Ad drafts

Where drafts show up

Drafts that wait for you are under Needs you at the top of the Ads page. The first one is shown in full as an ad preview. The rest are compact rows below it, each with the same two answers.

A draft card shows:

• what it is, for example "New ad for Sprint Planning", and when it was written
• the main headline, and the idea behind the ad: what Bidhelm expects it to do better
• a preview of how the ad reads in search, with the first headlines and a description
• the other headlines, and how many more variants there are
• Ships to: the campaign the ad goes into

Select See every variant to open the full draft. It lists every headline with its character count, every description and image, and a history of the draft.

Approve a draft

Select Approve on the card, or Approve & ship in the full draft. The ad goes to Google Ads straight away, without waiting for Bidhelm's next cycle.

In Google Ads, a search ad lands as a new responsive search ad in its own new ad group inside the campaign it ships to. Your existing ads keep running. The new ad is then tested against them, and the draft's history moves from Approved to Shipped to Testing vs control, and finally to Concluded when the test has a result. Running tests are on the Tests running card on the Ads page, and on the campaign's Overview tab.

A draft with no campaign to ship to isn't sent to Google Ads.

Reject a draft

Select Reject and pick a reason: Wrong angle, Off-brand, Wrong audience, Too salesy or Other, or No reason. In the full draft, you can also add a note in Anything else to add? before you select Confirm reject.

Later drafts take your reason into account, so a reason is worth the extra click.

Change a draft before it ships

Pick a different campaign. On the first draft under Needs you, when ad copy is set to ask first, the Ships to pill is a menu. Open it to see the best-fitting campaigns, each with a fit rating such as Strong fit or Likely fit, and pick another one.

Regenerate the images. On the first draft under Needs you, if it has images, select Regenerate images. The sheet shows each image variant and the prompt behind them. Select an image to use it, or edit the prompt and select the generate button, for example Generate 3 more. Bidhelm writes a fresh draft, copy and images, from your prompt, which takes about 15 to 30 seconds. The original stays a draft until the new one is ready, so a failed attempt loses nothing.

You can also ask Bidhelm in chat to rewrite a draft with different wording or a different angle.

What Bidhelm does on its own

Whether drafts wait for you is set by Write new ad copy under Settings › Permissions:

• Asks first: every draft waits under Needs you until you answer it.
• Acts on its own: Bidhelm ships drafts that pass its checks without waiting. A draft that falls short of that bar still waits for you. The Ships to pill becomes read-only and explains why Bidhelm picked that campaign.

A new workspace starts on Asks first, so you review your first drafts. Once you approve your first draft, or 48 hours after your first drafts are ready with no answer, Bidhelm switches to Acts on its own and tells you in chat and in History. If you chose Asks first yourself in Settings › Permissions, it never switches. See Permissions.

Common questions