Liam Walsh
Liam is a Co-Director at Intelligency and heads up the agency's Digital Intelligence & Paid Social activity. Over the last decade, he has worked with brands from the world of sports such as Premier League clubs to entertainment such as Channel 4 and Disney.
In the ever-evolving world of paid media, one of the biggest challenges for advertisers has been separating assumption from actual impact. For years, recommendations within Google Ads have promised improved performance but proving their real value has often been unclear. That’s now changing.
With the introduction of the new Results tab in Google Ads, marketers finally have access to tangible, post-implementation performance data. From an agency perspective, this is a meaningful shift toward accountability, smarter optimisation, and better client outcomes.
Moving Beyond Recommendations to Real Results
Historically, Google Ads recommendations, particularly around bids and budgets, have relied heavily on projected outcomes. While useful, these projections didn’t always translate into measurable business gains.
The new Results tab changes that by showing what actually happens after a recommendation is applied. Google evaluates campaign performance roughly one-week post-change and compares it to an estimated baseline of what would have happened without intervention.
This means advertisers can now see incremental improvements, such as additional conversions driven specifically by a budget increase or bidding adjustment, bringing much-needed clarity to decision-making.
A Smarter Way to Evaluate Automation
Automation in Google Ads has grown rapidly, but trust has lagged behind. Many brands remain cautious about blindly applying recommendations, and rightly so.
The Results tab helps bridge this gap by validating, or challenging, Google’s automated suggestions with real data. Instead of relying on optimisation scores or forecasts alone, marketers can now assess whether recommendations genuinely deliver value.
For digital marketing agencies, this creates an opportunity to apply a more strategic lens, using platform insights as a guide rather than a rulebook.
What This Means for Advertisers and Agencies
This update is more than just a feature release. It represents a shift in how performance should be measured and communicated.
Agencies can now demonstrate clearer ROI to clients, backed by platform-level attribution of changes. It also enables more informed testing, allowing teams to double down on what works and quickly discard what doesn’t.
Ultimately, the Results tab reinforces a core principle we stand by data-driven decisions should be based on outcomes, not assumptions. As Google continues to push automation, tools like this will be critical in ensuring transparency remains at the heart of paid media strategy.
