Google Smart Campaigns Demystified
Remember Smart campaigns? They were semi-popular when they debuted in 2018 but have been consistently overlooked years later for various reasons. They were part of Adwords Express, which was deprecated a few years earlier. Our team at YRV Dynamics revisited Smart campaigns and re-examined their place in a Google Ads world where AI is a priority via Gemini AI, broad targeting, and RSA ads. Smart campaigns have a place with small businesses; however, there are some limitations.
What Gap Did Smart Campaigns Fill?
Smart campaigns were designed for ease of use. Marketers used them with little time for marketing or creating campaigns. The dashboard and metrics are streamlined and easy to read. Smart Campaigns were made for advertisers with little or no PPC experience. They were ahead of their time before AI became mainstream. However, poor performance is also associated with Smart campaigns- with little to no control over the campaigns. The main issue is the lack of control. Also, they are notorious for being click magnets with okay to minimal results.
Smart Campaign Dashboard and Set Up
The first two screenshots are the dashboards for Smart campaigns. Mostly, these are high and mid-level metrics with Smart campaign dashboards. Unfortunately, there are no manual dashboard setups as with the usual Google ads manager/dashboard. Please note the last screenshot here on search phrases; there is an ability to turn off key search targeting (the third and last screenshot above). Besides budget, that is about the limit of control advertisers have for these campaigns.
Your setup for the campaigns is above; it includes budget, location, business category, and products/services rendered by your business. Similar to Google app campaigns, these are distributed across Google’s properties with no ability to turn off channels. Google’s AI targets users using location, device, and signals on intent. In terms of setup, you have the following choices for Smart campaigns
- Calls: Calls to your business location
- Website sales or sign-ups: Sales can be included, but sign-ups are usually emails. This is a great objective for lead magnets or email collection campaigns. Note that Smart Shopping campaigns were all upgraded to PMAX campaigns in September 2023.
- Visits to your physical location: This is solid for brick-and-mortar
- Branding awareness/ Video Views
Limitations
There are several limitations to Smart campaigns
- No control over where your ads will appear: The Google placements where ads will appear are Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and Google partner websites.
- You don’t know where the ads are appearing.
- You can’t get insight from each location where ads appear.
- No AB testing as the creative is developed from your site and Google business profile
- Limited dashboard on metrics
- Eventually, you will want to branch out of Smart and use PMAX, lead gen, Search, etc…
- Paid Search and SEO work together as you can identify organic vs. paid traffic in Google Analytics/ Search console. This allows you to maximize your SERP to allow complete SERP dominance. Also, you can analyze time spent on site, conversion rate, etc.. for each and optimize which has the better result.
Advantages
- Little to no maintenance
- Simple builds, no need for freelancers/contractors
- Great for a small business with small geo to target
- Scheduling the ads for business hours
- Great place to start and dip your toes in PPC
Final Thoughts:
If you're a small business with a minimal geo footprint and want to try PPC, this may be a great way to try Google Ads. However, your results will be very limited. PPC works best on reviewing the entire data, such as viewing impression share, search terms to view KWs you want to target negatively, etc. You’ll eventually want to begin running shopping or lead gen campaigns, which allow you to customize your Google ads campaigns. One of the main issues I have seen with smart campaigns is that clients rarely stick with them as a way to market their commerce. This means they hit a wall quickly and want to begin working on AB ad copy and leverage their retargeting.
Click here to follow the conversation on YouTube with our video labeled “Google Ads: Smart Campaigns.” We also have a podcast for all of our PPC content- click here to see all our podcast content. Please click the play button below to listen to the podcast version of this Medium article.
Click here for a link to the above podcast
Source: YRV Dynamics logo https://www.yrvdynamics.com/
Yousaf Yunes is the CEO/ Lead Founder / Principal at YRV Dynamics, with more than 15 years of expertise in the advertising industry. He’s garnered a Top Rated Plus status on Upwork, earning a perfect job satisfaction score of 100% with twenty-one 5-star reviews from his Upwork clients. Yousaf earned certifications in Google Search and YouTube/Video and holds dual Blueprint certifications in Meta’s planning and buying. Yousaf has also won the Monty McKinney Award for the Institute of Advanced Advertising Studies (IAAS).
During his downtime, Yousaf is the lead moderator for the largest Meta group focused on Blueprint, known as “Facebook Blueprint Certification Prep,” which boasts a membership of over 30,000 individuals.
