What are Auto-apply Recommendations in Microsoft Ads?
Auto-apply Recommendations is an account-level setting in Microsoft Ads.
When enabled, Microsoft automatically applies eligible optimisation recommendations to your campaigns without requiring manual approval.
Why should I turn it off?
The idea of AAR's is to reduce time spent on account maintenance. However, many advertisers find that the recommendations applied can damage performance, increase wasted spend, or override deliberate strategy choices.
Opteo flags this Improvement when your account is opted into one or more of the following Auto-apply Recommendations:
Removing negative keywords. This broadens targeting beyond what you intended, generating impressions on terms you’ve deliberately excluded.
Adding new multimedia ads. These expand into cheaper placements, but the inventory is often lower quality and less likely to convert.
Automatically created conversion goals. These may not align with your campaign strategy, and if they’re set too loosely, they can inflate reported performance while failing to support real business goals.
Responsive Search Ads Creation. Creates RSAs automatically if an ad group has none. This can be helpful in empty ad groups, though copy quality may vary.
Fix Conversion Goal Settings. Adjusts settings for existing goals. Occasionally useful if tracking is misconfigured, but should be reviewed rather than applied blindly.
Repair Missing Keyword Parameters. Adds tracking parameters to URLs. Mostly harmless and can be useful for analytics, though not always necessary.
How does this Improvement work?
Opteo scans your account and flags whenever one (or more) Auto-apply Recommendations are switched on in the account.
We'll show you a table with all the Auto-apply Recommendations, their status, and an action button where you can choose to disable or enable it.
This way, you can customise your setup:
Disable the risky AARs that cause wasted spend.
Keep any helpful ones you’re comfortable with.
Make changes in one step without hunting through Microsoft Ads settings.
When is Auto-apply bad?
Accounts with carefully managed negative keyword lists. Auto-apply can remove critical blocks and expose you to irrelevant traffic.
Campaigns where brand voice matters. Automatically created ads may not match your messaging, or worse, could pull in unrelated imagery.
Strategies with strict conversion definitions. Auto-created goals can inflate numbers without reflecting meaningful results.
High-budget accounts. Even small misalignments can quickly multiply into significant wasted spend.
When can Auto-apply help?
There are limited scenarios where Auto-apply might be useful:
Small accounts with limited management time. Some low-risk optimisations (like applying extensions) can be automated.
Accounts in early testing phases. Automatic suggestions can provide ideas to test quickly.
If you want to keep Auto-apply recommendations enabled, you can simply dismiss the improvement in Opteo.