The weekly loop
We trust the machine to bid. We do not trust it unchecked. The weekly loop is what the checking looks like.
Monday, before anyone opens the account
The warehouse has last week's data: Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, GA4, the CRM outcomes, the call scores. An n8n workflow runs the checks. Spend against budget, by campaign. CPA and conversion value against the trailing four weeks. Conversion volume by action type, so a jump in thirty second calls or a drop in forms shows up as itself and not hidden inside a total. Search term mix, with the share of brand, competitor and junk terms. Impression share and lost-to-budget. The offline upload log: what went back, how many matched, what value.
Anything outside its normal range is flagged with the number, the previous number, and the change. That is the machine's half of the loop.
Then a person
The flags get read. Most weeks there are two or three and they take twenty minutes. Some weeks there is one that matters: the best converting query losing volume faster than the account, the CRM saying jobs are flat while conversions are up, a competitor appearing in the Transparency Centre with a new landing page.
Decisions get made and written down. Values updated from last month's CRM data. A negative list extended. A budget moved. A conversion definition corrected where the CRM says the mix has shifted. Changes go through the API where they are bulk, or the interface where they are not, and either way they are reviewed in the interface before they stand.
Why weekly
Monthly is too slow. Since 17 August the relationship between target, budget and bid cap on a capped campaign has to be watched, and a month is long enough for CPCs to run away. Daily is theatre; the data is too noisy to act on and the machine needs room to settle. Weekly is the rhythm that catches a real change without reacting to a Tuesday.
What the client sees
A short note each week if something changed, and silence if nothing did. The dashboard, on the warehouse, whenever they want it. A log of every change and why.