Search Term Automation
Scaling automation with control: Enhancing keyword efficiency through smarter feedback and publishing workflows.
Product
Internal CMS Platform
Team
1 UX, 1 PM, 2 DEV, 2+ Stakeholders
Duration
1 month, 2025
Project Overview:
The goal of this project was to redesign the Search Term Automation flow in the Ads Portal, focusing on improving the experience for power users like PPC professionals and product managers. The redesign introduced deeper control over filtering, feedback handling, and publishing logic - while preserving clarity and efficiency at scale.
Users & Pain Points:
Key features included:
Cross-automation filtering system
Manual group publishing support
Mandatory feedback collection on rejections
Per-row campaign/ad group editing
Publish per page functionality
PPC (Marketing Analyst)
These are the core, hands-on users of the Ads Portal. They manage live campaigns daily, use automation to optimize performance at scale, & rely on the portal to reduce repetitive work
“I need to trust the system’s automation - but still want to control which keywords go live, and why something was rejected”
Product Manager
Use the portal to track adoption, validate user behavior, and align automation design with real-world usage patterns.
“We don’t just need automation. We need accountability and visibility.”
Initial Research:
In the previous version, users had no way to filter results, could only publish all at once, and couldn’t edit campaigns or ad groups per row. There was also no way to reject suggestions with a reason, which made tracking and decision-making difficult.
Wireframes:
Initial wireframes focused on:
A table-first layout (to align with PPC analysts’ mental models)
Clear semantic fit scoring
Inline actions for edit / reject / publish
Bulk controls with scalable selection logic
The final experience:
The final experience enables users to:
Review search terms and keyword suggestions with semantic clarity
Reject suggestions with required feedback (brand, volume, quality, or other)
Edit campaigns and ad groups inline
Publish at group or page level
Filter across multiple dimensions (cost, performance, publishing status)