How to Use Albato to Get a Monthly Google Ads Summary in Slack

The short answer: connect Google Ads, Google Sheets and Slack in Albato, start an automation with the Google Ads Ad Expenses trigger set to a monthly campaign report, write each report to a sheet, find the previous row with the Mathematical Operation tool and a second Sheets step, ask an AI step to compare the two, and send its paragraph to the person who owns the account in Slack. The flow has five steps after the trigger, so it needs Pro rather than the free plan's two-step limit, from $22 a month on monthly billing, checked on 24 October 2026 on the pricing page.

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A monthly ads report is a job that slides. The numbers sit in Google Ads, somebody exports them a week late, and the comparison with last month happens in a meeting. This build follows Albato's own guide for the job (Google Ads AI report guide) and adds the review step it leaves out. For the product itself, see the Albato glossary entry.

Before the first run:

1. The transaction count. Albato counts each step that runs after the trigger (pricing FAQ). For example, five steps a month = 5 transactions, plus Albato AI's one transaction per 2,000 tokens: a 3,000-token analysis rounds up to 2, so 7 transactions a month.
2. What you already have. Your Google Ads Customer ID, a Slack user ID for the person who owns the ads budget, and a blank Google Sheet whose first column is called Period, followed by one column for each metric you care about: campaign, cost, clicks, conversions, impressions.
3. The check that proves it worked. Each month, the AI paragraph's numbers should match the two rows in the sheet exactly. Any figure in the paragraph that is not in the sheet is a reason to fix the prompt.

Step 1: Connect the three apps

Go to Apps, click Add a Connection, and connect Google Ads, Google Sheets and Slack one at a time until each shows its success message (Google Ads AI report guide). If your plan does not include Albato AI, also connect an AI app such as OpenAI, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity.

Step 2: Set the Google Ads trigger

Under Automations, create a new automation and choose Google Ads with the Ad Expenses event. Configure it as a campaign report, choose the period (daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly), and enter the Customer ID. Leave the campaign name empty for an overview of every campaign with each metric labelled by campaign, or name one campaign to report on it alone (same guide).

Step 3: Write each report to the sheet

Add Google Sheets with the Create/Update Row action. Map the trigger's Period parameter to the Period column, then map each metric to its column in the Rows section (Google Ads AI report guide). The sheet is now the record of every month, whatever happens to the AI step later.

Step 4: Find last month's row

Add the Mathematical Operation tool to work out the number of the previous row from the row you just added, then a second Google Sheets step that finds a row by its number, fed by that result. Together they hand the AI step this month and last month side by side, which is what makes a comparison possible rather than a description (same guide).

Step 5: Ask AI for the comparison

Add the Albato AI Chat Completion step, or the equivalent step from the AI app you connected. Albato's sample prompt asks the model to analyse the current row, compare it with the previous one, and write one or two paragraphs on spend, results and areas that need attention (Google Ads AI report guide). Tighten it with three rules of your own: use only the figures supplied, state each change as last month's value, this month's value and the difference, and say "not enough data" rather than guess a cause.

Step 6: Send it to one person first

Add Slack with the action that sends a private message, enter the account owner's Slack user ID, and map the AI response into the Unformatted Message field. Albato's guide notes a public or private channel, Telegram, email or a CRM note would work the same way (same guide).

Start with a direct message on purpose. The AI writes the paragraph; the account owner checks each number against the sheet and forwards it to the team only when it matches. After three clean months, a private channel is a reasonable next step.

Step 7: Activate and test

Click Start to activate the automation. For triggers that run on an interval, Albato offers a Test button to check the flow before going live, and every correct run appears in the Automation log (first automation guide).

What Albato's help centre warns about

• A monthly flow is stopped by one bad week. In the weekly check, an automation with only failed requests and no success is stopped, however few runs it has; Albato sends an email when it does (halt policy). A report that runs once a month and fails once is enough.
• Penalty points slow polling. Timeout and connection errors add points: at 3 points the delay between runs grows by 10 minutes, at 10 by 30 minutes, at 15 by 60 minutes, and at 20 the automation stops (penalty points).
• The free plan cannot hold this flow. Free allows two steps per automation; this one needs five (pricing page).
• History needs an API trigger. Data migration copies past periods only for automations that use API triggers (automation timing).

A vendor tutorial shows the happy path, so Albato's sends the AI paragraph straight into Slack. Keep a person between the paragraph and the team; a fluent summary with one wrong number travels further than a correct table.

FAQ

Can I use ChatGPT or Claude instead of Albato AI?

Yes. The guide names Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and OpenAI as alternatives when Albato AI is not on your plan; connect the app in step 1 and use its step in place of Albato AI Chat Completion (Google Ads AI report guide).

Could an AI Agent step decide who gets the report?

It could, at a price: each AI Agent run costs 3 transactions regardless of how many tools it calls, plus tokens if it uses Albato AI (AI Agent guide). For one fixed recipient, a plain Slack step is cheaper and easier to check.

Can it run weekly instead of monthly?

Yes. The Ad Expenses trigger can be set to daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly reports (same guide).