# Ad changes Piste proposes on Google Ads and Meta

> Piste proposes budget, keyword and pause changes to Google Ads and Meta as cards a person applies. Every kind can be undone, and budgets move at most 20%.

Source: https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/ad-changes

An ad change is one change to a connected Google Ads or Meta account that Piste proposes on a card and a person applies. Piste only proposes kinds of change it can undo, a budget moves by at most 20% at a time, and nothing is written to your account until someone presses the card's button.

> **Early access**
> Google Ads and Meta connections are in early access and aren't available to every workspace yet. If Connections, in the links at the foot of the web app's sidebar, says "Google Ads isn't switched on here yet." or "Meta Ads isn't switched on here yet.", your workspace doesn't have it. Ad changes have so far been tested only against simulated accounts, not a live Google Ads or Meta account.

## What can Piste change in Google Ads and Meta?

| Change | Google Ads | Meta | Button |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower or raise a budget, by at most 20% | Campaign | Campaign | `Lower it` or `Raise it` |
| Add negative keywords | Campaign or ad group | Not available | `Add negatives` |
| Pause | Campaign, ad group or keyword | Campaign, ad set or ad | `Pause it` |
| Turn back on | Campaign, ad group or keyword | Campaign, ad set or ad | `Turn it on` |
| Turn search partners or Display off or on, on a Search campaign | Campaign | Not available | `Turn it off` or `Turn it on` |
| Change location targeting | Campaign | Not available | `Switch it` or `Apply` |

Every card also has `Leave it`. Each change touches one setting on one object and nothing else in the account.

## Where do ad changes come from?

- **Ad spend watch.** Each run proposes up to 3 fixes for the largest findings it reads, each as a card under its post. See [Templates](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations/templates).
- **Sold-out products.** When Piste paused something because the products it advertised sold out, Ad spend watch proposes turning it back on once any of those products has stock again.
- **The owner's conversation.** The owner can ask Piste to propose a change. Its card is the owner's to decide. The owner can also apply a waiting change in the conversation, which asks for their approval first.
- **An agency room.** In an [agency room](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/agency-rooms), a Slack channel you share with your ad agency, the agency can ask Piste to propose a change. Only people in your own Slack workspace can decide it, and at most 5 from one room wait at once.

Apart from agency rooms, ad tools are only in the owner's own conversations and automations. An automation run never applies an ad change; it only proposes, unless a standing approval covers the change.

## What guardrails apply?

These hold whoever proposes the change:

- A budget moves by at most 20% per change, rounded to the amount the platform can bill.
- A change has at most 50 negative keywords, each with its match type.
- No negative keyword blocks searches for your store's own name.
- No phrase or broad negative that would block a search that converted in the last 90 days, or one of the campaign's or ad group's own keywords.
- At most 10 changes wait per ad account, and the same change isn't proposed twice while one waits.
- No budget change to a campaign whose budget the [weekly plan](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/measurement/weekly-plan)'s own recommendation is waiting on, so one budget isn't moved twice.
- `Leave it` is remembered: that finding isn't proposed again.

## How do I apply an ad change?

### 1. Read the card

The card names the change, the campaign or ad set, the account, the value before and after, and why. Press `Show the working` in Slack to see the numbers behind it.

### 2. Press the change's button

Press its button, such as `Lower it` or `Add negatives`. Piste reads the object from the platform again, and writes only if it's still what the card showed.

### 3. Check the card

The card now says who applied it and when, for example "Applied by Maya Chen · 6 Oct", and offers `Undo`.

If the platform doesn't answer, Piste reads the result back once. If it still can't tell, the card says "Google Ads didn't answer, so Piste doesn't know whether this was changed. Check it in Google Ads; Piste won't send it again." (or the same for Meta Ads), and the change is never sent again.

## When does an ad change go out of date?

A change still waiting 7 days after it was proposed is out of date, because its numbers were never checked again. Its card says it was proposed more than 7 days ago, and shows a single `Clear it` button. Clearing it changes nothing in the account, and the next Ad spend watch post checks the finding again.

An undo never goes out of date, and nor does turning something back on that Piste paused because products sold out.

## How do I undo an ad change?

Press `Undo` on the applied change's card. Piste writes the change in reverse, from what it stored and what its write recorded, after checking the setting is still what Piste left it at.

| Change | What Undo does |
|---|---|
| Budget | Sets the budget back to what it was |
| Pause | Turns it back on |
| Turn back on | Pauses it again |
| Networks or location targeting | Sets them back as they were |
| Negative keywords | Removes exactly the ones Piste added; any already there are left alone |

- Piste replies "Undone on Google Ads." (or Meta Ads). If someone had already removed some of the negatives, it names them.
- Each change has one undo, and an undo has no undo of its own.
- A change that turned out to change nothing has no Undo.
- If an undo fails, the button stays so you can try again.
- Undoing a change Piste applied under a [standing approval](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/standing-approvals) switches that standing approval off.

## What did the change do?

A week after a change is applied, Ad spend watch replies in the card's thread with what it did: the spend it was about in the 7 days before and the 7 days after, as the platform reports it. That's measured spend, not profit.

## What does "Show the working" show for an ad change?

`Show the working` posts the evidence in the card's thread: what the check read, what it found, the rule it applied, exactly what will be written, how Undo puts it back, what would make it wrong, and the query it ran. For an ad change, it's what the check saw when it proposed the change, kept as it was, since the same read a day later would give other numbers. See [Proposals and cards](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/proposals) for who can press it.

## Who can decide on an ad change?

| Card | Who can decide |
|---|---|
| Under an Ad spend watch post in Slack | Any full, active member of the Slack workspace Piste is installed in |
| Raised in the owner's conversation | The workspace owner only |
| Proposed in an agency room | Any full, active member of your own Slack workspace, never the agency's people |
| In Needs you on the web | The workspace owner, the only person who signs in on the web |

Guests, deactivated accounts and people from another organisation in a shared channel can't decide. Every decision is in the [decision log](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/decision-log).

## Limits

| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Budget move per change | 20% |
| Negative keywords per change | 50 |
| Changes waiting per ad account | 10 |
| Changes waiting from one agency room | 5 |
| Fixes per Ad spend watch run | 3 |
| Out of date after | 7 days |
| Converting searches protected from phrase and broad negatives | Last 90 days |
| What a change did, posted after | 7 days |

## Related

- [Google Ads and Meta](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/google-ads-and-meta): connecting an ad account.
- [Standing approvals](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/standing-approvals): letting Piste apply one kind of Google Ads fix itself.
- [Proposals and cards](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/proposals): every kind of card and its buttons.
- [Weekly plan](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/measurement/weekly-plan): budget recommendations from measurement.

## Questions

### Can Piste change my ad budgets by itself?

No. Piste proposes each change on a card, and a person applies it. The one exception is a standing approval the owner switches on, which covers only exact-match negative keywords on Google Ads.

### How much can Piste change a budget?

At most 20% in one change, rounded to the amount your ad platform can bill. A bigger move takes several changes, each decided on its own.

### Can I undo an ad change?

Yes. An applied ad change has an Undo button that writes back exactly what it replaced. Undoing negative keywords removes only the ones Piste added.

### What happens if nobody decides on an ad change?

After 7 days it's out of date and can't be applied. Its card shows Clear it, and the next Ad spend watch post checks the finding again.

### Who can apply an ad change?

For a card under an automation run's post in Slack, any full, active member of your Slack workspace. For a card raised in a conversation, only the workspace owner. On the web, the owner, in Needs you.