Ad Automation: What to Trust and What to Control

Automation has officially moved from being an optional advantage that was occasionally available to a campaign necessity within platforms like Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads. Enhancements like smart bidding, automated targeting, and algorithmic optimizations are all necessities to use within campaigns.

As automation removes more and more levers to be pulled, a new challenge has emerged: knowing what to trust the platform with, and when human oversight is still necessary. A winning campaign today isn’t about resisting automation. It’s about learning to partner with it intentionally.

What Automation in Ad Platforms Can Do 

Automated systems excel at speed, scale, and pattern recognition. Google’s bidding and targeting algorithms can process signals at a rate that humans could never touch, optimizing and adjusting in real time based on device, intent, time of day, and countless additional micro factors. LinkedIn’s delivery algorithm works similarly when given enough data to understand who is most likely to engage or convert within a defined audience.

These systems are also incredibly strong at incremental optimization. When campaigns are properly set up, algorithms will allocate spend toward better-performing segments, placements, and creative variations. This makes automation especially effective for legacy accounts with stable conversion signals and consistent volume.

In short: automated systems are great at optimization but lack the skills for true strategy.

Where Humans Drive Impact 

Human oversight matters deeply in structure, messaging, and measurement.

Structure is the foundation. Campaign architecture, audience definition and segmentation, account hierarchy, and budget distribution determine how automated systems can even learn in the first place. A poorly structure account limits even the smartest algorithms.  People need to decide what gets combined, what needs to be isolated, and what data the system can and should learn from.

Messaging remains one of the most under-automated and highest-impact levers. Platforms rotate ads, but they can’t understand the nuance, positioning, or emotional resonance that makes good ads great. Humans create the story, test different angles, and ensure the messaging aligns with the brands, where they are in the funnel stage, and the real buyer pain points.

Measurement is the most critical human responsibility. As attribution becomes more deterministic, people need to be there to define success beyond just surface level metrics. Choosing the right conversion actions, understanding impacts, and interpreting results within the necessary context will always be things that need human oversight, not automation.

Common Over-Automation Mistakes

One of the biggest mistakes a team utilizing automation can make is giving too much control too early in the campaign. Launching a fully automated plan without sufficient data, clear signals, or correct structure leads to wasted spend and jumbled learnings.

Another common problem within automation is blind trust in platform-reported performance. Automated systems optimize towards what they are told to optimize for, even if that differs from business value. Without human oversight, chasing efficiency can come at the expense of quality.

Automation should reduce manual effort, not eliminate accountability.

Hybrid Ad Setups that Outperform

Today, the strongest performance campaigns come from hybrid models: automated systems handle execution, with humans guiding direction. These hybrid models can encompass many different setups, including automated bidding paired with tightly controlled campaign structures, semi-broad targeting supported with strong creative differentiation, or platform automation combined with external measurements and human analysis.

In these scenarios, automation accelerates performance, with human oversight driving with strategy, storytelling, and evaluation.

Automated Systems as Tools, Not Replacements

Automation in Google and LinkedIn can be trusted but should never be blindly followed. Automated systems can be powerful tools, best utilized when paired with human judgement, creativity, and strategic intent.

The future of performance marketing isn’t fully automated or fully manual; it has to be collaborative. Trust the platforms to do what they do best but keep humans focused on the decisions that move business forward.