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Tutorials Darren Talyor 5th June 2024

Is Google Ads AI Campaign Creation Actually Any Good? A Real-World Test

Google Ads is increasingly pushing automation and AI-powered campaign creation. If you’ve logged into Google Ads recently and attempted to build a new campaign, you’ve probably seen Google encouraging you to let its AI handle everything for you.

According to Google, you no longer need extensive advertising knowledge. No keyword research. No ad group structuring. No writing ad copy. Simply provide a website URL and a short prompt, and Google’s AI system will supposedly create a complete campaign for you.

Sounds ideal in theory.

But how well does it actually work in practice?

In this article, we’ll break down a real-world test of Google’s AI campaign builder and evaluate whether it’s genuinely useful for advertisers or simply another shortcut that creates poor-quality campaigns.

What Is Google’s AI Campaign Builder?

Google’s AI-assisted campaign creation tool is designed to simplify the setup process for new advertisers. The platform scans your website, attempts to understand your products or services, and automatically generates:

Keywords
Ad headlines
Descriptions
Site links
Campaign targeting suggestions

The idea is that anyone, regardless of experience level, can launch a Google Ads campaign quickly using automation.

However, there’s an important question:

Does convenience come at the expense of campaign quality?

Testing Google’s AI Campaign Creation Tool

To evaluate the system properly, the test used a local vehicle repair business website as the basis for the campaign.

The goal was simple:

Create a standard search campaign
Let Google’s AI generate the campaign structure
Assess the quality of the output

The business offered multiple services, including:

Car servicing
MOT testing
Accident repairs
Tyres
Recovery services
Insurance repairs

This made it a strong test case because a well-built Google Ads campaign should separate these services into tightly themed ad groups.

Initial Campaign Setup Still Requires Human Input

Although Google promotes the process as automated, some campaign configuration still required manual setup, including:

Location Targeting

The campaign was restricted to a 10-mile radius around Newcastle upon Tyne to ensure relevance.

Audience Settings

The setup also required adjustments such as:

Turning off Search Partners
Disabling the Display Network
Using “Presence” targeting instead of “Interest”

These are important optimisation steps that inexperienced advertisers may not understand.

This immediately highlights a major issue:

Even with AI assistance, advertisers still need a reasonable understanding of campaign settings to avoid wasting budget.

How Well Did Google Understand the Website?

Once the website URL was entered, Google scanned the site and attempted to identify the business’s services and unique selling points.

Surprisingly, this part worked reasonably well.

Google correctly identified services such as:

Car servicing
Body repairs
MOT testing
Tyres
Accident repairs

It also extracted some genuine selling points from the website, including:

Approved repair centre
Specialist trained technicians
Customer service focus

Compared to earlier versions of this tool, this represented a noticeable improvement.

The AI was clearly better at contextual understanding than it had been previously.

The Good: Google Generated Complete Ads

Google’s AI successfully created:

15 headlines
4 descriptions
Several site links

Technically, this meant it generated a complete responsive search ad.

Some of the headlines included phrases like:

“Car Body Shop Near You”
“Approved Repair Centre”
“MOT, Tyres and Service”
“24/7 Repairs”

The descriptions also referenced:

Car servicing
Repairs
Genuine manufacturer parts
Multiple repair services

Overall, the content was acceptable.

Not exceptional.

Not particularly persuasive.

But usable.

The system has clearly improved from earlier iterations where the generated ads were often incoherent or irrelevant.

The Biggest Problem: Terrible Campaign Structure

While the ad copy was acceptable, the actual campaign structure was deeply flawed.

Instead of separating services into different ad groups, Google lumped everything into a single ad group using broad match keywords.

This included keywords covering:

General car repairs
Body shop services
MOT testing
Servicing
Tyres

All grouped together.

This is a major issue.

Why One Ad Group Doesn’t Work

Effective Google Ads campaigns rely heavily on relevance.

A proper structure would separate services into tightly themed ad groups such as:

Example Structure

Ad Group 1: MOT Testing

MOT near me
MOT test Newcastle
Vehicle MOT service

Ad Group 2: Car Servicing

Car servicing
Full service garage
Vehicle service centre

Ad Group 3: Body Repairs

Car body shop
Accident repair centre
Dent repair services

Each ad group would then contain highly relevant ads specifically tailored to those searches.

Google’s AI completely failed to do this.

Instead, it produced a generic campaign attempting to target everything simultaneously.

The result?

Lower relevance
Poorer Quality Scores
Reduced click-through rates
Weaker conversion performance
Higher wasted spend

Broad Match Keywords Create Additional Risk

Another major concern was Google’s reliance on broad match keywords.

For inexperienced advertisers, this can become expensive very quickly.

Broad match allows Google to show ads for loosely related searches, which often leads to:

Irrelevant clicks
Poor traffic quality
Wasted budget

For a small local business with limited budget, this is particularly dangerous.

Without proper negative keyword management and segmentation, campaigns can burn through money fast.

AI Conversations Didn’t Solve the Problem

One interesting feature of the tool is the ability to “chat” with Google’s AI assistant to improve the campaign.

The test attempted to prompt the AI to:

Create separate ad groups
Segment services properly
Improve keyword organisation

The result?

The AI simply responded:

“I am unable to help you with your keywords at the moment.”

That’s a serious limitation.

Even more concerning was the inability to generate basic callout assets properly.

When prompted to create callout extensions, the AI either misunderstood the request or ignored it entirely.

This suggests the conversational AI layer is still extremely limited and unreliable.

Site Links Were Also Weak

Although Google did generate site links, they weren’t especially useful.

Instead of prioritising major services, the AI selected relatively niche pages such as:

Batteries
Insurance repairs

A human advertiser would typically prioritise:

MOT services
Car servicing
Accident repairs
Contact page

Again, this demonstrates that while the AI can pull information from a website, it still struggles with strategic prioritisation.

Has Google’s AI Actually Improved?

In fairness, yes — slightly.

Compared to earlier versions, Google’s AI is now better at:

Understanding website content
Generating complete ads
Extracting business information
Producing coherent copy

However, the core strategic problems remain unresolved.

The system still struggles with:

Campaign structure
Keyword segmentation
Match type strategy
Asset creation
Overall optimisation logic

These are critical elements of successful Google Ads management.

And unfortunately, they’re the areas where automation matters most.

The Real Danger for New Advertisers

The biggest concern isn’t that the tool is imperfect.

It’s that inexperienced advertisers may trust it too much.

Google presents the system as though it can replace proper campaign setup expertise, when in reality it still creates campaigns with major weaknesses.

New advertisers could easily:

Launch campaigns with poor structure
Spend heavily on broad match traffic
Generate low-quality leads
Fail to achieve conversions
Assume Google Ads “doesn’t work”

When the real issue is simply poor campaign setup.

Final Verdict: Is Google’s AI Campaign Builder Worth Using?

At its current stage, Google’s AI campaign builder feels more like a rough beta feature than a polished advertising solution.

The Positives

Better contextual understanding
Decent ad generation
Faster setup process
Helpful for basic inspiration

The Negatives

Poor campaign structure
Over-reliance on broad match
Weak strategic thinking
Limited conversational AI support
Minimal optimisation guidance

Overall, the system might score around 6 out of 10 for ad generation alone.

But as a complete campaign-building solution?

It still falls well short.

Should You Use It?

For experienced advertisers, the tool may provide:

Quick ad copy ideas
Basic asset inspiration
A starting point for campaigns

But for beginners hoping Google’s AI can fully manage campaign creation automatically, the answer is simple:

Not yet.

Human strategy, segmentation, keyword control, and optimisation still massively outperform Google’s automated setup tools.

Until Google significantly improves campaign structuring and targeting intelligence, relying entirely on AI-generated campaigns remains a risky approach.

About The Speaker

Darren Talyor

Editor

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