Google Ads Smart Campaigns are an easy way to start in the world of PPC or digital marketing. Google Ads are also excellent options for small business owners that are very busy. But what are Google Ads Smart Campaigns exactly? What can you do? And are they as effective as regular Google Ads Campaigns?

This blog will have everything you need about Smart Campaigns. We will show you how to use them and we will tell you if they are right for you.

To be able to determine when to bid or not, you will need to learn keywords, the negative keywords, targeting, custom audiences, and geo-targeting. However, when you run a small business with every job listed it can be difficult to find the time. Hiring an outside PPC agency is expensive. Google Ads Smart Campaigns can be a great resource for any small business owner.

What are Google Smart Campaigns

To fully explain Smart Campaigns and their role within the Google Ads suite we must start at the beginning. Google introduced AdWords Express to the public in 2011, with the intention of simplifying their existing, complex platform and making it easier to advertise with Google.

The main idea was to simplify everything and automate it. You can control many things with regular Google Ads. Bidding, keyword research, and ad creation are just a few of the many options. It is like having a full-time job in order to maximize the potential of one account. For a new user, even the Google Ads dashboard can seem overwhelming. Smart Campaigns can help.

Where Did AdWords Express Go to?

AdWords Express is still available if you are curious. Google added it to the Google Ads suite in 2019 and renamed it "Smart Campaigns".

Instead of creating separate dashboards and URLs, Smart Campaigns are now possible. To do this, create a new Google Ads Campaign, and select "Smart" for the campaign type. This doesn't mean that the user experience is any different.

Smart Campaigns retain the simplicity of their user interface, which is easy to understand for anyone who either (1) lacks time or resources or (2) has little to no experience in pay-per-click advertising.

Smart Campaigns can be simplified to allow businesses to use ads on Google properties in order to drive sales.

Like all advertising, ads can only be successful if you sell products and services.nSmart Campaigns are quick and easy to set up. Where are your ads displayed?

Smart Campaigns allow you to showcase your ads on the search network and mobile device targeting.

What are the advantages? Smart Campaigns can be a good choice for small businesses.

Why use Google Ads Smart Campaigns

Smart Campaigns have a terrible reputation. PPC agencies and experts point out that it is pointless and a waste of time/money.

This is however far from reality. Smart Campaigns remains a great product for small businesses that have limited technical knowledge.

A Simpler Dashboard and More Reports

Smart Campaigns are much easier to use than regular campaigns. A campaign overview shows you all that a PPC beginner should know in one glance.

The top of the page shows your ad preview. It also includes a breakdown of your company and the campaign's goal. Next, you can see impressions, clicks, as well as the amount spent.

Scroll down to see the five main metrics Smart Campaigns report on:

The main report displays impressions, clicks (ad spend), conversions, and actions on maps. Because the campaign goal was to "Calls", it shows "Call Clicks" instead of regular conversions.

You can find the main ad settings at the bottom on the same page.

Here you can adjust your budget, your location targeting, as well as your business category, and information. Google uses your business information and business category to automatically find relevant keywords for your business.

Spend less time optimizing and setting up campaigns

Smart campaigns are not more advanced in their targeting options than regular campaigns. Google's algorithm handles the majority of the complex decisions.

The simplified options mean that you can spend less time on the platform in order to make sure it runs smoothly.

Smart Campaigns are unique in that they optimize and target the right people.

Google completely automates this process, creating ads based on your website or Google My Business profile. They constantly optimize and tweak according to best practices.

These ads can be edited by clicking the link "Edit ad" below the ad preview.

Google chooses the best placements for your business type after it creates the ads.

You can target your local audience with ads, or have your ads appear directly on Google Maps listings.

Smart Campaigns' primary selling point is #SimplifiedAcquisition.

You won't have to manage many tools, reports, and bidding modifications in order to succeed with regular campaigns. However, there are some downsides to not having this access. More on that later.

Smart Campaigns are an excellent starting point for those who are new to PPC.

It gives you some control over the account without overwhelming you by offering too many features.

The process of setting up your first campaign & ad takes 15 minutes, whereas it can take several hours, or even days, on a regular Google Ads account. Smart Campaigns offers another unique feature: Targeting.

Google will do the heavy lifting for you instead of you fumbling around with custom audiences and IF functions, as well as remarketing and various targeting metrics. Smart Campaigns target customers in your area based on the category or location of your business.

It doesn't take much to target your audience accurately - this task usually takes several months of refinement. You still have control over the keywords that you target. However, you can choose to exclude certain keywords or search phrases from your campaigns.

Smart Campaigns' Cons

Smart Campaigns seem very appealing on the surface. It may be difficult to understand why not everyone uses them. To achieve outstanding results and a high return on your investment, you need to spend less time

This sounds very promising. But not so quickly.

Access to less data

A simple dashboard or reporting comes with a clear downside: You have access to less information. You don't have to spend more time to make it the right choice for your business. more information in PPC is almost always better. Data is necessary to make informed business decisions.

The Google Ads Smart Campaign interface is not as accessible or gives you control over your data. It's designed for small business owners who want to gain more visibility in local searches or Google Maps. However, these upsides could quickly become negatives.

First of all, most advertisers grow quickly with the platform. In just a few weeks it won't suffice to reap the maximum benefits of PPC. Smart Campaigns provide a good way to test your ability to use PPC. But it's not perfect. BrightLocal has conducted a recent survey and found that most PPC marketers believe regular Google Ads campaigns work better than Smart Campaigns. (AdWords Express is shown in the graphic).

A staggering 77% stated that regular campaigns were more efficient. Although simplicity can be a benefit to busy business owners, it doesn't give them the tools they need to succeed with Google Ads.

We have less control over the places your ads show

Smart Campaigns allow you to hand over your targeting to Google. Although it doesn't have to mean that your ads will appear where you want them to, this is not a bad thing.

Negative keywords are an excellent feature that will ensure that you don't waste your money by showing ads for wrong search terms.

Negative keywords allow you to filter out spam keywords that could cost you money. Imagine, for example, that you are getting clicks on "used car dealer" but only lease new vehicles.

These clicks will likely result in little conversions and tons of wasted money. Negative keywords can be used to filter them out. Smart Campaigns allows you to check and uncheck search terms, but it isn't specific enough. Even simple match types can greatly impact negative keywords.

If you want to remove the word free from your keywords but not any other words, you will need to use quotes ("free") to make sure that it is removed from all searches.

You have a 40-mile radius to target users, so your options for expanding are limited. To open a store elsewhere in the city, you will need to create a new campaign and not just add the address.

The placement of ads is another problem. Smart Campaigns offers many of the same placements as regular campaigns. However, it is difficult to decide where to display your ads.

You have limited control over the placement of ads, which can lead to lower conversion rates. This will result in higher advertising costs.

Smart Campaign's downsides and upsides are generally closely linked. These are all great features: simplicity, automation, and time-saving. That is something that no one can argue against. However, they limit your chances of success and optimization.

Who can Reap the Greatest Rewards?

Google Smart Campaigns are for local businesses with brick-and-mortar locations. To get a Smart Campaign underway, you will need to register your company with Google My Business.

Even if your business is a local one, why choose Smart Campaigns instead of the full Google Ads experience?

These are the people who can most benefit from Smart Campaigns.

• Small business with a local presence

• Advertising budgets that are very low

• No marketing staff

• There is no money for consultants/agencies

• The owner/staff are too busy to learn how Google Ads can be run effectively.

Smart Campaigns are tailored to small businesses with only two employees. Smart Campaigns could be a good option if your business is busy but you need to attract more customers.

This program is designed for business owners who are responsible for many responsibilities such as sales, finance, marketing, and delivery.

Smart Campaigns can generate traffic online and offline for your business if you don’t have time to manage Google Ads.

If you are looking to make your PPC strategy a significant part of your customer acquisition strategy then Smart Campaigns is the best option.

Smart Campaigns are a good place to start when you're new to PPC. But it shouldn’t be the only way to run your campaigns.

5 Tips to Make Google Ads Smarter Campaigns a Success

These five tips will help you navigate your journey if you are deciding to launch your business with Google Ads Smart Campaigns.

Tip #1: Start small.

Your budget is the most important part of your Smart Campaign. Google is the most powerful company in the world. If you don't create a budget, and then stick to it, you can expect the budget to be swift.

It's also difficult to track your return on investments because you don't have access as easily to reporting information. Unless you're using conversion tracking software from outside, which is unlikely if Smart Campaigns is used, it's important to start small.

Smart Campaigns were created to test the waters surrounding PPC. Contact a local marketing agency if your goal is to spend thousands of dollars per month in PPC or SEM.

Start with a small budget. You can then build your budget on the basis of your success in the dashboard. Once you've completed that, you can decide to increase the budget or go all-in on Google Ads.

Tip #2 - Schedule your ads during normal business hours

While you might not be able to control the exact location of your ads, it is possible to have some say in when they are shown.

Do your business hours currently only extend to 9-5? Are there only 1-5 people who can be reached on your phone?

Ad scheduling can have a major impact on user conversions, depending on your business. Advertisements that generate phone calls after-hours can cost you the money you're not maximizing.

Use the new ad scheduling tool to schedule your ads for business hours. Or, you can customize them to suit your needs on a day-to-day basis. It doesn't necessarily have to be the same every day as this example. It is possible to adjust the schedule to account for long working hours.

If your primary way of contacting your business is by email, then you should consider running ads 24 hours a day. You can reach people who work late and are looking for impulse buyers.

Tip 3: Keep an eye out for search phrases.

Ensure that you pay close attention to the search phrases displayed in the dashboard during the first few weeks. These phrases will control the placement of your ads in Google Search, Google Maps, and thousands of more websites across the Google Display Network.

Search terms that are low in commercial intent (typically the words "free" or “best") should be disabled. These keywords users are unlikely searchers to buy your products and services. To disallow search terms from your smart campaign, simply click the button in "Status".

Tip #4 - Use professional photos to create your Google My Business listing

Smart Campaigns can be fully utilized if you have a Google My Business listing. You should also connect your Google Ads account to it.

It will allow your ad on Google Maps to be displayed and searchers to inquire for directions to the store.

Do not rush to complete your profile in order to make it appear online quickly. Do it slowly and add professional photos.

Your online presence is one of the best-selling tools for local businesses. Google Maps is an important part of this, especially if you run a Google Ads Smart Campaign.

Tip #5 Use outside call tracking technology.

Call monitoring is difficult. It is basically taking offline activities (phone calls) that are being tracked online and turning them into metrics. Google Ads unfortunately doesn't offer detailed call tracking. Google Ads only allows you to view area codes, dates, and times as well as call durations.

Although this may give you an idea of the conversions, it isn't foolproof. Selling is not always guaranteed by the length of the call. Knowing the area code is not enough to track a conversion. Local businesses will receive the majority of their calls.

You won't find anything in the verified phone calls report if you don't include any area codes. You won't know the actual phone number that was converted, nor from which keyword.

This makes it almost impossible to discern which calls were generated via ads and which ones weren't.

Instead of banking on these vague reports, you should use an external call tracker software such CallRail. It is easy to connect it directly with Google Ads. You can track full phone calls within minutes.

CallRail will record the details of each call to your business. This includes information such as phone numbers, full names, addresses, keywords, and other sources. It will give you a clear view of who converted, and where the lead came from.

It is crucial to use an external call tracker software in order to improve phone call tracking in Smart Campaigns, and Google Ads in general.

Conclusion

Google Ads is incredibly difficult to learn and manage. There are so many details that you must know in order to successfully run a Google Ads Account. There are many reports, dashboards metrics, tools, and settings that you can use to analyze them. This is truer than ever in 2019.

Automating the process and simplifying your options means that you don't even have to touch the platform in order to drive sales and customers.

Smart Campaigns automatically shows ads to locals in your region to drive website traffic, sales online, and store visits offline. It is an inexpensive and effective way to generate more sales.

Smart Campaigns are the right choice for local businesses that can't afford an external agency to manage your Google Ads account.