Reading a decision card

Clicking into a campaign opens its full decision card - the complete reasoning, not just the conclusion.

What's on it

• Lifecycle classification - the stage and why: e.g. "15 conversions - 15 more needed for Smart Bidding threshold".

• Bidding recommendation - what strategy to use and why, channel-aware: Search campaigns route toward tCPA, Shopping and Performance Max toward tROAS.

• Budget recommendation - increase, decrease, or hold - and if a bidding change is recommended this cycle, budget is forced to hold (see One lever at a time).

• Schedule analysis - whether the campaign's ad schedule affects budget pacing (relevant since Google's March 2025 pacing change).

• Cooldown status - whether a cooldown is active, when it expires, and which lever it blocks.

• The exact change - the precise Google Ads change that Apply will make, with a plain-English preview ("Increase daily budget from $50.00 to $60.00") and before/after values.

What to check before applying:

1. Read the reason - does it match what you know about the client?

2. Check the before/after values - is the size of the change sensible?

3. Check the cooldown status - if it's blocked, the card says why and until when.

Good to know. Every recommendation shows its working. If a recommendation ever looks odd, the card tells you which baseline it judged against and which thresholds fired - the disagreement is usually about a target, not the logic.

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