Campaign Types: An Overview of Google Ads Formats
The campaign types in Google Ads determine where an ad appears and how much control the advertising brand retains. From classic search ads to fully automated formats, these types vary greatly in terms of objectives, data requirements, and bid management. If you choose the wrong type for your specific goals, you’ll end up paying for clicks or impressions that don’t align with your actual business objectives.
An Overview of the Main Campaign Types
Search campaigns are based on specific search terms and are well-suited for users with a clear intent to purchase. Display campaigns, on the other hand, reach a broader audience through visual ads on the Google Display Network, while Shopping campaigns pull product images and prices directly from the product feed.
From our consulting experience: Many companies start with the campaign type they’re most familiar with, rather than the one that best fits their specific goal. A search campaign aimed solely at brand awareness almost always wastes budget.
It makes more sense to first define the actual goal—whether it’s sales, brand building, or lead generation—and only then select the appropriate campaign type. This order may sound obvious, but in practice it’s often reversed—usually because a certain type of campaign is currently trending or a competitor is actively promoting it.
- Search campaigns targeting specific purchase intent
- Display campaigns for broad reach
- Shopping campaigns directly from the feed
- Select your goal first, then choose a campaign type
- Plan the budget separately for each campaign type
Automated Formats: Performance Max and Smart Campaigns
- A campaign type for multiple channels
- Automated bidding without manual fine-tuning
- Less insight into search terms
- Ideal for broad, high-volume product lines
Video Campaigns and Native Formats
For brand building and video messaging, it’s best to run dedicated video campaigns that are planned separately from traditional search advertising. In addition, some companies rely on native formats that blend visually into editorial environments rather than appearing as traditional ads.
- Video Campaigns for Brand Messages
- Native ads appear to be seamlessly integrated into editorial content
- Planning Separate from the Search Business
- This combination makes sense depending on the funnel stage
Choosing the Right Campaign Type for Your Online Store
In practice, a combination of several campaign types—tailored to the respective phase of the Google Shopping strategy—usually proves effective. High-margin core products are often run in traditional, manually managed formats, while the broad product range is scaled using automated campaign types.
- A combination rather than just one type
- Core products: manual; width: automated
- Alignment with the respective product line phase
- Regular Review of the Allocation
Demand generation and app campaigns as additional options
In addition to established formats, Google Ads offers Demand Gen campaigns—a visual format for platforms like YouTube and Discover that focuses specifically on discovery rather than specific search queries. App campaigns, on the other hand, automatically bundle installs and in-app actions across multiple channels simultaneously, without the need to design individual ad formats separately.
- Demand Gen Focuses on Visual Discovery
- App campaigns automatically aggregate installs
- Both formats complement the traditional search
- The selection depends on the business model
Select Campaign Types by Product Line and Budget
Small product lines with just a few, clearly defined products generally benefit more from manually controlled campaign types, because each individual product group can be monitored specifically. Large, rapidly changing product lines, on the other hand, benefit from automated formats, because the maintenance effort per product can hardly be justified with purely manual control.
- Small product lines benefit from manual control
- Large product lines benefit from automation
- Maintenance costs per product as a decision-making criterion
- Budget size also influences the choice
Effectively Combining Campaign Types and Remarketing
Many campaign types can also be combined with targeted remarketing to re-engage users who have already shown interest but have not yet made a purchase. This combination usually increases efficiency because users who are already familiar with the brand are less likely to need to be persuaded again.
It’s important not to use remarketing the same way across all campaign types: It works differently in search campaigns than in visual formats, which is why the message and frequency should be adjusted based on the channel.
- Remarketing increases the effectiveness of many types of campaigns
- Reach out to existing users again
- Customize the message for each channel
- Adjust the frequency to the appropriate format
Planning Campaign Types with External Support
If you don’t want to try to keep track of the growing number of campaign types on your own, a Google Ads agency can help you with selection, setup, and ongoing optimization. Especially when testing new formats for the first time, outside expertise can help you avoid common beginner mistakes.
An outside perspective can also often spot more quickly when two types of campaigns are taking budget away from each other instead of complementing each other effectively, because this pattern is easy to overlook when looking at your own account.
- External experience is helpful with new formats
- Avoid Common Beginner Mistakes Early On
- Identifying Competing Campaign Types
- An Objective Look at Budget Allocation
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