What is Google Ads Expert Mode? (+ Why You Should Use It)
14 mins read

What is Google Ads Expert Mode? (+ Why You Should Use It)


Expert Mode in Google Ads offers more control over your campaigns with advanced options like bidding strategies and keyword match types. Here’s how to make the switch from Smart Mode to Expert Mode.

Here, you’ll find:

  • What is Expert Mode in Google Ads?
  • How to switch modes
  • When to switch modes
  • Benefits of Expert Mode
  • What is Smart Mode?

When you create a new campaign in Google Ads, you’ll have two options: Smart Mode or Expert Mode.

These two versions of Google Ads offer different experiences to manage and optimize your PPC campaigns.

While Smart Mode is for beginners, Expert Mode offers advanced features, including manual bidding strategies, targeting, and customizable ad extensions (now assets).

Here, we’ll walk you through these key features and how to make the switch inside your Google Ads account — with expert insights from HawkSEM VP of Growth and Strategy Steven Dang.

Expert Mode allows advertisers to tailor every aspect of their campaigns to their business goals, making optimizations even more effective. (Image: Unsplash)

What is Google Ads Smart Mode?

Google Ads Expert Mode is a campaign setting inside the platform that offers the full range of advanced features available.

While it gives advertisers more control over bidding strategies, it also requires more complex management. Because of this, Google recommends it for more advanced advertisers.

How to switch to Expert Mode

Looking to make the switch to expert mode? Here’s the easy step-by-step guide:

  1. Sign in to your Google Ads account
  2. Click the wrench icon in the top right corner
  3. Under the Settings menu, click “Switch to Expert Mode”
  4. Confirm the switch

When you navigate back to your account dashboard, you’ll be in Expert Mode.

Goals

While Smart Mode does track conversions, they are automatically managed — meaning you have no control over what is tracked. (Image: Rawpixel)

When should I switch to Expert Mode?

Ideally, right away.

“You should switch to Expert Mode if you want any semblance of control over your account,” says Dang.

“Whether it’s setting your own bids, writing your ads, selecting your own targets or keywords, or choosing your own settings.”

For some small businesses, Smart Mode might be all you need. But if you want to grow and scale, you’ll find yourself limited by the Smart Mode features.

Features of Expert Mode

Expert Mode allows advertisers to tailor every aspect of their campaigns to their business goals, making optimizations even more effective.

These features include:

1. Customizable goals

In Smart Mode, you’re limited to just one goal per campaign, and they must be one of Google Ad’s predefined goals. When you switch to Expert Mode, you can customize your goals.

What kinds of goals? If it can be tracked with the Google Ads tag or Google Analytics, you can add it as a goal. Some possibilities are:

  • Abandoned carts
  • Product views
  • Completed forms
  • Page views
  • Button clicks

This level of customization assists you in creating campaigns for every stage of your funnel.

2. Bidding strategies that allow for more control

Expert Mode unlocks options for different types of bidding strategies that offer more control, including:

  • Manual CPC
  • Manual CPM
  • Maximize clicks
  • Enhanced CPC
  • Target impression share
  • Automated CPM
  • Maximize conversions
  • Maximize conversion value
  • Target CPA
  • Target ROAS
  • Portfolio bid strategies
  • Shared budgets

You can learn more about all these bidding strategies here.

3. Custom conversion tracking

Expert Mode you can set up conversion tracking and define which ones you want to monitor in your campaigns.

While Smart Mode does track conversions, they are automatically managed — meaning you have no control over what is tracked.

4. Keyword match types

Keyword match types are a powerful way to control search queries your ads appear on.

There are three match types:

  • Broad match
  • Exact match
  • Phrase match

These differ from Smart Mode’s keyword themes in two ways. First, it’s a keyword you’d like your ads to be matched with rather than an idea (these are what make your ad groups).

Second, you can do more than guess which keywords will be ideal to use. Instead, you can use the Keyword Planner to do extensive keyword research.

It reveals keyword volumes, projected keyword bids, level of competition, as well as forecasted data. You can make educated decisions and plan out thematically-based campaigns to structure your account for success.

5. Negative keywords

Negative keywords prevent your ads from being shown on specific words or phrases. If your keyword was “storage container,” and you added a negative keyword, “careers,” then your ad wouldn’t show for the query storage container careers.

As you can see, negative keywords are vital to ensuring your ads appear for the correct audience. The control this gives you is yet another reason you’ll benefit from using Expert Mode.

6. Advanced targeting options

You won’t be limited to keyword themes. With Expert Mode, there are several types of audiences you can use:

  • In-market
  • Affinity
  • Detailed demographics
  • Life events
  • Your data segments
  • Similar segments

In-market audiences contain people who are actively researching and thinking about buying a product or service like yours.

Google uses up-to-date buying intent data to reach users in the audience you select.

Affinity audiences are users with an “affinity” for particular hobbies and interests.

Not only can you use audiences to create highly targeted campaigns with contextual targeting, but you can also utilize demographics.

Adjustments and exclusions can be made to age, gender, parental status, and income bracket. There are also select detailed demographics like homeowner status, education, and marital status.

Life events, on the other hand, are milestones like people who are making a big move or planning a wedding.

By contrast, your data segments are the data you collect on your website or landing page. These data segments can be anything you can track (for example, people who viewed a product on your website).

Last but not least are similar segments. These similar segments are created within the Google Ads system when it identifies an eligible data segment. There are some standard eligibility requirements.

You need to own the seed list, and there must be at least 100 users in the list. The recency of membership and the types of sites the users visited.

7. Assets (formerly ad extensions)

These are a variety of informational add-ons that can be shown with your ads when you’re eligible. The Assets you can use to enhance your ads are:

Callouts: Non-clickable assets that allow you to highlight your business and what it has to offer.

Structured snippets: A section that appears below a text ad as a header and list of values, for example: “Services” with a list of services the business offers beneath.

Price extensions: Price extensions allow you to show prices for your products and services directly within your ads. Up to eight prices can show at one time.

Call: Call extensions showcase your phone number with an easy click-to-call button.

Sitelinks: Sitelinks are quick links to other pages on your site below the main URL. You can create sitelinks for your “About” page, services, contact, or any pages you’d like to showcase.

Lead forms: These assets allow users to fill out a form without leaving the platform to submit their information.

App: App extensions let you link your tablet or mobile app to your ads. This is helpful if your goal is app installs, but only select accounts are eligible.

Promotion: Promotion assets allow you to show special promotions alongside your ads. You can list dates and promo codes and send potential customers to special landing pages.

Image: Image assets are only available to accounts that are at least 90 days old. According to Google, this extension increases the click-through rate by 10% (on average) when they are shown on mobile search ads.

Location: Location assets use your Google Business Profile to show your key business details in your ad.

8. A diverse set of campaign types

With Expert Mode, you can reach potential customers through Google Search and visual ads on the Google Display Network, partners’ sites, Gmail, and YouTube.

Here’s an overview of the campaign types available:

  • Search campaigns – Reach users when they type queries into the Google search engine.
  • Display – Users will see your ads on YouTube, Google Play, Google Finance, and Gmail, as well as Partner sites (which can vary).
  • Video – These appear within streaming videos, over videos, and before or after videos.
  • Performance Max – The most dynamic campaign type allows your ads on all of Google’s channels.
  • Shopping – Created for ecommerce, these ads appear on Google Display, YouTube, the Shopping Tab, Search Partner sites, and Shopping Services and Apps.
  • Demand Gen – Formerly Discovery ads, these are displayed on Gmail Promotions and Social tabs, YouTube Home, Watch Next feeds, and Discover.
  • App – Ads that help increase downloads of your brand’s app.

Further reading: Learn more about Google Ads campaign types here.

Google Ads Smart Mode

Smart Mode makes it easier for digital marketers without extensive Google Ads experience by creating “smart campaigns.” (Image: Rawpixel)

9. Retargeting capabilities

Remarketing (also known as retargeting) allows you to show ads to people who’ve already visited your site or completed a specific goal.

The goal is to turn warm prospects into conversions. If they expressed interest in your product or service, then it’s worth trying to get them back to the site.

Some popular remarketing audiences are:

  • Cart abandoners
  • Product viewers
  • Visitors to specific pages (like a service page)
  • All site visitors

What is Google Ads Smart Mode?

According to Google, “Smart Mode is the simplified version of Google Ads,” with a limited amount of control over bids, targeting, goals, and even where your ads show.

In this mode, you can quickly set up a Google Ads campaign by inputting your goals and basic info, then letting AI do the heavy lifting.

These limited goals include:

Receive more calls: Google uses machine learning and your settings to drive more calls to your business. Your ads will have a call button that users can click and be connected to your business.

Attract more visits to your physical location: The advertising platform will optimize your campaign to drive more store visits. You’ll see how many people interacted with your business profile on Google Maps.

Increase sales or website sign-ups: If you own a service-based business, you’ll use this goal to generate more leads, newsletter signups, or similar actions via your website. Or, if you sell products, you can create a Google Ads campaign with the objective of selling your products.

Get more brand awareness with video views: A video views campaign can be helpful for creators and influencers who need to increase brand awareness through more views and website traffic.

What are the benefits of Smart Mode?

Smart Mode makes it easier for digital marketers without extensive Google Ads experience by creating “smart campaigns.”

Goals

New Google Ads users usually benefit most from Smart Mode since it provides a guided, easy-to-manage interface. (Image: Unsplash)

You’ll be provided with limited data — because in the eyes of Google, less data means fewer levers to pull and, therefore, better performance for beginners.

The data you do have access to includes:

  • Map actions (local actions) – These are interactions with your Google Business Profile listing (formerly Google My Business), like getting directions, viewing a menu, clicking to call, and sharing locations.
  • Reported calls – The number of phone calls your campaigns generated.
  • Clicks and impressions – The number of times your ad was seen and clicked.
  • Google Analytics data – You can also connect your Google Analytics to see more data, including actions on your website.

Should I use Smart Mode?

New Google Ads users usually benefit most from this mode since it provides a guided, easy-to-manage interface.

“…Smart Mode was designed by Google as [an] autonomic on-ramp to Google Ads,” says Dang. “In an ideal world, no one should be using [it].”

But for companies in a hurry to get campaigns up and running, with zero marketing support or resources, or unbounded by traditional metrics of success like return on investment (ROI) or return on ad spend (ROAS) — Smart Mode might be an option.

But, ideally? Everyone should use Expert Mode.

The takeaway

Expert Mode is a bit of a misnomer because it has one believing that only “experts” should be using Expert Mode.

In reality, “Expert Mode” should probably be styled as “Normal Mode,” because so many of the features and capabilities should come standard, or be implemented by your average, run-of-the-mill account. Do you need help with your Google Ads or digital marketing strategy? You’re in the right place.

This post has been updated and was originally published in November 2022.



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