Using the approval queue
A step-by-step guide to reviewing, batching, approving and rejecting queued BidSmart changes, reading the audit trail, and reverting an executed change to its previous state.
The approval queue is where every BidSmart recommendation waits for your decision. Nothing executes against Google Ads until you approve it here. You can review each proposed change with its reason and evidence, approve or reject them one at a time or in batches, and check the audit trail of everything that's been executed. Because each executed change records its before/after state, anything you approve can also be reversed.
What the queue is for
The approval queue is the boundary between "BidSmart thinks you should" and "it happened." Every recommendation, whether a target change, an incubator move or a budget adjustment, lands here and does nothing until you act. There is no path around it: BidSmart has no autopilot, so if the queue is untouched, your ad account is unchanged.
Working the queue
Review before you approve
Open the queue and read each item's proposed change, its reason, and the evidence behind it. The queue is deliberately the point where your judgement enters: approve what the numbers argue for and you agree with, reject what you know better on. See reading your bid recommendations for how to weigh each one.
Approve, reject, or leave
Three choices per item, none irreversible:
- Approve: queues the change to execute against Google Ads on confirmation.
- Reject: removes it; your account stays as-is. If the underlying performance persists, a similar recommendation may resurface later with fresh numbers.
- Leave: it waits. No time pressure; nothing decays into execution.
Batch a backlog
Select several items and approve them in one pass. This is the intended rhythm: let recommendations accumulate over a week, then clear them in a single sitting. Because nothing executes until you confirm, a backlog is never a risk, only a to-do list.
Deep dive The audit trail, and reverting a change
Approval-first would be half a promise without a record. Every change BidSmart executes writes an audit entry the moment it's applied, capturing:
- What changed: the product or campaign and the field affected.
- Before state: the exact value prior to the change (old target, old budget, old campaign).
- After state: the value BidSmart wrote.
- When and on whose approval: a timestamp tied to your sign-off.
Two things fall out of this. First, accountability: months later you can answer "what changed on the 3rd, and why" precisely, which is exactly what you need when explaining a performance swing to a client or a boss, or tracing a swing back to a specific decision. Second, reversibility: because the before-state is stored, any executed change can be reverted to exactly what it was. A change you approve is never a one-way door; if a target move doesn't play out how the evidence suggested, Revert restores the prior state and you're back where you started. This is what makes approving small, well-evidenced changes low-stakes: the worst case is a change you can see in the trail and undo. See how BidSmart works for how the trail fits the wider model.
Good habits
- Skim reasons even when batching. The queue's value is the judgement it invites; don't approve blind.
- Approve small steps in sequence. Target moves are intentionally small so Google's bidding doesn't reset; approve a few over weeks rather than reaching for one big jump.
- Use the trail when performance moves. Before blaming the algorithm, check what you approved and when. The record is precise.
- Reject freely. Rejecting costs nothing and keeps your account as-is. The queue is there for exactly this.
Step by step
- Open the approval queue. In BidSmart, go to the Approval queue. Every pending recommendation is listed here, including target changes, incubator moves and budget adjustments. Nothing in this list has touched your Google Ads account yet.
- Review each change with its reason and evidence. For each item, read the proposed change, the plain-English reason, and the product's numbers behind it. This is where your own knowledge of the product matters, since the queue exists so you can catch what the data can't see.
- Approve, reject, or leave each item. Approve the changes you agree with, reject the ones you don't, and leave the rest to wait. Rejected and unactioned items never execute; your account stays exactly as it is.
- Batch approvals to action a backlog in one pass. Select multiple items and approve them together. You can safely let recommendations accumulate for a week and clear them in one sitting, because nothing executes until this step.
- Confirm, then only approved items execute. On confirmation, only the items you approved are written to Google Ads. Each executed change records its before state and after state as it goes.
- Check the audit trail, and revert if needed. The audit trail lists every executed change with its before/after state and timestamp. To undo one, use Revert, which restores the exact previous state.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to items I don't action?
They wait. An unactioned item never executes, so an unopened or half-worked queue means an unchanged ad account. Recommendations are safe to leave.
Can I approve everything at once?
Yes, batch-select and approve. But skim the reasons first; batching is for speed once you trust the recommendations, not a reason to skip the judgement the queue is there to provide.
How far back does the audit trail go?
Every executed change is recorded with its before/after state and timestamp, so you can trace exactly what changed and when. That's useful for explaining a performance swing weeks later.