A new Google Ads beta may result in overspending, as a result of keywords being added without users’ knowledge.

The issue was first discovered by Lior Krolewicz, with Yael Consulting.

Last week I saw one of my client’s budget was overspending. Digging into the offending campaign, I found keywords that I never saw before. There was no record of these keywords even being added (in the change history) but here they were, overspending by 50% of my target budget.

After lengthy back-and-forth with Google, Krolewicz was pointed to the agency’s Auto Applied Recommendations Control Center, a new feature in beta. Krolewicz’s client had “Maximum Impact” selected. To make matters worse, Google does not show any changes it has made in the standard Google Ads interface.

In the FAQ section, Google attributes this to the feature still being in beta.

Why don’t I see any information about auto applied recommendations in my Google Ads account?

This feature is in the beta testing stage, and your Google Ads account has been selected to participate. To find more information and manage this feature, sign in to the auto applied recommendations control center.

Google Ads users should check their account to make sure they are are not being overcharged as a result of this beta feature.