Google Ads Smart Campaigns

With Google Ads Smart Campaigns, you can now manage your ads with minimal effort using AI-powered features.

What Is a Smart Campaign in Google Ads?

In 2019, Google rebranded Adwords Express as Smart Campaigns. This type of Google Ad helps automate many of the features used for pay-per-click (PPC), making it easier for businesses who have minimum Google campaign and Adwords experience.

It incorporates user-inputted data, data from your website, and data from your Google My Business account to create smart ads. Even though it is easier to launch a campaign, it may not always be your best option. It could be more beneficial for your business to launch a regular Google Search Campaign instead.

Why Use Google Smart Campaigns?

Google Smart Campaigns utilize many of Google’s algorithms to help promote your campaign. Suppose you are not up to date on the latest Google algorithms or lack the know-how to conduct your own Search Campaigns manually. In that case, Smart Campaigns are a great alternative to incorporate digital advertising services, including PPCs, into your online marketing strategy.

How Do Smart Campaigns Work?

The PPC advertising model allows businesses to bid on keywords — a business creates an ad targeting a chosen keyword phrase. When a user searches for the phrase, the ad will appear on the particular search engine. If the user clicks on it, the advertiser pays the publisher.

Publishers usually consider the amount businesses bid and the quality score of their ads to choose one that will appear at the top of a search results page (SERP). So, when a user searches for a targeted keyword, advertisers need to place bids in an auction to get the top spot.

A Smart Campaign in Google Ads optimizes several aspects of an ad automatically. For instance, a business does not have to adjust bids or manually manage their campaign to reach potential customers. From the details it provides when creating the ad, Google’s AI-powered features will analyze data, and adjust bids in real-time, to ensure the ad attains the specified campaign goals.

To sign up for a Smart Campaign, a business will log into their Google Ads account and provide their details. After creating the ad, Google will automatically show it to potential customers.

A business that wants to reach an audience in a particular location, like a restaurant targeting diners in neighborhood Y, needs to add their location. When users in the specified geographic area search for the targeted keyword, Google will display the business’s ad. 

Your Google Smart Ad can also appear on the SERPs of users outside the specified location (based on their device’s IP address), provided a user includes the terms related to your business, and includes the chosen location in their search.

Where Do Smart Campaigns Appear?

Smart Campaigns appear on Google Search. They also appear on websites on Google’s search network (GSN), such as Google Maps, Images, and Shopping, and non-Google websites. Additionally, Smart Campaigns are displayed on platforms on Google’s display network (GDN), such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Finance, and millions of other partner sites that offer display advertising.

Thus, a Smart Campaign can reach millions of people. The use of multiple networks by Google allows businesses to reach users who use different platforms other than Google search to find products or services.

How To Set Up Google Ads Smart Campaigns?

Setting up a Google Ad Smart Campaign requires an advertiser to have a Google Ads account. A business needs to create one to follow these steps:

Click New Campaign

Log into your Google Ads Campaign and click “New Campaign” or the blue “+” sign.

Select a Campaign Goal

You will see a list of campaign goals to choose from. These include sales, leads, website traffic, app promotion, awareness and consideration, and local store visits and promotions. 

You will also have the option to create a campaign without a goal’s guidance. With this option, you will choose a campaign type first, which can be search, video, or display. You will tailor your campaign to your preferences in the subsequent steps — Google will not provide recommendations, seeing that you didn’t choose an objective.

Provide a Business Description

Provide information about your business. You can choose to use the details in your business profile or provide new details.

Choose a Landing Page

When a user clicks your ad, they will be directed to a particular landing page. The landing page you choose should have the information a user expects upon seeing the ad. For example, if you are a restaurant owner creating a Smart Campaign for a new item on your menu, the landing page should be focused on the new dish, perhaps a blog post about it, details on how customers can order it, and so on. 

If you are an electrician advertising a discount for a particular service, the landing page should be a blog post discussing the service, or an online booking form for the service, and so forth.

Thus, the chosen landing page should be directly related to the product or service in the ad. It should also align with the keyword themes you choose for your ad (to be discussed below).

You will have two options when choosing the landing page: your website or business profile. If you choose your website, provide a link to the page relevant to the ad.

Choose Your Main Advertising Goal

Select “smart” as your campaign type, and choose your main advertising goal from the options, which include:

• Get more calls: If you want to increase the number of calls to your business, choose this goal. Google’s AI features will optimize your ad to encourage calls. You will also need to include a “call” button in your ad.
• Get more visits to your physical location: Businesses looking to increase their foot traffic can benefit from optimizing their ads to increase visits to their physical location. 
• Get more website sales or sign-ups: If you want users to complete certain actions on your website, such as buying items, ordering services, or signing up to join your newsletter, choose this goal.
• Get more brand awareness with video views: Choose this goal if you are a YouTube content creator or business owner marketing your products or services using video and are looking to get more views to increase your brand awareness.

The goal a business chooses in this step will determine how the next steps will be tailored.

Write Your Ad

Create your ad by writing headlines and descriptions. You can write three to 15 headlines with fewer than 30 characters each. For example, “20% off of First Purchase,” “15% off In-Store Visits,” and “Enjoy Our New Menu Item.”

Then, write an informative description, observing the 90-character limit. For example, “Low prices on every item when you visit our store today,” “Enjoy the new vegan menu option today with a 20% off discount,” and “Call us today to learn more about regular electrical system maintenance.”

If the goal of your campaign is to get more calls, choose the option of showing a call button in your ad and enter the phone number. Then, click,  “Show your location in your ad,” and input your address.

Add Keyword Themes

The next step will be adding keyword themes. Research the phrases your potential customers commonly use when searching for the products or services your business offers. Add those keyboard themes and save.

You can also add negative keywords to your ad — these are keywords that should not be considered. Your ads will not be shown when these keywords are searched, ensuring Google only considers keywords relevant to your business. However, don’t choose too many negative keywords, as doing so can significantly reduce the number of users who can see your ad.

Specify Your Target Location

At this stage, you need to specify the geographic area you are targeting. You can choose to advertise near a particular address, for instance, your business’s address, or specify the zip codes, cities, or regions where your ad should be displayed.

Choose Your Budget

Google will provide suggestions to help you determine a budget for your ad, or you can perform your own calculations to come up with a number.

Review and Launch

Double-check all your details and settings and make necessary adjustments. Once you have confirmed everything is correct, you can launch your ad.

You can complete all these steps in just a few minutes. Have all the details you need before initiating the setup to avoid delays.

Pros of Google Smart Campaigns

Businesses can take advantage of several benefits available with Google Smart Campaigns:

• Simply write the ad for the campaign, choose the keyword themes, and set your campaign budget.
• Google does not charge you if there are no clicks on your ads.
• It utilizes the PPC module, but you do not have to worry about configuring it.
• It allows you to quickly create an ad for a target audience — This takes about 15 minutes on average.
• You save a lot of time setting up and launching PPC campaigns.
• Google’s smart tools and AI help you reach your target audiences, including location, behavior, and device preference.
• You can launch a single campaign or have multiple campaigns running simultaneously. 
• When you know how to utilize Smart Campaigns correctly, they can be effective.

Smart Campaigns are ideal for businesses new to PPC.

Cons of Google Smart Campaigns

While Smart Campaigns are easy to set up, configure, and implement, there are several drawbacks you need to consider:

• You do not have access to in-depth analytical reports like you do with Search Campaigns.
• You have less control over the reliability of your campaign.
• Google’s AI has complete control over the campaign after you create and launch an ad. 
• You could spend more on campaign marketing and still not get the results you desire or expect.
• You still need to do some basic management tasks, as Google’s AI is not smart enough to do everything.
• You have no control over where the ads will be displayed, as Google’s AI decides on the placement.
• Google’s AI creates the ad copy and chooses the keywords you bid on based on your selected keyword themes. 
• You have to be very specific with your keyword themes.

How Is It Different From Traditional Campaigns?

Google Smart Campaigns use AI to optimize ads by focusing on automation, making them different from traditional campaigns. Firstly, Smart Campaigns make marketing more manageable for businesses than traditional ones. It can be time-consuming to manually place bids for PPC ads, especially when it comes to large campaigns with numerous targeted keywords. Typically, business owners need to monitor their bids for targeted keywords, and keep assessing different factors to determine the right bid. With AI tools doing all of this, a business can focus on other operations.

Additionally, Google Smart Campaigns have an improved performance. The AI features will analyze several factors to determine the best way to market campaigns, allowing businesses to reach their goals. For example, you can highlight your selling point to attract a target audience.

It’s also easier to create a Smart Campaign than a traditional one. A business owner only needs to write an ad that describes their business, choose the keyword themes to target, pick a location, and set a budget. Thus, your campaign can be launched in just a few clicks.

Since Google will manage the ad and show it to people searching for your products and services, Smart Campaigns require minimal effort from businesses.

Businesses with limited resources for advertising, such as small businesses, can benefit substantially from Google Smart Campaigns because they don’t need to hire specialists to create ads. They can create effective ads and reach their target audience without extensive campaign management knowledge or high budgets.

Smart Campaign vs. Search Campaign

A Smart Campaign is highly automated. It requires minimal effort to set up since most aspects are automated. From the details you provide, including location, budget, and keywords, Google will assess your data to determine the most relevant audience for your ads. The platform will also automatically choose bidding strategies for your ad. It will use machine learning to optimize bids based on different signals, such as device type, location, time of day, browser, language, and user intent, among others.

With a Search Campaign, a business specifies their keywords, target audience, location, ad copy, budget, and bidding strategy. Thus, a business will craft their ad copy, highlighting key selling points, and using keywords they believe will attract their target audience. The business will then specify the demographics and geographic area they want to target. Additionally, a business owner can manage the budget for their campaign. They can set a daily or total budget. Specifying the target locations ensures that advertisers reach their target market, making the campaign more effective. Therefore, Search Campaigns give businesses more control over their ads.

Smart Campaigns are great for beginners, while Search Campaigns can considerably benefit business owners with extensive knowledge of keyword research and ad optimization.

Who Should Be Using Smart Campaigns?

Local businesses with a physical location can benefit the most from using Smart Campaigns when tied to their Google My Business account. Other companies that can benefit from Smart Campaigns include: 

• Businesses with a limited online marketing budget.
• Businesses that lack marketing experience or do not have any marketing staff.
• Business owners who do not understand how to use Google Search.
• Businesses that do not have staff experienced in Google Search.

What Should Smart Campaigns Be Used For?

Smart Campaigns should be used to help attract customers to your local small business. You can launch campaigns that feature specific products or services. You can also focus on a single product or service, or run multiple campaigns for different products and services. 

Additionally, they should be tied to your Google My Business account, so the ads are targeted to local audiences, including those in the same geographical region as your business.

Are Google Smart Campaigns Right for Your Business?

Smart Campaigns are a great place to start when you want to include PPC in your online marketing strategy. However, they do have their limits and may not deliver the desired results if you are not entirely sure how to use them correctly. In some cases, it may be more beneficial for your business to utilize Search Campaigns instead. 

To find out which Google campaign strategy is best for your business, and to learn more about Smart Campaigns vs. Search Campaigns, contact our experienced PPC experts and Google campaign pros. We create effective Google Ads that get the results you deserve.

Levy Online has specialists who will help you understand Google Smart Campaigns in depth. We will obtain more information about your goals to determine if and how you can benefit from Smart Campaigns. Our team will also help create compelling ads to increase the number of users who click on them.

Sources:

About Smart campaigns benefits and features.
How Smart campaigns work.
Spalding, K. (2020). Smart campaigns helps small businesses reach more customers.