Why Google Reps Keep Pushing Broad Match, Optimized Targeting, and Smart Bidding (Even When It Hurts Your ROAS)

If you’ve spent any time running Google Ads—especially at scale—you’ve probably had a Google rep tell you something like this:

“We recommend switching everything to broad match, enabling optimized targeting, and letting smart bidding take the wheel. It’ll improve performance over time as the algorithm learns.”

I’ve heard this pitch a hundred times. And I get it—it sounds great in theory. Less manual work. More reach. More machine learning. But here’s the problem:

It doesn’t always work. And sometimes, it flat-out wrecks your performance.

So why are Google reps so persistent in pushing these recommendations?

Let’s peel back the curtain and look at what’s really going on.

1. More Broad = More Clicks = More Money (For Google)

When you switch to broad match or enable optimized targeting, you’re basically telling Google:

“Hey, show my ads to anyone you think might be relevant. Even if they didn’t search for my product directly.”

That opens the floodgates to less qualified traffic—more impressions, more clicks, and yes, more spend.

Whether those clicks actually convert? That’s your problem. Not theirs.

2. Automation Makes It Harder to See What’s Going Wrong

With all these features enabled, Google controls:

• Who sees your ads

• What queries you show up for

• How much you’re bidding

That means you lose a lot of visibility—and a lot of control. And when performance drops, you don’t really know why.

Convenient for them. Frustrating for you.

3. Google Reps Are Judged on Feature Adoption, Not Your Results

This is a big one. Most Google reps aren’t measured by how well your campaigns perform.

They’re measured by how many accounts they can get to adopt automated features like broad match and smart bidding. It’s a checkbox on their dashboard, not a reflection of whether you’re making money.

So when they say “trust the algorithm,” remember—they’re just doing their job. It’s just not the same job you hired your ad strategist to do.

4. They’re Playing the Long Game: Kill the Buyer, Praise the Bot

The more control the algorithm has, the less value there is in human expertise. That’s the game.

Google wants to commoditize ad buying. They want you to plug in your goals and let the machine take over. Which is fine, until it’s not.

I’ve seen smart campaigns lose all sense of targeting nuance, overspend on branded terms, and get flooded with junk traffic—because the controls just aren’t there anymore.

5. Once You Switch, It’s Hard to Go Back

Broad match + optimized targeting + smart bidding creates a black box. If it’s working? Great. If it’s not? You don’t really know what to fix.

Worse, once you hand over full control, you lose the segmentation and performance benchmarks that made your account work in the first place.

It’s not just a toggle. It’s a trap.

So What Should You Do?

I’m not anti-automation. There are times when smart bidding and even broad match can be useful—especially with the right structure, exclusions, and guardrails in place.

But don’t let a Google rep bully you into turning everything on just because “the machine will figure it out.”

Ask questions. Test on your terms. And don’t give up control unless you know exactly what you’re getting in return.

Want help navigating the mess? That’s what we do.