Managing Google Ads Recommendations with Blueprint

Prerequisites

• A Blueprint Pro subscription (Recommendation Shield is Pro-only)
• At least one Google Ads account connected to your workspace
• Owner or Manager role in the workspace

Recommendation Shield only applies to Google Ads accounts. Microsoft Ads and Meta Ads do not have a comparable recommendation system.

Accessing Recommendations

Navigate to Monitoring → Recommendations in the Blueprint sidebar. The page has four tabs:

1. Review Queue — Recommendations awaiting your review, sorted by risk level.
2. Auto-Apply Audit — Per-account view of enabled auto-apply subscriptions.
3. History — Log of all dismissed and expired recommendations.
4. Google Ads Health — Optimization Score tracking per account.

Three KPI cards sit above the tabs: Queued for Review, Auto-Dismissed (this month), and Est. Spend Avoided.

Setting Up Auto-Dismiss Policies

Click "Manage Policies" in the toolbar (visible on all four tabs). A slide-over panel opens with 11 recommendation categories:

1. Budget
2. Match Type
3. Campaign Upgrade
4. Bidding
5. Network Expansion
6. Ad Creative
7. Asset
8. Keyword
9. Targeting
10. Shopping
11. Other

For each category, you can set one of three actions:

• Auto-Dismiss — Blueprint dismisses these recommendations automatically on every sync. Best for categories you never want (e.g., budget increases, broad match conversions).
• Ignore — Recommendations in this category are not dismissed and not shown in the Review Queue. Use this for low-priority categories you don't want cluttering your queue.
• Review Queue (default) — Recommendations appear in the queue for manual triage. This is the safest starting point.

A "Select All" row at the top lets you apply the same action to all 11 categories at once. Each category also has an info icon showing the specific Google Ads recommendation types it covers.

Policies take effect on the next sync (typically within 6 hours). Only Owners and Managers can edit policies; Analysts and Viewers have read-only access.

Recommended starting policies

Most agencies start with these settings and adjust over time:

• Budget → Auto-Dismiss (prevents Google from inflating client budgets)
• Match Type → Auto-Dismiss (prevents unwanted broad match conversions)
• Bidding → Review Queue (some bidding changes can be beneficial, review case-by-case)
• Everything else → Review Queue (build familiarity before deciding)

Reviewing Recommendations

The Review Queue tab shows recommendations that passed through your policies. Each row displays:

• Risk level (High / Medium / Low) with color coding
• Account name
• Category (Budget, Bidding, Keyword, etc.)
• Recommendation description with campaign name subtitle when available

Click any row to expand the detail view, which includes:

• A risk context explainer — why this recommendation type is classified at its risk level
• Campaign context — 30-day performance data (spend, clicks, conversions, CPA) loaded on demand
• Google Ads deep link — jump directly to the campaign in Google Ads
• Impact projection — Google's estimated impact (shown only when Google provides this data, with a caveat that these projections are Google's estimates)

Dismissing recommendations

Single dismiss: Click the dismiss button on any row.

Bulk dismiss: Select multiple recommendations using the checkboxes, then click "Dismiss Selected" in the floating action bar at the bottom of the screen.

Dismissals are two-phase: clicking dismiss stages the recommendation locally as "Pending." On the next sync, Blueprint sends the dismiss command to Google's API and confirms it. You can undo a pending dismiss before the next sync by clicking the Undo button in the History tab.

Monitoring Auto-Apply

The Auto-Apply Audit tab shows per-account cards indicating which auto-apply subscription types are enabled. High-risk subscriptions are highlighted with colored indicators.

Blueprint syncs auto-apply status every 24 hours. If Google re-enables auto-apply on any account, Blueprint creates an AUTO_APPLIED_CHANGE alert (visible in Workspace Alerts and configurable for email delivery).

Blueprint cannot programmatically disable auto-apply — Google's API does not support this. The recommended workflow is to note which accounts have auto-apply enabled, disable it manually in Google Ads using the deep links Blueprint provides, and let Recommendation Shield's auto-dismiss policies serve as a safety net.

Understanding Optimization Score

The Google Ads Health tab shows daily Optimization Score snapshots for each connected account.

• KPI row: Workspace average score + number of accounts tracked
• Account table: Per-account current score, 30-day change (color-coded), sparkline trend
• Area chart: Click any account row to see its score history over time, or view the workspace average (default)

Blueprint frames Optimization Score as a compliance metric, not a performance metric. The teal info banner at the top of the tab explains: Google's score measures how many of their recommendations you've accepted. A high score means you're compliant with Google's suggestions — not necessarily that your campaigns are performing well.

This framing is important for agency-client conversations. If a Google rep references a low Optimization Score, you have data showing your actual performance alongside the score, plus a full record of which recommendations you dismissed and why.

Exporting History

The History tab logs every dismissed and expired recommendation. Use it to:

• Review monthly summary cards showing total dismissals and estimated spend avoided
• Filter by account, category, or action type (Auto, Manual, Google)
• Export to CSV for client reports or compliance documentation

The "By" column shows whether each dismissal was triggered by your policy (Auto), your team (Manual), or expired naturally by Google.