Smart campaigns is a Google Ads campaign type that makes it simpler to advertise on Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and other Google partner websites.
Smart campaigns bring you results based on your campaign goal, like getting customer calls, visits to your location, website sales or leads, or views on YouTube and partner websites.
In this article, you’ll learn more about the benefits and features of using Smart campaigns.
Performance ads in Smart campaigns
If you choose one of the first three goals listed above, you’ll then provide some information about your business, write an ad that showcases your products or services, choose the keyword themes and advertising language, pick your location settings, and set a budget.
Your ad can appear when someone searches for phrases or keywords related to your business, and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Learn more about How Smart campaigns work
Video ads in Smart campaigns
If you choose the “Get more views and engagement on YouTube” goal, you’ll then provide the URL for the video you’d like to promote along with other details about your ad, select your language and location settings, select the demographics (gender, age, parental status, and interests of your customers), and set a budget.
Your ads can appear to a specific set of potential customers who are likely to be within your demographic, interests, location, and language settings. With these video ads, you only pay when someone shows interest and watches 30 seconds of your video ad (or the duration if it’s shorter than 30 seconds) or interacts with your ad.
Before you begin
You’ll need to sign up for a Smart campaign. To get started, check out Create a Smart campaign or click the button below to start your campaign.
Benefits
- Create an online ad quickly and easily.
- Pay only when people click (or view, if you're advertising a video) your ad.
- Reach customers on desktop computers and mobile devices (such as mobile phones and tablets).
- Review the effectiveness of your ads in your dashboard. Learn more about optimizing your campaign
- Run your ads with minimal ongoing management.
Available features
Smart campaigns have AI-powered features to help you manage your ads with minimal effort. You can set up your budget, choose your location preferences, and add a few keyword themes.
Based on these choices, Google Ads will show your ad to people looking for the products and services your business offers. Google AI maintains and updates your search terms over time.
Below are key features available in Smart campaigns. For more features and benefits, check out Compare Smart campaigns with other Google Ads campaign types.
| Available feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| "Campaigns" overview | This is your account's home base where you'll find Google-generated performance insights. |
| Critical account alerts | Provides important notifications about your campaign, billing issues, and more. |
| Reported calls | Shows you the number of calls that you receive from your campaign, along with your clicks. Learn more about calls in Smart campaigns |
| Location actions | Helps you track the number of times people saw your ad and then clicked your business' pin on Google Maps or got directions to your business. Learn more about Location actions for Smart campaigns |
| Track actions on your website with Google Analytics | Measures how well your website meets your business expectations. |
| Ad scheduling | Choose the days of the week and the times of the day to run your ad. (Unavailable for video goal) Learn more about setting an ad schedule for your Smart campaign |
| Temporarily pause campaign | Schedule your campaign to automatically resume after a temporary pause period. This can be helpful for seasonal businesses. (Unavailable for video goal) |
| Location and language targeting |
Target your ads to geographic locations where your customers live and languages they speak. Learn more about adding location and language targeting |
|
Demographic targeting |
Target customers based on age range, gender, or parental status (video goal only). Learn more about targeting demographic groups |
|
Interest targeting |
Select from a list of audiences to bring awareness to your products or services based on people’s interests, passions, and habits (video goal only). |
|
Drive video views |
Decide where to drive traffic from your video ad. You can drive video views and traffic to your website or you can drive video views with your channel (video goal only). Learn more about driving video views |
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