AdSense rolled out a new tool called the Budget Optimizer last month, aimed at automating bid management, but to what extent should you trust Google to manage your advertising dollars?

Here's how it works: You determine how much you're willing to spend every day in your campaign, and the Budget Optimizer will adjust your bids to maximize the number of clicks you get for that amount of money. The Budget Optimizer is not likely to fail at spending your daily budget amount.

It only takes common sense to see that the Budget Optimizer might not always work in your favor. Determine your bids based on your own testing, not on the results of an automated tool that is not familiar with your niche!

That being said, daily budgets do have their place: they can prevent a financial disaster if you make a mistake with your campaign and are quite helpful to marketers working on new campaigns where the ROI is not yet known.