Is AI Improving Google Ads Account Performance, or Merely Upgrading Your Busy Work?

I was recently chatting with my friend, Alex van de Pol. It seems like every time I talk with Alex, he's already three experiments ahead of me technically! So when we were recently comparing notes on AI in PPC, I wasn't surprised that he had a lot of good things to say.

I think we can all agree, AI in PPC is genuinely exciting. There are cool things happening. Smart people are building smart things. I don't want to be the grumpy industry veteran standing in the town square yelling at clouds.

But… but… I've been doing this long enough to have a finely tuned internal alarm that goes off whenever I notice myself getting excited about activity rather than outcomes.

And right now, that alarm is going off.

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The Question Nobody Seems to be Asking About AI in PPC

Not "is it impressive?" Not "does it save time?" Not "is the demo cool?" but specifically, measurably, will it move the number that matters in your account?

Here’s why I’m asking this:

Because I’ve watched something happen in PPC for years: someone ships a genuinely clever new thing or idea: automated ad rotation, smart bidding, RSAs, Performance Max, a new technique for spreadsheet ad group creation, etc… and the industry collectively loses its mind. Everyone rushes to implement it. Blog posts are written. Webinars are hosted. LinkedIn (or at that time, Twitter RIP) gets loud.

And then... the performance results come in. And they're fine. Sometimes good. But also, many times… not. Rarely the revolution that was advertised.

The UI changed. The activity changed. The performance? More complicated.

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AI as Sous Chef vs. AI as Tinkerer

I'm watching the same movie play out with AI agents, in some NOT all ways, right now.

There's a version of AI in PPC that is genuinely powerful: AI that surfaces insights a human would have missed, that identifies structural account problems, that helps you think through strategy faster and with better inputs. That stuff is real, and I'm excited about it.

Alex described it to me like AI is the sous chef preparing the first level of ingredients so the chef can more easily and quickly craft the final, incredible meal.

But there's another version of AI happening right now that I'm less sure about. The version that's basically automating tinkering.

You know the tinkerer. Maybe you are the tinkerer (no judgment, cause it’s me). The PPC manager who finds deep satisfaction in making changes, testing a new headline variation, adjusting a bid, trying a new audience layer. The work feels productive because there's always something to do. The account is always in motion.

EXCITING THINGS HAPPENING. 

By which the “excitement” is “things happening”. 

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AI is the Best Tinkerer. That's Not Necessarily a Good Thing.

The thing is, AI is incredible at being a tinkerer. AI is the best tinkerer. AI will out tinker us. Faster. At scale. Around the clock.

But the thing with tinkering is that those old people of us in the industry have seen how often tinkering does not equate to actual account performance and improvement. So my question remains, is a lot of AI PPC simply making us feel like we’re “doing more” in the account, that won’t materially impact the account positively? 

I'll put it plainly: building a vibe-coded AI agent that's A/B testing your headlines 24/7 is not impressive if the business does not actually materially improve from those changes.

Nobody cares how sophisticated your automation is. Your client doesn't care. Your boss doesn't care. The algorithm doesn't care. The only thing that matters is whether the business grew, or the efficiency improved, or the account did something it couldn't do before.

That's it. That's the whole job. And to my original point, that’s the way it’s always been.

This is why the best PPCers at times, were the ones who did “less” in the account. It wasn’t that they were pushing all the buttons, it was that they knew when and how to push the right buttons.

So before you go deep on whatever the next AI PPC thing is, and I say this as someone who will absolutely also go deep on whatever the next AI PPC thing is, ask yourself the honest question: Is this going to improve performance, or am I just upgrading my busywork?

Because "AI-powered busywork" is still busywork. It just has a better story at the conference.

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