and ad test history, provides PPC negative match recommendations, and offers PPC ad rank tracker. All these features you can get starting from $33 per month.      

• Google Ads Editor (formerly AdWords Editor) and Bing Ad Editor make a standalone group of marketing tools. Both Editors cannot be called automation tools but provide an array of helpful functions for creating, editing, and monitoring PPC ad campaigns. They allow editing several ads at once, doing keyword research, and managing bids.  

Google Also Suggests Automation

Again, the main advantage of all automation tools is their time-saving feature. Marketers delegate some tasks to automated processes. Google itself recommends using automated processes to optimize the overall performance of ad campaigns, including higher conversion rates and return on ad spend (ROAS).

Among the key benefits of automation Google lists:

• Advanced machine learning. Machine algorithms are capable of processing huge data sets and making better predictions on the potential impact of bids on conversions and performance.  
•  Wide range of contextual signals. Signals include various attributes like devices and locations, as well as additional attribute combinations required for bid adjustments.
• Flexible performance controls. Here you can set your business goals and set up performance objectives.  
• Transparent performance reporting. Automated reporting provides deeper insights on bidding performance and represents a solid background for further marketing strategy development.

PPC Automation Tools: Pros & Cons    

It is so human to make mistakes and learn from them. Sometimes we lose concentration and skip some important parameters. Some mistakes can be easily avoided when using automated tools.

Pros:

• Automation tools save a great deal of time for large-scale lasting campaigns. Machine-based data collection and analysis provide relevant parameters and suggestions on adjustments required to increase ad performance.
• The same applies to the financial side of advertising. You do not experiment with bidding but you develop a bidding strategy based on detailed data. Thus, there is less risk of making financial mistakes due to gaps in campaign monitoring.
• Google is well-known for its system updates and changes in algorithms. Most automation tools adjust to changes faster than a marketer would do.  
• Automated alerts and notifications. You set the parameters you want to be notified about and the algorithm will inform on drops in conversion rates, rising costs, or impressions count.        

Cons:

• If after everything you’ve just read you consider automation tools as "end-all answer", you are wrong. Automated PPC campaigns require initial setup; thus, you need to have a clear vision of campaign goals and performance targets. In other words, you need to have a coherent idea of the results you want to get.
• Yep, automated processes require less attention than 100% manual control. Less, but you cannot let them run uncontrollably. You must continue monitoring for any potential system faults or detuning.

Expert’s Thoughts on Automation

Neil Patel, an SEO Expert and marketing wizard, the author of "Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum", the owner of the neilpatel.com blog and one of the richest marketers in the world, highly appreciates his time and supports automation.

How to Choose the Right Automation Tool

Now that you’ve got introduced to various automation tools you might be wondering how to choose the best software. At first glance, some tools seem similar in their features. Not to get confused by the wide selection, keep in mind the following aspects:

1. If you run advertising campaigns on multiple platforms, pay attention to what tools support multiple platforms, specifically the ones you work with. Not all tools support Facebook Ads, Bing Ads, or Microsoft Ads.    
2. Functionality. The set of offered features should be one of the key factors to set your choice. Different tools offer different levels of automation. Some platforms are capable of automating only a couple of campaign parameters. Look for a comprehensive multitasking solution, a tool that can automate the entire process of PPC advertising: from keyword research, market and competitors research to bidding, tracking, optimizing, and reporting. Yes, all-in-one tools exist but they seem a bit costly.
3. Price. Do not fall for the common "Quality costs" or "Free cheese is only in the mousetrap". Sure, free solutions do not provide you with a wide array of features or support several accounts. Still, beginners can try free tools to learn more about automation software and see how it works in the field. More experienced marketers have to select from paid options. Give a look at pricing plans, how many accounts the tool supports, and note the specified ad spend limits for various plans. Compare prices. The truth is that some tools are really expensive but their functionality can be the same or even less compared to competitors with reasonable prices.  

4. Interface & Dashboard. No doubt, when you pay for tools, you want to see a comfortable workspace: easy-to-use, convenient, or even custom-made. The best option is to use a free trial and see whether you feel at home with the given interface. Intricate dashboard and interface do not mean an expanded feature set of the tool. Quite the opposite. The wider the functionality is the easier the interface should be because developers of advanced tools keep in mind end-users.  

Conclusion

Life is getting more and more digital as we automate more and more processes across industries, technologies, and learning. You do not carry a language dictionary in your bag and turn over the leaves searching for words — you simply download a mobile app with the required dictionary. Google Ads automation tools perform a similar function — they save your time. You can also automate Facebook Ads. You are still in charge of marketing campaigns, you set objectives and develop strategies but you delegate some tasks to automation tools so that you can focus on the further progress of your business.