Approval workflows for advertising changes: which changes, which roles, and what to keep.
An approval step that covers everything gets bypassed within a month. One that covers the right changes takes minutes a week and prevents the mistakes that cost money. This guide helps you decide where to put it, with a risk grid and a request template you can copy.
What the platforms give you, and what they leave to you.
Google Ads controls who may do what through five access levels: email-only, billing, read-only, standard and admin. A read-only user can view campaigns and run reports; a standard user can edit campaigns; an admin can also manage users and links to other products.
Notice what is missing: there is no level between “can see” and “can change everything in the campaigns”. Someone trusted to add a negative keyword is, technically, trusted to triple a budget. And there is no built-in step where a second person agrees to a campaign change: multi-party approval in Google Ads covers adding, removing or changing users, not budgets, keywords or ads.
An approval workflow is therefore something you add: a rule in the team, a document, or a tool. The rest of this guide is about making it light enough to survive.
Which changes deserve an approval.
Sort changes by two questions: how much money can it move, and how quickly would you notice a mistake? Adapt the thresholds to your budgets.
| Level | Typical changes | Suggested rule |
|---|---|---|
| Routine | Adding a negative keyword from the search terms report, pausing an ad that was disapproved, fixing a typo | No approval. Note it if it explains a later movement |
| Sensitive | A budget change beyond a set threshold, pausing a keyword or a campaign that converts, new ads, a broader match type | One approver, with the reason and the figures it rests on |
| Structural | Changing the bidding strategy or its target, changing the conversion being optimised, launching or stopping a campaign, changing targeted countries | Approval by the person accountable for the budget, a review date, and a note of how to go back |
| Access | Adding a user, connecting a tool, linking an account | An administrator only. Google Ads can require a second administrator for user changes |
This grid is a starting point of our own, not a standard. The right thresholds depend on your budgets and on how often you look at the account.
Three roles, even in a team of two.
The person who prepares
Knows the account. Writes the change precisely, with the reason and the figures. Their job is to make the approver's decision easy.
The person who approves
Accountable for the budget or the client. Does not need to be the expert: needs to understand what changes, why, and what happens if it goes wrong.
The person who is informed
The client, a manager, finance. Told afterwards, in plain terms. Being informed is not approving, and mixing the two slows everything.
What an approval means when you are the only one.
A freelancer or a business owner cannot ask a colleague. The step still has value if it forces a pause: write the request as if someone else had to approve it, then read it again later, ideally the next morning, before applying it. Many bad changes do not survive being written down.
Be honest about what this is. Approving your own request is a second look, not a second person, and it should be recorded as such.
The approval request: what an approver needs to say yes or no.
If a request cannot be filled in, the change is not ready. That is the template doing its job.
| Field | Weak | Useful |
|---|---|---|
| What changes | “Increase the budget” | “Summer campaign: daily budget from €60 to €75” |
| Why | “To get more sales” | “Limited by budget five days of the last seven; cost per sale within target” |
| Based on | “It's performing well” | “Last 30 days, compared with the 30 before; figures read this morning” |
| What could go wrong | Left empty | “Cost per sale may rise as volume grows; up to €105 more spent per week” |
| How to go back | “We'll see” | “Return to €60 if cost per sale exceeds the target for seven days” |
| Review date | None | “In 14 days” |
Fictitious examples. The figure of €105 is simply €15 more per day over seven days.
Four ways an approval workflow fails.
It covers everything
When every negative keyword needs a signature, approvers stop reading and approve in bulk. Keep routine changes out.
The approval is not tied to the change
“OK for the budget” in a chat, then a different amount applied. The approval should name the exact before and after, and stop being valid if they change.
The account moved in the meantime
A request written on Monday and applied on Thursday may rest on a budget someone else already changed. Check the current state before applying.
Nothing is kept
An approval given by voice leaves no trace. Six months later, the platform's change history will show who clicked, and nothing about who agreed or why.
How Plireo approaches approvals.
Plireo is being built to do for Google Ads Search campaigns what this guide describes by hand: each change is written as an exact before and after, checked against the current state of the account, approved by a person with the approver role, and recorded with its reason. An approval stops being valid if the change is edited.
Two limits to know: it prepares four types of change on Search campaigns only, and by default an approver may approve a change they prepared themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google Ads have an approval workflow for campaign changes?
No. Google Ads offers access levels, which decide who may edit, and multi-party approval, which requires a second administrator for adding, removing or changing users. Neither asks a second person to agree to a budget, keyword or ad change.
Can campaign drafts be used as an approval step?
They help with review: a draft lets you prepare changes to a Search or Display campaign without affecting it. But anyone who can edit the campaign can apply the draft, and drafts are not available for Video, App or Shopping campaigns.
Who should approve advertising changes?
The person accountable for the budget or for the client relationship, not necessarily the most technical one. If the approver cannot understand a request, the request needs rewriting.
How long should approval records be kept?
At least as long as you may be asked about the decision. Google Ads change history covers two years; a client or a new manager may ask about something older, so keeping your own record for the life of the account is reasonable.
Related pages
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