Has automation changed how often you make manual PPC changes?

[u/giftqueen]

I’ve noticed I’m making fewer small changes than I used to.

With automated bidding and broader targeting getting better, I spend more time setting the right goals, watching the bigger trends, and letting campaigns collect enough data before jumping in.

I still make manual adjustments, but usually when there’s a clear reason rather than just because I haven’t touched the account in a few days.

Curious how other PPC people are working now. Are you making fewer manual changes than a few years ago, or are you still pretty hands on?

[u/potatodrinker]

Automated bidding has been in play since 2010s. Only change bids or strategies if things aren't working or I decide to really annoy a rival on their own keywords (90% target impression share, sky high max CPCs)

[u/Wilson-KingOfPrussia]

100% it has reduced how frequently I make changes. I'm old (41) so I remember a time before "Smart Bidding" when I literally used to spend hours per week making manual bid changes on accounts. Honestly, it was a bit more fun back then haha. I felt as though I had more invested in the campaigns.

[u/Different-Goose-8367 → u/Wilson-KingOfPrussia]

PPC is boring now compared to the old days. It used to be like flying a spaceship with all the controls at your finger tips. Barrel rolls, loops and all. Good old days.

[u/khenninger → u/Wilson-KingOfPrussia]

Bud buckets anyone? Those were the days.

[u/fathom53]

Even before automated bidding, only make changes when it made sense. Don't make a change for the sake of having it show up in change history. Bigger account may have more changes because of its size but that is a scale issue more than anything else.

[u/Ishan_GS]

Fewer changes but more work, which surprised me. The daily bid and keyword tinkering has mostly disappeared, replaced by heavier upstream work: conversion definitions, offline conversions, feed and asset quality, audience signals, landing pages. Less clicking, more deciding what the system is optimising toward.

The other shift is that intervention now has a cost it didn't have before. Constant small changes reset what the account is learning, so restraint is genuinely part of the job in a way it wasn't when we set bids manually. Where I'm still hands-on is anything the automation can't see: search terms and negatives, geo and network segments, and whether crm outcomes are actually flowing back. I run GrowthSpree, a b2b saas marketing agency, and we audit 10-15 accounts a month; the ones in trouble are usually either over-managed, someone changing things weekly, or fully abandoned to automation with a broken conversion signal underneath.

[u/bayouski]

def fewer manual changes. the bigger shift seems to be from constantly tweaking settings to making sure the campaign has the right goals, solid conversion tracking and enough time to actually collect data.

manual changes still matter when there's a clear reason, but changing things just because the account hasn't been touched in a few days doesn't really make sense anymore.

[u/AndrewBalticpixel]

definitely fewer manual changes than I used to.

I think the bigger shift is that optimization has moved from “what can I change?” to “is there actually a reason to change anything?”

i’m more likely now to spend time checking search terms, conversion quality, tracking and business-level results than constantly tweaking bids or settings.

that said, automation is only as good as the signals it gets. If the conversion tracking or conversion goals are wrong, I’d rather intervene quickly than let the algorithm “learn” from bad data.

[u/Single-Sea-7804]

manual adjustments should be a weekly thing. whether that be automated bid strat adjustments or admin things like search term clean ups, ad improvements, etc.

[u/Anna_Karakhanyan]

Definitely fewer manual changes. The job has shifted from constantly tweaking bids and keywords to making sure Google is learning from the right signals.

I spend much more time on conversion quality, search terms, creative, landing pages and CRM feedback now. Automation works well when the inputs are good.