Which of Google's Recommendations for your ads actually help — and which ones quietly hurt

If you’ve ever logged into Google Ads, you’ve seen the Recommendations tab. It’s the one with the little checklist and the green optimization score that climbs every time you click “Apply.” Google wants you to apply them. Some are genuinely good. Some are quietly expensive.

Here’s the part most small business owners don’t realize: Google’s recommendations are built to optimize for Google, not for you. That’s not malice — it’s just how the incentive works. Google makes money when you spend more. So the recommendations skew toward “spend more, get broader, expand your reach.” For a small business with a tight budget, that’s the exact wrong direction.

I run Red Wing Shoes in Lafayette, Louisiana. I also built InspectMyAds.com. The whole reason I built it is because I kept seeing recommendations in my own account that I knew would burn money on the wrong customers. I wanted a tool that would tell me — in plain English — which recommendations to apply, which to skip, and why.

This is the short version of what that tool tells me. Eight of the most common Recommendations you’ll see, what they actually do, and whether to apply them.

1. “Add broad match keywords”

Verdict: almost always IGNORE.

This is the single most common recommendation, and it’s the most expensive one if you apply it. Broad match means Google decides what searches your ad shows on. The keyword is just a hint.

If your keyword is “red wing boots,” Google will show your ad on searches like “red wing meals” or “are red wing boots good for nurses.” Some of those people might buy. Most of them won’t. Either way, you pay for the click.

Broad match works for big advertisers with thousands of dollars a day to feed it data. For a small business with a $500-a-month budget, it’s just expensive guessing.

What to do instead: stick with exact match and phrase match. They’re tighter, you control them, and you spend money on people who actually typed something close to what you sell.

2. “Switch to Maximize Conversions” (or “Target CPA”)

Verdict: MODIFY — only if you have enough conversion data. Otherwise IGNORE.

Maximize Conversions tells Google to bid however it wants, as long as more people convert. Sounds great. The catch: Google needs about 30 conversions in the last 30 days to actually learn what to do. Most small businesses don’t have that.

If you have fewer than 30 conversions a month and you switch to Maximize Conversions, Google is just guessing. It’ll burn through your budget faster trying to “learn,” and you’ll end up spending more for the same result — or worse.

What to do instead: if you have less than 30 conversions a month, stay on Manual CPC or Enhanced CPC. Switch later once the numbers support it.

3. “Enable Search Network expansion to the Display Network”

Verdict: almost always IGNORE.

This one is sneaky. Your Search campaign is people typing into Google. The Display Network is banner ads on random websites. They’re completely different intents.

Someone searching for “plumber near me” is ready to call. Someone seeing a banner on a recipe blog is not. Mixing the two means your budget bleeds into clicks from people who have no idea they clicked your ad.

What to do instead: if you want to run on the Display Network, run a separate Display campaign with its own budget and creative. Don’t blend them.

4. “Increase your budget”

Verdict: IGNORE unless you have proof your ads convert.

Google will recommend increasing your budget on campaigns that are “limited by budget.” Sometimes that’s a real opportunity. Sometimes it’s a campaign that’s been wasting your money — and Google wants you to waste more.

The recommendation never tells you whether the campaign is actually profitable. It just tells you you could be spending more.

What to do instead: before applying, ask whether the campaign is making more money than it spends. If you don’t know, don’t increase. If you do know and it’s profitable, increase by 10-20%, not the full amount Google suggests.

5. “Add responsive display ads” or “Apply auto-generated assets”

Verdict: MODIFY — review the auto-generated copy first.

Google can generate ad copy and images for you automatically using your landing page. Sometimes it produces great variants. Sometimes it generates copy that doesn’t match what you sell at all.

I’ve seen Google’s auto-generated ads pull product names that don’t exist on the page, mix up which services a business offers, and write tag lines that are technically grammatical but make no sense for the business.

What to do instead: apply the recommendation, but immediately go review every auto-generated variant. Pause or edit the ones that misrepresent what you actually do.

6. “Enable URL expansion on Performance Max”

Verdict: usually IGNORE.

URL expansion lets Google send people to any page on your website it thinks is relevant — not just the ones you specified. For a tightly-built business, this is fine. For most small businesses, it means Google sends searchers to your “About” page or your blog when they were ready to buy.

What to do instead: keep URL expansion off. Specify the exact landing pages you want each campaign sending people to.

7. “Apply auto-apply recommendations”

Verdict: IGNORE.

This is the one that opts your entire account into Google applying recommendations on your behalf, without you reviewing them. Everything I just listed above? Auto-apply means Google does it all, automatically, every time.

If you only do one thing after reading this article, turn off auto-apply. It’s at Tools → Recommendations → Auto-apply.

8. “Add missing sitelinks” or “Add missing callouts”

Verdict: APPLY.

These are the boring good ones. Sitelinks are the extra blue links under your ad (like “Pricing,” “Hours,” “Contact”). Callouts are the short text snippets (“Free Estimates,” “Open 24/7”). They make your ad take up more space on the search results page, which is more visible, which gets more clicks. They’re free. Add them.

The pattern

Notice what runs through all eight: Google’s recommendations push you to spend more, target broader, and let Google decide more. That works for advertisers with huge budgets and lots of data. It doesn’t work for a small business trying to spend $500 a month carefully.

The good ones are the boring ones — sitelinks, callouts, fix broken tracking, write better ad copy. The expensive ones are the ones that sound exciting — broad match, Maximize Conversions, network expansion, auto-apply.

A free way to check your own account

I built InspectMyAds.com partly because I got tired of reading these recommendations one at a time. The free Grader at inspectmyads.com/grade connects to your Google Ads account (read-only — we can’t change anything) and pulls every Recommendation Google is currently pushing on you, plus three things we found that Google didn’t.

It tells you, in plain English, which to apply and which to ignore. It takes 60 seconds and there’s no credit card. The whole point is the same thing this article is — give a small business owner a way to know what to do without paying an agency $2,000 for the same information.

Hope this helps. If your Google Ads have been bleeding money and you weren’t sure why, there’s a good chance one of these recommendations is the reason.

— Stephen