The platform marks its own homework.
Ad-reported ROAS counts revenue the ads may not have caused, and ignores margin, returns and repeat orders. An account can look healthy while every sale loses money.
In-house platform · public release planned
Every account.Every morning.One answer first.
Cortex is the platform I built to run Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. It checks every account before the day starts, names the one thing holding growth back, judges spend on profit and can't change a thing without my approval.
Not on general sale yet. The way to have it working for you today is my account management.
Morning run · illustrative
cortex / dailyawaiting approval
652skills, tools and processes covering the whole paid marketing space
2platforms: Google Ads and Microsoft Ads
Dailychecks on every live account, before the day starts
0changes made without approval
Why I built it
Dashboards show you numbers. Accounts need decisions.
After 22 years in Google Ads, the costly mistakes I see are rarely about effort. They come from good work aimed at the wrong problem. Cortex exists to stop three of them.
Perfect ads, wrong problem.
Rewriting every ad won't help if the checkout is broken, the tracking double counts, or the business can't handle more orders. Most tools only look inside the ad account, so they never see it.
Silent failures read as all clear.
A tag stops firing, a data feed goes stale, a report keeps saying nothing is wrong. Cortex treats "couldn't check" as a finding in its own right and says so first.
The method
It checks from the top down, and stops at the first thing that's broken.
Every account problem sits in one of five layers, and they come in a fixed order. There's no point tuning keywords while the tracking is wrong. Pick a layer to see what Cortex checks there.
Sometimes the honest answer is that the fix isn't in the ad account at all. Cortex is built to say that plainly, because a Google Ads tweak can't fix a pricing problem.
The platform
One system for the whole account, in place of a pile of reports.
Each part feeds the same picture of the account, so a finding in the feed or the tracking changes what gets recommended in the campaigns.
Constraint diagnosis
Walks the five layers on fresh data and names the single constraint that matters most, with the numbers behind it.
Profit-led acquisition
Joins ad spend to real orders, margins, returns and repeat purchases, so campaigns are judged on new customers and contribution.
Daily monitoring
Performance breaks, budget pacing, disapprovals and tracking that has stopped firing, caught each morning on every live account.
Search terms and keywords
Finds waste and new keywords, then runs every proposed keyword or negative through a guard that stops it cutting traffic that converts.
Shopping feeds
Audits Merchant Centre data for errors, weak titles and missing attributes, and builds supplemental feeds to fix what it finds.
Tracking and measurement
Fifty checks across conversion tags, consent, attribution and data quality, so every decision rests on numbers that are right.
Performance Max and AI Max
Asset groups, channel spend, brand protection and search themes, so automated campaign types get steered instead of left alone.
Budgets and bidding
Tracks monthly budgets, spots campaigns held back by budget and moves bid targets in measured steps, never big swings.
Ad copy and testing
Writes ads in the brand's own voice, runs head-to-head tests and retires tired copy once the data says so.
How a change happens
Cortex does the legwork. I make the call.
One negative keyword or a budget move across a whole account, every change takes the same route, and every one can be undone.
Diagnose
Fresh data for the exact period, tied to the constraint the change is meant to fix.
Propose
The current value, the new one, the reason and a dry run of what will happen.
Approve
Nothing goes live until I approve that exact change. One approval unlocks one change, then the lock re-arms.
Verify and review
Cortex reads the account back to confirm it saved what was asked, logs the undo step and checks the result at 30, 60 and 90 days.
Proposal · SearchAwaiting approval
Raise daily budget
Non-brand · High intent
£120.00£138.00+15%
- Why
- Losing 22% of impressions to budget at 4.1x ROAS, comfortably above the 3.2x break-even.
- Layer
- Traffic. Measurement and conversion checked clean first.
- Undo
- Set the daily budget back to £120.00.
- Review
- 30, 60 and 90 days after it goes live.
Lock armed until approved
Illustrative example
Safeguards
Built for accounts that matter.
The rules that protect your account are written into the software, so they hold on a busy day as well as a quiet one.
Locked by default
Nothing automated can change a live account. Each approved change goes through on its own, and the lock re-arms straight after.
Never reports on stale data
Numbers are pulled fresh for the exact period before anything is reported or recommended.
Live campaigns only
Paused campaigns and ad groups stay out of recommendations, so the advice is about what's actually running.
Checks what was saved
After every change it confirms the platform stored exactly what was requested, and flags it if not.
Every change undoable
Each change is logged with the value it replaced and the exact step to reverse it.
Unknown means unknown
If a check couldn't run, the report says "not checked". It never turns a gap into an all clear.
How Cortex uses Google data
Cortex signs in to Google with my own account and only reaches the client accounts I've been given access to. It uses that access to report on campaigns, check product feeds and tracking, and apply the changes I approve.
- Google data is never sold.
- It's never used for advertising.
- It's never used to train general-purpose AI models.
- Reports about an account are shared only with that client.
Who built it
"I built Cortex for my own clients first. It had to be good enough for their money."
Phil SeatonGoogle Ads and Microsoft Ads specialist
I've been running paid search for 22 years, for e-commerce brands, B2B firms and agencies. Every tool I used either reported numbers without telling me what to do, or made changes I couldn't see or undo.
So I built the system I wanted. Cortex runs every account I manage, every day. It's where every lesson from those years now lives: each mistake I've seen gets turned into a check, so it can't happen twice.
It isn't on general sale yet. When it opens to other advertisers, it will be the same platform that runs my own clients' money today.
22+years in Google Ads
2ad platforms, one method
1person accountable for every change
Questions
The short answers.
Can I buy Cortex?
Not yet. Cortex is in-house software: it runs the accounts I manage and I'm the only person who signs in. A public release is planned. Join the waiting list below and you'll hear first.
How do I get Cortex working on my account now?
Through my Google Ads and Microsoft Ads management. Every account I take on runs on Cortex from day one, with me making every decision. Details are at philseaton.co.uk, or use the form below.
Does it change accounts on its own?
No. The change lock is on by default. Cortex drafts a change with the old value, the new value and the reason, and nothing reaches the account until I approve that exact change. After it applies, it checks the account saved what was asked and logs how to undo it.
Which platforms does it cover?
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, plus the tools around them: Merchant Centre, Google Analytics and Tag Manager.
What kind of advertiser is it built for?
Businesses where paid search is a serious revenue line: e-commerce, B2B lead generation and agencies running several accounts. It's at its best where profit matters more than platform ROAS.
What happens to my data?
It's used only to run and report on your account. It's never sold, never used for advertising and never used to train general-purpose AI models. The full detail is in the privacy policy.
Get access
Two ways in. One is open today.
Have Cortex working on your account now through my management, or join the waiting list for the public release.
Open now
Cortex on your account, with me running it.
My management service runs on Cortex from day one.
- Daily checks on every live campaign
- Spend judged on profit, not platform ROAS
- Every change approved, logged and undoable
- Google Ads and Microsoft Ads