If you’ve never done Google Ads before, it’s super easy to buy into every reco Google throws your way – after all, they’re there to help, right? And they know their own product best! Right?
Well, kind of.
Google is a business, so while they are super helpful and have built a really awesome advertising platform, at the end of the day they’re not a helpline. They want to help, but they also need to make the moolah, and no judgement here about that!
Yes, they do know their product best. BUT they don’t know your business best and it’s highly likely they don’t understand the nuances of your industry either.
For these reasons, I’m not a huge fan of smart campaigns. I actually don’t love automation at all for new accounts but that’s a post for another day.
Smart campaigns do all of the work for you based on the goals that you set (whether that be purchases, leads, website visitors etc. etc.).
They were initially created to help advertisers who don’t really understand how Google Ads work, work with Google Ads. It’s kind of an acknowledgement that Google Ads can be technical.
However.
The major downfall of smart campaigns is that they aren’t smart enough to give you any data (or, they’re so smart they don’t share their data – I’ll let you decide).
They won’t let you see what search terms are performing best, or even what search terms Google is showing your ads for. You can’t control spend by using negative keywords, or do any bid management.
In short, you can’t optimize a smart campaign, which makes it impossible to leverage or grow. You’re basically handing Google money and hoping it knows what to do with it.
That doesn’t seem like the smartest idea to me.
Instead? Here are my top tips on how to get started the right way.
And if you are working in an account that already has smart campaigns setup? No need to panic!
They’re not my favourite but that’s not to say they don’t occasionally work really well.
I have some client accounts with smart campaigns that I’ve kept because there’s a lot of history there and they are meeting the account goals.
If it aint broke, don’t fix it!
However, if you find that your smart campaigns aren’t kicking goals or that they haven’t been running very long then turn them off and get cracking on a manual campaign.
That way you’ll be able to see and control exactly what happens in your account, which means you’ll be able to focus on making your biz more bank, not Google. And at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing.
Wanna learn more about how to run your own Google Ads account profitably? My signature Google Ads course, Profitable Promotion, kicks off again in May.
Over 12 fun-filled weeks, I teach you step by step how to run Google Ads so that you can make smart decisions and more moolah for your biz.
Be a smarty pants and Jump on the waitlist today.
