Google’s New AI “Ads Advisor” Put to the Test
▼ Summary
– Google Ads coach Jyll Saskin Gales tested Google’s new “agentic” Ads Advisor AI assistant for 24 hours and found it promising but imperfect.
– The Ads Advisor represents Google’s push toward agentic AI tools that can act autonomously on users’ behalf for campaign optimization.
– The AI showed strengths by searching the open web before answering and recommending against default Google settings like unchecking “Display Network.”
– It had significant weaknesses including providing outdated or incorrect information and misdiagnosing campaign performance issues.
– Gales compares the AI to an eager intern who is occasionally right but often off-base, advising caution before taking its advice at face value.
A digital marketing expert recently dedicated an entire day to evaluating Google’s experimental Ads Advisor, an AI-powered tool intended to help advertisers improve their campaign performance. Her findings suggest the technology shows significant promise, though it still has considerable room for improvement before becoming a fully reliable resource.
This hands-on review is important because it provides a transparent, real-world assessment of how the AI assistant operates beyond Google’s promotional messaging. As artificial intelligence begins to take on more responsibilities in digital advertising, advertisers need a clear understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. Knowing when to trust automated recommendations, and when human expertise remains indispensable, is crucial for protecting both ad performance and marketing budgets.
Among the tool’s positive attributes, the AI demonstrated a degree of impartiality by searching the broader internet before offering suggestions. In some cases, it even advised against Google’s own default settings, such as recommending advertisers uncheck the “Display Network” and “Search Partners” options when launching new Search campaigns. It also showed the ability to think beyond the Google Ads platform, recommending optimizations like improving product titles for Shopping campaigns, although some of its specific implementation advice was inaccurate.
On the downside, the Ads Advisor sometimes provided outdated or incorrect information. For example, it misdiagnosed certain campaign performance issues and referenced older interface elements like “Tools & Settings > Conversions,” which no longer reflect the current platform layout. Another limitation is that, despite being labeled an “agentic” tool, it cannot directly implement changes within campaigns. Instead, it only supplies instructions, and those instructions were occasionally flawed or misleading.
The reviewer likened the Ads Advisor to a freshly certified Google Ads intern: enthusiastic and occasionally correct, but often missing the mark. She remains cautiously optimistic about its future development but advises small business owners to verify its suggestions rather than adopting them without scrutiny. Further testing is planned, with a comprehensive video breakdown scheduled for release on YouTube in the near future.
(Source: Search Engine Land)
