About ad suggestions

30/11/2019

This article only applies to ad suggestions for Search Network campaigns. Learn more about ad suggestions for Smart campaigns

Ad suggestions are variations of your existing text ads that may boost performance of your Search Network campaigns.

Research has shown that ad groups with 3 or more high-quality ads can get up to 5% to 15% more clicks or conversions than ad groups with only 1 ad, provided ad rotation has been optimized. The more ads you provide, the more options you’ll have to show the ideal message for each user search.

Ad suggestions are initially surfaced in your account on the Recommendations page for you to review, and you can choose to apply, edit, or dismiss them. Ad suggestions marked as auto-apply will start serving after 14 days if no action is taken. Ad suggestions are limited to no more than 50 suggested ads per week for each account. Since the program only targets ad groups in which there is a potential for performance improvement, ad suggestions will only be provided for a small portion of ad groups, so you probably won’t see changes in the vast majority of accounts or ad groups—you may only see a few ad suggestions per account.

Potential benefits

Save time in creating variations of your existing ads.
Free optimization of ad copy.

How ad suggestions work

Ad suggestions may be automatically offered to advertisers who have ads running in any of the supported languages shown below. Ad suggestions will automatically apply 14 days after they're created unless you proactively apply, edit, or dismiss them beforehand.

Ad suggestions that auto-apply will appear on the Ads & extensions page with the tag “Auto applied ad suggestion,” and Google will also notify you in various ways that these ads have been created. You also have complete control over whether to apply, dismiss, pause, or edit them.

Supported languages

If you have ads running in any of the following languages, you may automatically see ad suggestions on your Recommendations page:

Danish
Dutch
English
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish

Note: Any account, regardless of language, can opt out of auto-applied ad suggestions.

Notifications

When new ad suggestions are set to auto apply, you’ll be notified in the following ways:

An email with a link to review ad suggestions. Update your email alerts
In your Google Ads account, an alert will appear near the Notification icon that ad suggestions will soon auto-apply.
When you click on the Notification icon, it will state the day when ad suggestions are set to auto apply and will invite you to review the ad suggestions.
The Recommendations page indicates when ad suggestions will auto-apply, and invites you to apply or dismiss them.
Any ad suggestion that becomes auto-applied after 14 days will be labeled as an “Auto-applied ad suggestion” on the Ads & extensions page.

Note: For manager accounts, ad suggestions alerts may be combined if multiple accounts receive ad suggestions simultaneously.

Control

From the Recommendations page, you can apply, dismiss, or edit ad suggestions, either individually or as a group.
Once ad suggestions are applied, you can edit, remove, or pause them—just like regular ads.
You can control ad suggestion settings through your account settings.

Note: If you dismiss ad suggestions, you may still receive future ad suggestions.

Policy exceptions

If any of your ads in the ad group have limited approval, or have been disapproved, ad suggestions will not be created for that ad group. This may include ads that fall under categories like gambling, alcohol, pharmaceutical, and payday loans. Learn more about limited approval ads.

Note: Ad groups that have limited approval due to trademarks are eligible to receive ad suggestions. Once ad suggestions are applied, the ads will go through the usual trademark checks

How ad suggestions are produced

To help improve performance, a combination of human review and machine learning is used to create high-quality ad suggestions. Relevant content from your account is used to create ad suggestions include your existing ads, extensions, and landing page. Google also uses additional signals such as keywords and targeting in order to optimize the ad copy.

FAQs

How can I keep track of ad suggestions over time?

If the ads were auto-applied to your ad group, they will be marked as “Auto-applied ad suggestion” directly in the ads table. There is also a corresponding “Auto-applied ad suggestion” column on the Ads & extensions page you can use to filter your ads. If you accept ad suggestions manually, the ads will be added to your account as standard text ads without a specific label.

Which campaigns / ad groups will be eligible for ad suggestions?

Any search ad group that is in one of the following languages, with ad rotation set to “optimize," and with the potential to improve performance, will be eligible for ad suggestions.

Danish
Dutch
English
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish

Note: Any account, regardless of language, can opt out of auto-applied ad suggestions.

Can I edit ad suggestions?

From the Recommendations page, advertisers can click Apply for any ad suggestions, or wait for them to be auto-applied. Once ad suggestions are added, they can be edited, paused or deleted at any time.

If the ad suggestion has been auto-applied, it will receive a tag “Auto-applied ad suggestion.”’ Any edit to an ad suggestion will remove this tag, and the ad will no longer appear in the “Auto-applied ad suggestion” column on the ads table.

To edit ad suggestions before they’re applied:

Sign in to your Google Ads account.
From the page menu on the left, click Recommendations.
If you see an ad suggestions card, click View (number) suggestions at the bottom of the card.
Click View at the bottom right hand side of the suggestion you wish to edit.
Update your ad as desired, then click Apply in the bottom right corner to apply your changes and run the ad.

Where can I find ad suggestions in Google Ads?

Ad suggestions can be found on the Recommendations page for Google Ads accounts, including manager accounts (MCC).

How frequently will new ad suggestions appear in my account?

Ad suggestions will appear in accounts at most once every 7 days. Since the program only targets ad groups in which there is a potential for performance improvement, ad suggestions will only be provided for a small portion of ad groups, so you won’t see changes in the vast majority of accounts or ad groups—you may only see a few ad suggestions per account.

How many ad suggestions will I get?

Ad suggestions are limited to no more than 50 suggested ads per week for each account.

How do I enable email alerts for ad suggestions?

At the account level, set your notification preferences to receive “all” or “only critical” campaign maintenance alerts. Manager accounts must select “full hierarchy” notifications to enable campaign maintenance alerts for each customer ID. Keep in mind that manager account settings will override account-level settings.

Can I opt out of automatically applying ad suggestions?

If you have ads running in any of the supported languages, ad suggestions will be automatically applied after 14 days. Learn how to opt out of auto-applying ad suggestions