Understanding the 10 Google Smart Campaigns Limitations - ThomasNet News

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Google launched its Smart campaigns — a type of Google Ads campaign — solution in June 2018. The tool, which leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), produces targeted and tailor-made online advertisements for small businesses via Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and other Google partner websites.

It was an ads experience that promised to transform the digital marketing sphere. Google claimed its users would be capable of "creating ads in minutes and [driving] real results," be it sending leads to their website or bringing customers to their store. In addition, the tech giant stated that its smart ad campaigns would be three times more effective at getting a company's advertisement in front of the right audience.

Fast-forward a few years, and there is a good deal of skepticism surrounding the true value of Smart campaigns. But before we delve into the tool's apparent limitations, let's explore how it works.

What Are Google Smart Campaigns?

When it comes to online advertising solutions, ease of use is of particular benefit to small businesses that often have limited resources and expertise. And there's no doubt that Google Smart campaigns is digital marketing made easy.

To set up a new campaign, users are required to answer a series of questions about their business and primary campaign goal with the option to run Smart Search, Shopping, and Display campaigns. The form covers keyword themes, campaign budget, and geographical location. Once the required information has been submitted, the tool's AI engine does the rest of the work, from crafting the ad itself to selecting the target audience(s).

Smart campaigns work by showing ads to prospective customers in a specified geographical area when they use Google or Google Maps to search for key phrases related to the business.

With a tool like this, there is no need for users to be experts in digital marketing or to understand the technicalities of Google Ads. However, there are several limitations to consider.

1. Accuracy and Control

Smart campaigns do not allow users to select their preferred campaign type, determine how each campaign is optimized, or decide where it is placed. In addition, it is not possible to assign different landing pages to individual ads. This means users are limited to using the same landing page for an entire campaign.

Google uses "broad match" as its keyword matching parameter for Smart Campaigns, which reduces the likelihood of an ad reaching a relevant audience.

Businesses won't be made aware of the specific search words that led to their ad being shown, so it's difficult to know if the increased exposure and a spike in website traffic are offering significant value. Those hoping to secure conversions, generate leads, and land sales might be disappointed when the only outcome of a campaign is an increase in anonymous website traffic.

2. Targeting Options

It is not easy for Google Smart campaigns users to segment and tailor their audience selection.

For starters, businesses cannot manually define a custom audience based on their unique interests and online habits. The same ads are shown across all channels and for all audiences, which might reduce their impact.

For Smart campaigns for shopping, users cannot leverage custom location targeting. It's possible to target geographical areas by country but not by a specific region.

The tool also limits the option to produce exclusions lists, which digital advertisers commonly use to remove unqualified leads and audiences.

It is not possible to add a list of negative keywords for search phrases. Consequently, ads will likely be shown to non-suitable audiences.

Finally, if a campaign happens to target the correct audience and turns out to be wildly successful, it is not possible to duplicate the campaign. Users will be required to launch a new campaign, with no guarantee of similar results.

3. Budget Management

There is no activation fee associated with Smart campaigns. Users are charged per click and can choose an average daily budget and a maximum monthly budget. The amount spent each day will vary depending on how popular the ad is, but the monthly budget will never be exceeded.

Smart campaigns encourage users to set a monthly budget based on their advertising goals and the amount they are comfortable spending, but it does not permit a customized bidding strategy.

Because the tool is completely in control of the automated bidding strategy and how much is spent each day, users may find themselves having to increase their budgets to win bids and make a meaningful impact with their campaigns.

4. Google Ads Performance Metrics

Google does provide users with a high-level dashboard to view their Smart campaign results.

While it's possible to view basic information such as conversions, click-through rate, and impressions, users are not given access to detailed analytical reports, and the data provided is read-only.

There is no way to find out details concerning ad placement, search queries, and audience. This makes it difficult for users to learn from their previous campaigns and improve future ones.

In addition, since ads are auto-created and distributed by Google, there are no opportunities for A/B testing, which is typically a cornerstone of digital marketing.

5. Google Ads Customization

Smart campaigns are easy to use, and the tool is capable of generating Google Ads in a matter of minutes. But the pay-off for such efficiency is ad customization.

How Smart campaigns look is determined by template-based ad formats, which stifles creativity and may reduce the appeal and impact of ads, especially when an audience is unfamiliar with a brand or product.

Smart campaigns ads typically include:

• Headline
• Description
• Destination URL
• Business name
• Sitelinks
• Map pin (for customers located close to the business)
• Address
• Phone number

Image courtesy of Primakov / Shutterstock.com

6. Competitive Landscape

Google's AI and ML capabilities leverage smart bidding to optimize conversions at every auction.

In the most competitive environments, bidding wars can limit ad placement opportunities and drive up the cost-per-click. This is most likely to be the case when there are many competing advertisers in one area.

Users may also find it difficult to get their ads placed or secure clicks if their ads are not deemed relevant to a person's Google search.

7. Ad Placement Control

Smart campaigns ads appear across Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and Google partner websites.

The potential downside is that businesses have no control over where and when their ads will appear. Google's algorithms make automated decisions to optimize campaign results based on the limited information provided by the tool's users.

On the plus side, the tool does use automated remarketing, which means ads are re-shown to prospective customers that have previously visited a website but did not convert.

8. Ad Approval Process

Once an ad campaign has been submitted, the tool will assess all of its content, including the headline, description, and keyword themes. Providing the campaign passes the review — a process that takes approximately one working day — its status will change to "eligible," and the campaign will start to run.

Even after an ad campaign has been approved and launched, it might be several months before the business starts seeing results. That's because Google needs time to collect and analyze the ongoing campaign data, which will enable it to show ads to the right audience.

Other factors, including poor choice of keyword themes, a small geographic targeting, or low search volume can slow the momentum of a campaign.

9. Manual Parts of Setting up a Smart Campaign

Though a large part of Smart ads campaigns is automated, some effort is required from the user to launch a campaign. To create a Google Ads Smart campaign, the process is as follows:

• Step 1: Set up a Google Ads account
• Step 2: Select the option to create a new campaign
• Step 3: Choose your advertising goal (calls, website sales and sign ups, or in-store visits)
• Step 4: Provide Google key information about the business, including name, customers, landing pages, company website, etc.
• Step 5: Provide ad copy
• Step 6: Add keyword themes and/or negative keyword themes
• Step 7: Select the target location
• Step 8: Set the ad budget
• Step 9: Review the Google Ads campaign
• Step 10: Submit the Google Ads campaign

10. Integration with Other Marketing Strategies

Small businesses will face some limitations when it comes to integrating Smart ads campaigns with their existing, multi-channel marketing strategies and objectives.

Most likely to cause problems is the fact that Smart campaigns offer such limited performance metrics. If a marketing team is collecting — and reporting on — specific data points for various aspects of their digital marketing efforts, it figures they would want to acquire the same information for their Google Ads. The business might find it difficult to process leads and conversions acquired via Smart campaigns if it considers the data to be incomplete or insufficient.

What's the Verdict on Google Ads Smart Campaigns?

The concept of Smart campaigns is good; it offers small businesses an opportunity to level up their digital marketing efforts with minimal input and expertise.

But in reality, the product is simply not yet set up to provide its customers with a solid return on investment (ROI). Users run the risk of splashing the cash for little more than a chunk of website click-throughs and, in addition, Google's AI cannot yet compete with human minds to develop compelling and relevant ads.

For the time being, small businesses might enjoy better results if they opt for standard Google Ads or commission a digital marketing agency.

Learn about Thomas industrial digital marketing services, which offers custom campaigns to help you reach more B2B buyers.