How three AIs run your Google Ads, in plain English.
Square Bracket Ads is an AI PPC agency built on our own software, which connects to the Google Ads API for the businesses we manage. Think of it as an AI Google Ads manager with a person holding the money. Here is what it does, what the AI is and isn't allowed to decide, and what happens to your data.
Short version: the engine traces every lead to the ad that produced it, reports real customers back to Google so its bidding improves, and reviews the account every week. Three AI models from three companies check each proposed change. Changes that could raise spend wait for a person. Hard limits in the code apply no matter what any AI says, and every change is logged and can be undone.
1. Every lead is traced
A small script on your website notes how each visitor arrived: the Google ad click, the search, or the link they came from. When a visitor sends your form, the lead gets a reference number that appears in the email you already receive. Calls from your ads are tracked through Google's own call reporting.
The script stores this in a first-party cookie on your site for up to 90 days. It does not collect anything from people who don't contact you. If a visitor's browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, the script does not keep ad click IDs and does not send contact details.
2. Real jobs go back to Google
Each lead gets a status: qualified, booked, lost, junk, spam, wrong service, existing customer or duplicate. Only qualified leads and booked jobs are reported to Google, through Google's Data Manager API. Junk is never reported, so Google's bidding learns from real customers instead of from every form fill.
When we send contact details for matching, they are first turned into one-way SHA-256 codes, the format Google requires. We never store a readable email or phone number from your leads. For businesses in sensitive categories, such as dental and medical practices, we send only the ad click ID and no contact details at all, as Google's customer data policy requires.
3. A weekly crosschecked review
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| The engine (code) | Pulls the week's numbers from Google Ads, runs about 35 account checks, and computes every figure in your reports. No AI does arithmetic on your money. |
| Claude (Anthropic) | Reads the search terms and findings, and proposes changes with a reason for each. |
| Codex (OpenAI) | Reviews each proposal independently and agrees or holds. |
| Gemini (Google) | Reviews each proposal independently and agrees or holds. |
| A person | Approves anything that adds spend, widens targeting, or changes what an ad claims about your business. |
A change moves forward only when all three AIs agree. A single hold sends it to a person.
4. Guardrails the AI can't change
- A monthly spending cap and a daily budget cap for every client, set in writing with you. The software refuses any change above them.
- Display, Search Partners and Performance Max stay off unless your account settings allow them.
- No changes to billing, account ownership or user access, ever.
- Google's auto-apply recommendations stay off, so Google can't make changes we haven't reviewed.
- A daily check pauses campaigns that run past their budget, and alerts us when costs or conversions swing unusually.
- Bid targets move in small steps, no more than 15% at a time, so Google's bidding is not thrown off.
- Every change is written to a tamper-evident log with its before and after values, and can be rolled back.
5. What the AI sees
The AI reviewers see your account's performance data: campaigns, keywords, search terms, costs and conversion counts. They do not see your customers' names, emails or phone numbers. Our privacy policy lists everything we collect and who processes it.
6. What stays with you
Your Google Ads account, your billing, your Local Services verification and your business details stay in your name and under your control. You can remove our access at any time from your own account.
Related
See how this applies to heating and cooling on our HVAC Google Ads page, or get a free audit of your current account.